Hello. Be very welcome to this earnings call of Randoncorp regarding the Q3 of 2024. This edition is being recorded directly from Fenatran, the biggest trade show of cargo transport in Latin America. Besides the Q3 highlights of 2024, we will also present the biggest news in our business units in this trade show. Randoncorp has brought to this edition of Fenatran with complete solutions in products and services to lead the global innovation in mobility. David, can you show us the biggest news in the auto parts booth?
Of course, Carol. Here in the auto parts booth, the visitors of the trade show can check over 30 solutions of our business units, as the suspension springs of the brand Compos by our subsidiary Fras-le Mobility that brings lots of benefits in comparison to the traditional model. But it's not only that.
We have the auto steering axle that is used in the four-axle trailer and the TEBS, the braking system anti-rollover that is mandatory from 2025 on, and this is just the beginning of what we brought here in our booth. Carol, how is it in the manufacturer booth?
Here, the highlight is the 75 years of Randon. We have a special line here to celebrate its journey, and we brought products for sustainable transportation. Here, we have a double tanker trailer that has a capacity of 63,000 liters of fuel, a relevant increase of 1,000 liters compared to the previous model. And it counts with EBS and Randon Smart. Besides the tanker, we have the Sider Modular Hybrid R and the semi-trailer, lighter semi-trailer in the market, but the biggest star is the AT4T. That means autonomous technology for transportation.
The details for this innovative product are going to be told by our CEO, Sergio Carvalho, in a few minutes. But before that, let me show what we brought in digital and financial services. David, can you tell us?
Rands, our digital and financial services vertical that is completing one year this month. We are in four spaces, four rooms in the trade show. We offer test drive in an exclusive circuit in the external area where the visitors can drive trucks and enjoy a racing driver simulator. Randoncorp is once more participating in the trade show with many news.
It's great to see our verticals innovating continuously and consistently. Now, let's talk about the quarter highlights. But before I pass the floor to Sergio, let me give you a few important notices. Our event has simultaneous translator to English and sign language.
For you to put your audio in English, you should click on the interpretation button at the bottom of the screen. You can choose mute original audio to just listen to the interpreter's voice. This webinar is being recorded, and the record will be available in our IR website, ri.randoncorp.com. I'd like to remind you that all the declarations and statements here are not a guarantee for future events because it depends on circumstances that may or may not occur. So after the presentations, we're going to have a Q&A session. So you can indicate your participation at any moment through the platform. So now I give the floor to Sergio for him to tell us a little more about AT4T and for his considerations.
Thank you, Caroline. Good morning, everyone.
I'm glad to be here at Fenatran today with you to talk about so many new information and for Q3 2024.
Before, I'd like to thank the presence and the attendance of all the investors and stakeholders at Fenatran. We are very glad to share what we are doing to build the future of Randoncorp, and here we can show in a concrete and solid way the way we are innovating in our market, so I'm here in our manufacturer booth, and I'd like to start talking about a technology that is very innovative, that was developed by our team in partnership with the Instituto Hercílio Randon, AT4T. Some of you had the opportunity to get to know the prototype in the initial stages in 2023.
It's a nice visit that we had in Caxias do Sul. But from that moment on, we had many more researches and studies, and we evolved the concept of the product. And it consolidates Randoncorp as a global technology developer for mobility. And this disruptive technology offers great advances in operational efficiency to the market efficiency, and it will be used for clients that use transport in controlled environments as in the agriculture, logistics, sports, airports, and mining. So there are multiple possibilities in applications for AT4T. So let's see some parts of the video that we used in the launch of this new technology.
Based on a proprietary algorithm patented, I'm part of a complex ecosystem with high-performance hardware functions for recognizing the environment and AI-powered moving. So I'm capable of identifying and coupling to different implements and find the best route to reach my destination.
So in a precise and automatic way, I can adjust my dynamic behavior according to the implement to be transported.
So with real-time information remotely and safely, you can monitor and follow up the status of your vehicle and all the logistic information. The navigation is controlled by a system that combines artificial intelligence, computational vision, and dedicated unit controls with high processing power. Through high-definition images and combined with the dense cloud of points, I can identify any obstacles and make the best decisions. I'm capable of realizing complex maneuvering, including reverse, finalizing all the processes in a secure, safe, and optimized way. So I am an agent for decarbonization of the mobility industry, contributing for a more sustainable future. I can be integrated with a great universe of solutions Randoncorp that were well thought and developed for mobility. I'm a set of hardware of high performance. I'm an advanced perception system. I am a decision-making system. I am a prepared control system to guide you to the solution.
I am AT4T, autonomous technology for transportation.
That's it, everyone. So we are very excited with this new innovation. Talking about that, one of our solutions that was the most disruptive and innovative that we had, the unique technology in the world, and it might be used in diverse applications, our e-Sys, was incorporated in the first hybrid conceptual truck that was launched here by VW at Fenatran.
Participating in this is very significant for us because we helped develop this sustainable mobility. Back to the quarter, I'd like to highlight our revenue and EBITDA historic results that we got in this period. We've been executing our strategy based in the pillars of innovation, internationalization, aftermarket, and expanding our portfolio. It's a positive reflection in our figures, and it strengthens and makes us stronger and resilient. In October, we announced a very important acquisition, the first in Europe that adds new geographies and products and revenue in strong currency. So to expand the representative of aftermarket in this auto parts vertical is one of our main goals, and we have been working a lot on that. The EBS Group brings this purpose to diversify the revenue and add results to this vertical that is very profitable and resilient.
All the details of this transaction were approached in a call that was made at the day of the announcement, and you can access through this QR code on your screen, so the conclusion of the EBS Group depends on some conditions predicted in the agreement, as well as the regulatory actions that have been analyzed by the Mexican authorities. Another movement that we realized that we performed in October was the acquisition of Delta Global by Rands, our digital and financial services vertical, expanding our portfolio in the ecosystem of transport and logistics. Delta Global is an expert in management of fleets and technology, among other products. It's responsible for our Randon Smart. Besides M&A, we have been making relevant organic investments. That is the case of our industrial plants, of Castertech, and Suspensys in Mogi Guaçu.
The factory of Suspensys is having its beginning, and the other is being commissioned for the first quarter of 2025. The importance of this supply agreement for Mercedes-Benz was fantastic because we were competing with global players in the segment. And this was only possible because of the technology of products and the quality of our deliveries. So I'm very happy to share with you today that thanks to that, it's the first time that Randoncorp has received the Daimler Truck Supplier Award in Germany as one of the seven best vendors of Mercedes in the world, an acknowledgment for our high performance or innovative solutions.
And we have been achieving all those milestones in a very complicated year to us because of some factors as the update of our ERP, the floods in Rio Grande do Sul, the complexity of the global sector, including the increased freight costs and the lack of availability for containers. But it was not capable of stopping us achieving those records. And Paulo is going to mention later about the rating elevation that we achieved. And I have to talk about the importance. The triple A score is crowning what we have been developing over the last few years, a big expansion while always keeping our financial stability. That is one of our guidelines. So I'd like to end my participation talking about the change in management that we had in the Q3 2024 for us to be even better prepared for the future.
Our foreign operations, national operation is growing, so we changed the roles of our directors to enjoy better the synergies among our businesses and foster the internationalization process. So now we have two executive VPs divided in South America and international operations. Ricardo Escoboza is the new VP responsible for the operations in the manufacturer in the whole South America and is the CEO of Vertical Auto Parts, the Auto Parts Vertical. Anderson Pontalti is the executive VP responsible for manufacturer and auto parts in the external market in geographies that are not South America, and he is the CEO of Vertical Controls and Movements. And besides those changes, now we have CPCO, Chief People and Culture Officer. That is now with Marcos Baptistucci, and he is a seasoned professional that's going to help us do better with people and the environment.
Then we reached the end of this year with many achievements and challenges that were very positive for our next cycle. So the market has shown signs of continuity. We have new businesses. We have made important changes in governance. So 2025 is going to be a great year for Randoncorp, guys. So now I'd like to pass the floor to Paulo for him to perform his presentation.
Thank you, Sergio. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to thank all the investors and analysts that were with us at Fenatran. It's very important to have you guys close to us. Now talking about the figures of the Q3 2024. We had a business environment that was very favorable in Brazil, but we have some worrying points. That is the increase of the interest rates in September that got to 11.75% per year. And the inflation is above the goal. The real is appreciated, and the expectations for next year is the record historic for the harvest and for the logistics chain. Talking about the automotive sector, we had some expressive increases when we observe the truck segment that is going in an accelerated rhythm in comparison to the last year, especially because of the demand of the industrial sector.
The highway implements had a slight decrease compared to 2023 due to the reduction of the agribusiness products as the exporting scenario is challenging, even with the dollar being stronger in comparison to real. So this factor, the freight costs and the lack of availability for containers elevated the price of sea freight, causing many obstacles around the world. Besides that, we have some problems in selling to some regions that had its demand impacted by a political and economic crisis or high interest rates, among other factors. So within this scenario, in our main markets, we had the biggest quarterly revenue of our history, thanks to the great execution of our diversification strategy, diversification strategy in which we added important business over the last few years, and they allowed us to be more resilient facing the challenges in our pathway.
So it reflected in our EBITDA that reached its biggest historic level. Our focus on auto parts, especially in the aftermarket and services segments that are highly profitable, allowed us to reach that margin. And this is what we want to keep doing. New acquisitions like with the Fras-le and EBS. We're following our goals in increasing our margins and strengthening our businesses. So our net income has advanced in comparison to the last few quarters, especially because of the increase in our operation result. In relation to return on invested capital, we have a gradual decrease because it was affected by non-recurring effects that we faced, like the decommissioning of the factory of Fanacif on the second quarter of this year and because of the taxes.
So talking about our debts, we could observe a slight increase when compared to Q2 this year, aligned with this necessity of operating capital in the period. So as you can observe in this graph on your screen, our leverage is still in control inside the goals we planned, keeping in mind our expansion and our accelerated expansion that demand more investments. Our focus is to diversify our sources of capitation and look for the best alternatives for us to keep expanding and growing without compromising our financial health. Since we performed, carried out our strategy.
Concedido pela S&P.
The elevation of our corporate rating, and for the first time in our history, we got the triple A score in national scale. To us, this is a great milestone, a great achievement that makes us understand that we are going the right way. Now, talking about our stakeholders, our stockholders, we have about 47,000 shareholders. We have individuals and institutional investors. Regarding the first half of the year, the daily average liquidity in our preferred stocks increased 32% compared to the same period last year, with some advancements in relation to the previous quarter. Regarding the remuneration of our shareholders, we paid interest over capitals that, without income tax, summed BRL 43 million. Now I close my presentation and pass the floor to Esteban. Good morning.
This earnings call is very special to us because we have been recording it directly from Fenatran, from which we are going to leave even more confident in relation to the demand of our markets for the following months, and now we can share with our investors the innovations and the strength of our brands and products that make Randoncorp one of the biggest groups in the automobile sector in Brazil. We had records in revenue for the Q3, and I'm going to enter into further detail. Here we have the breakdown of our revenue, the sales distribution among the industrial verticals. It was very balanced, so the orders summed up about 10%, so if you get the revenue per sector, we had some representativeness change in comparison to the last quarter and the same period in 2023, especially because of the reduction of the agribusiness sales.
As for the tipper semi-trailers, you can see the visual graphic at the bottom of your screen. The sales to the agribusinesses decreased to almost BRL 156 million. On the other hand, the industrial and the aftermarket segments advanced importantly because of the high demand from those markets. Some other sectors that showed increase were mining and civil constructions, and also services. I'd like to highlight also that we had a reduction for the external sales in dollars because of the dollarization of the currency. The impact was practically null. The region that had the biggest reduction was Mercosur due to the semi-trailers' decrease of sales to the United States. We have orders for the following quarters. That's good news, and it contributes to the performance of our operations in those geographies.
The region that increased its participation was Mercosur and Chile, especially for the movement controls sales to Argentina, and the increase of sales of semi-trailers to Chile and Uruguay in the quarter. Now moving on to the consolidated EBITDA in the quarter, the highlights, besides the records, were the auto parts and financial and digital services verticals in the composition, in the formation of the EBITDA in comparison to 2023. And now we have relevant contracts that were signed in August, and the negative impact regarding inflation in Argentina affected the EBITDA margin in almost one percentage point and the non-recurring expenses regarding the subsidiary sale of the subsidiary Farloc and the restructuring of Fanacif, both in the movement control vertical. I'd like to highlight the organic investments that we have been making, seeking to expand our productivity and efficiency.
I'd like to highlight the construction works in our site in Mogi Guaçu, the machinery and equipment in Araraquara, and the development of EasyMES. That's a manufacturing management system that was explained in detail in our latest Randoncorp Day. And now I conclude my words for this presentation and pass the floor to Carol to begin the Q&A session.
Thank you, Esteban. Now we're going to begin our Q&A session. You can participate by following the instructions that you can see on your screen now. You can ask your questions in audio and in the written form. So now we're going to start with the sell-side analyst at BTG, Lucas Marquiori. Good morning, Lucas. You can ask your question, please.
Thank you, Carol. Good morning, everyone. Thanks for the call. Let me just ask two quick questions here.
First, regarding the implements' EBITDA margin, if you could give some color on the quarter. What happened for you guys to explain this performance in relation to Q2? What's in your mind for the following quarters? And a little technical question now. Can you explain the change, the decrease in the effective? What's your recommendation?
Thanks for your questions. Talking about the manufacturing margin, I'd like to share this answer with Sergio and Esteban. In the short term, I'd like to talk about the manufacturing margin, and then Sergio can explore a little what we can expect from the manufacturing margin. And Paulo, if you could comment on the effective tax rate. I'm going to talk about the margin of the manufacturer with Esteban.
Thank you, Lucas, for your question and for following up our latest earnings call.
So first, we have to understand that the manufacturer is a third of our business in terms of revenue. In terms of EBITDA, it represents less, but what I mean with that is that our businesses have a bigger representativeness regarding auto parts and control movements. But with that being said, another topic that is worth recalling is that the manufacturer specifically suffered a perfect storm in the first half of the year. Since the beginning of the year, when we updated the ERP, that brought us to a period of darkness. We could not operate for some days. And when we resumed it, we could identify satellite systems that impacted the operation of the manufacturer. And in our perspective, it brought us a loss of at least a month of production in some units, and it had reflections in the revenue and in the market share.
Besides that, another obstacle that we have in the manufacturer is the external market. You can remember really well. The external market last year was a big part of revenue for the manufacturer, both by exporting and units. Both markets, the American market and exportation, had the first half very, very bad, and we are expecting some improvements in the second half, especially by the Hercules contract agreement for 3,000 units of port containers that have been produced in August and chassis, and it's going to increase next year for complying with this agreement. It can help us positively, a positive impact in our revenue. The third market fact is change in mix, especially regarding the agribusiness, in which we have a decrease of 20%, and we had a 50% increase in industrial segments.
Talking about the Sider and the van, we don't have the same representativeness regarding compared to the other products like the tippers and trucks that are our flagships. But looking to the future, we are improving our processes, and during the first half of the year, we changed the paint job so we can have more output with lower costs. And we also see that the agribusiness coming back are going to, so the harvest projection of Conab indicates an increase in the harvest. So this increase in the market and the internal productivity with automation processes, we see that that's a gradual normality coming back. It's not going to change radically from a quarter to another, but this recovery is in our planning, and I have to pass the floor to Sergio to comment on the long term for us to recover those margins.
So, Sergio, if you can comment on the long term, it's going to be good.
Can you hear me well? Thank you, Lucas, for your question, for being here with us. So we are very optimistic regarding what expects us in our manufacturer vertical ahead due to many reasons Esteban mentioned, most of them. We keep seeing an increase in market volumes as a whole, and the expectation for growth for the crops for the years ahead is very relevant to the increase in corn production. So with manufacturers, factories that are being commissioned in Brazil for ethanol production from corn, it's going to lead to a bigger movement and necessity over the predictions that existed, that have already been made by the authorities and experts in the Brazilian grain production. Our perspective in market for the years ahead is very optimistic.
This year was a little sensitive for the agribusiness in Brazil due to several reasons: the price of commodities, the Argentina issue, a big American production that increased the competitiveness, impacting the prices, such as the rains and the fires in Brazil. But we can see a better mix for the years ahead. In agro, it's going to recover its share in the total volume of production. Just for you to understand, this year, agro decreased, the percentage destined to the agribusiness fell about 15% in comparison to the same time, the same period of last year. And industrial cargo increased by 50%. So it's a big change for our mix this year, and we expect a more regular scenario for next year, like biggest numbers, but with a regular mix, more regular mix.
So we had many layout changes and machinery and equipment modernization so we could identify and remove some bottlenecks in our active processes. And we are going to keep improving and investing for us to increase our productivity. We expect fewer changes that have an impact and are going to have an initial cost a little elevated in the commissioning. But if I manufacture an equipment here and transport that to another site, it causes an initial inefficiency. But next year, we expect to normalize that. So we're going to keep investing heavily in our productivity programs, and we have a restructured team with some important changes in our management and governance. Ricardo Escoboza is now responsible for this vertical, and we had a series of some realigning and restructuring measures, and the results have been very, very positive.
So, Lucas, we are very optimistic for this improvement for the financial performance of our manufacturing. But I'd like to remind you, everything that we do in our manufacturing vertical brings results to our financial services, come from the manufacturing. The auto parts, they have results that come from the manufacturing vertical. So this holistic perspective, the big picture of Randoncorp must be seen as a whole because the unit is not a standalone, it's connected to our business model.
Thank you, Sergio. Now I pass the floor to you to talk about the tax rate that presented the reduction in comparison to the first and second quarter, please.
Good morning. Can you hear me well?
Yes.
Oh, Lucas, thank you for your questions. Thank you for your participation in our release call.
It's a very important topic because this year we had some important events that impacted our effective tax rate. The first that was one that came to stay is that at the end of last year, the government started taxing subventions for ICMS taxes that impacted at Nakata related to our CD in Extrema, in our Extrema unit. And this is an effect that's definitive and permanent. The others are non-recurring effects. First of them, the restructuring that we had with the commissioning of our Uruguay plant at Fanacif, in which we didn't recognize that the deferred tax affected our results. And we had the effect of TBU to the universal basis taxation that impacted our auditor, and that basically is regarding 2023, but has an impact the following fiscal year in Brazil.
Mainly in function of our excellent results achieved by Hercules last year. Besides that, even in function of this movement, this moment, this recovery moment of the margins of the manufacturer, it had also an impact in non-accounted deferred in this vertical. It's not lost. At the moment, we have a recovery of our manufacturing margins due to the actions and the measures commented by Esteban and Sergio. We can bring them back to our results. I'm not going to risk projecting a tax rate for the following quarters, but for sure, our investor relations team along the following years, as soon as we conclude our budget for next year, we can try and help you clarify the projections.
Thank you, guys. Thank you so much. Have a great day.
We thank you, Lucas. Now, moving on to the second question.
Second question of the day from Gabriel Rezende, sell-side analyst at Santander. Good morning, Gabriel. You can ask your question, please.
Good morning, everyone. Two questions here. One more connected to the manufacturer. You see this recovery to be the number one in market share there in Brazil. I'd like to understand a little better. How do you see the competitive market? We see some competitors losing share in the third quarter. And the second issue is the flexibility regarding the product mix. How are you working to increase the speed of adaptation for the current mix, being more by tankers and some other products in the market? And the second issue is more connected to Fenatran. If you can comment on the orders and the impact of the trade show for the company.
Thank you, Gabriel.
Sergio, I'm going to give you the floor to answer those questions. Three topics. One about market share, about the recovery of the leadership, the manufacturer. Second, it's a question regarding mix. How can we adjust to the variation of the mix? And a little about the outputs of FENATRAN.
Takeaways. Thank you, Gabriel, for your questions and your participation here with us. First, I'd like to start talking about market share. Esteban had mentioned he had some problems, significant problems in the first quarter of this year. So this made our participation on market share to decrease a little. One of our problems in the first quarter, agribusinesses were still moving forward. The market was buying. On the second quarter, when we had the production recovered, so the market was not there. It was a significant change this year. This is another issue.
Besides our internal problems, the agribusiness that is very important for Randoncorp this year had a decrease of 15% compared to the previous year, and industrial cargo increased 50%, and these segments are not segments in which we have big penetration, so we tend to focus where we have more aggregate value, added value, but with that being said, we see during the year, we come during the year recovering our market share, and we have recovered our leadership in October last month, and at the beginning of November, we are expanding and growing our market share in the market, so we had an anomaly, some anomalies that brought us to this temporary situation of losing the first place in the Brazilian market.
We had never lost it in South America or in the Southern Hemisphere of the planet because we export a lot and we produce way more than we supply in the domestic market. I hope everybody can see that our volumes are way bigger when you consider our exportations and all the other markets in which we have a participation, but in the domestic market, this problem was overcome, so the mix in our segment is always variable, but this year, as I mentioned, a big variation in which agro increased and the industrial cargo increased, so tankers have been expanding in a very significant way. We multiplied it four times, our daily production of tankers in overall perspective, and we have some lines of products that have some flexibility that allow us at a certain level to adjust.
So segment increase in some lines, and in some other lines, we don't have that flexibility. So our executive team at the manufacturer has been working a lot in expanding our capacity of production. This project is ongoing, is being developed as we speak for us to increase our capacity, our production capacity, and this increasing flexibility for us to be able to serve all the market sectors in a more efficient way. And Fenatran, as Randoncorp first, has been because Fenatran is still happening today. It has been a big success, very positive for the first time. Gabriel and I had four booths for different spaces there with our manufacturer, our auto parts sector. And we had also a booth for Rands. And some of those verticals, like auto parts, showed new technologies.
We captured the attention through the attention of our clients in such a way that some ideas and the inclusion of new technologies in future platforms for 2026, 2027 are being discussed, and we have been making some networking and fostering new relationships, and for sure, the biggest example of that, it was the launch of the hybrid truck of Volkswagen Truck & Bus with a value proposition very effective for the transporters. This technology is 100% of the technology was developed by Randoncorp Electric Traction Battery Control Software, and they come from our Suspensys, so some new businesses developed by Rands and our manufacturer of semi-trailers in which we actually sold during the trade show, and this trade show has been very positive to us. We are very happy with the business volume that we could obtain so far. The trade show is still happening today. Discussions are there.
But those who had the opportunity to be with us there and to even access our booth was almost nearly impossible because it was crowded and it was the most popular booth, the whole trade show. We're very happy at the opportunities to have a delivery of our semi-trailer number 600,000. That's a milestone for the national industry. We received the VP, the Vice President of the Republic. We showed technologies for the future. Sorry about my long answer, Gabriel, but we are very glad and happy with the commercial perspective of the trade show and with all the new technology that we presented there. We could see the acknowledgment by the press, by the clients, the experts. It's even reasonably more.
They're surprised and impressed by seeing that this national company, Randoncorp, developing so many innovative Vanguard technologies, innovative and Vanguard technologies, preparing our company to a very, very positive future ahead.
Thank you, Sergio. Thank you so much. Have a great day, guys.
Now we're going to move to our next question by analyst André Ferreira at Bradesco. Good morning, André. You can ask your question.
Good morning, guys. Thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions. Back to the manufacturer margin. I understand that it's a non-favorable mix in Brazil, and it's an overall increase in every market that impacts the operating leverage. But I'd like to understand if there are any leverages or operating efficiency that can be worked internally. And if the modular platform, what is what it represents for implement 25, 26, 27?
And does it aggregate a higher margin compared to the implements? And the second question, about M&A, a possibility in our rada r. Do you consider the acquisition of auto parts in the U.S. and thinking about the possible increase in tariffs and change of regulations for heavy vehicles in 2027?
Thank you, André, by your question. So the first part of our first question, I'm going to start with Esteban talking about the manufacturer margin. And Sergio, the second part of the first question regarding modulars, what do you expect for the following years? And the second part of André is regarding M&A, the M&A plan regarding auto parts in the U.S., as he mentioned. So we have like three questions, starting by Esteban.
Thank you, André, for your question and for participating here in our call.
A fact here is that we want to improve, and we will improve the equipment, the attachments, parts. And our implement, our attachments, plants are like big puzzles. You fix a bottleneck, and you end up creating a different bottleneck in production. So we have some investments in the paint job for increasing the capacity of output, for painting our units from 90-110 units. But you create another bottleneck, many other bottlenecks in the factories, but we have to fix them as they show up. So we have a plan for restructuring our factories for us to make them more efficient, working in different fronts, like the conception of the products. Then we can talk about modular that we're going to. It's going to allow us to be more efficient in the manufacturing vertical.
But in this manufacturing, before automating that process, we think about how can we improve that. We cannot automate an inefficient process because we're going to speed up inefficiency. So we have to reflect on that, analyze that process thoroughly, and understand if there's any more efficient way to do that before starting automation. But this plan of restructuring of the factories and increasing efficiency, it will lead to an improvement in our margins, for sure, naturally, combined with the change in our mix. It's going to help us build a better margin for the following quarters. Sergio, I'll give the floor back to you to talk about expectations of modular, about clients' acceptance, and the costs related.
Okay. Thank you, André. For your question, Esteban explored what we're expecting ahead. We have been realigning which product, where we produce, where it's better for us to maximize our mix.
So we had many changes in our Caxias do Sul, but it had impacted in Chapecó, in Araraquara, in. To distribute this segment mix for us to increase efficiency and capacity. There were many changes in this line. So besides new equipment, productivity increase, automation. So this is our plan. In the modular platform, what we've been producing is more connected to the category of craft production. And some equipment provided for the industrial process are being commissioned at the end of this year. So as they are commissioned, we will be able to increase the production rate for the products that have modular platforms that represent not necessarily a cost reduction per part, but the advantage here is, as a platform, is to reduce 700,000 kilos on the dead weight.
So it's going to allow us, when you bring this additional value for the transporter, it will increase your margin in the line above, of course. So there's stable production with definitive processes. It's going to start by 2025. In 2024, our production was more manual, analog, if I can put it that way. So regarding M&A auto parts in the U.S., of course, this is our plan, and we announced it. So we want to do that for sure, not because of the election results. It has always been our plan. There's a sequence in our movement. So the priority for us, as we mentioned before in previous events, is sure to take our parts, our auto parts, to the American market or the European market in geographies, spaces of strong currency. So a few hours ago, we concluded the acquisition of EBS.
It was subject to pending approval by the authorities, the antitrust authorities. So this acquisition was completed today. So now we have a robust pipeline of opportunities that we've been exploring in the North American market now. Nothing connected to the election. We don't believe in any significant changes in tariffs, favorable or not, in this aspect. We believe in our plans, and we're going to keep on working to make them come true and make those opportunities pay.
Thank you. Thank you so much. Have a good day.
Let's move to the next question by the sell-side analyst by XP. Good morning. You can ask your question.
Thank you, Carol. Good morning, everyone. I'd like to explore a little better the advanced technology part, looking at the value potential that you have in this segment.
If you look at the third quarter, we could see an improvement in the EBITDA taking off the equity method. But we have a creation of value in the division. What do you see? And I believe you have a very vocal innovation culture. But thinking about the monetization for those initiatives, what is the speed of capturing for those initiatives in this advanced technology? What is bringing you up? Being the biggest driver for the improved revenue. What's the speed in which you want to bring this operating profit? This has been ahead. And moving to the services and digital services, at Rands, you have an equity method that has improved, and it's going to reflect ahead. Just for me to understand better, is it a recurring effect that we can expect in relation to equity income? Looking ahead, do you have room for improvement in your portfolio?
Is there? Thinking about it's at the beginning, but it was relevant in incremental profit at Randon. So I'd like to understand that a little better. What do you expect for this incremental profit?
Thank you, Lucas, for your question. Nice that you brought advanced technology for our discussion, for our call. Sergio, I'd like to start with you to talk about advanced technology because it has improved as a vertical, but it impacts all the other verticals. You have a double benefit of having a vertical like tech everyone. So I'd like to pass the floor to you to give some color in this global benefit. And Paulo, see if you could comment about adjustments for this equity method for the third quarter. I'd like to start with you, Sergio.
You're muted, Sergio.
Lucas, obrigado pela pergunta. Thank you, Lucas, for your question.
David already made the reminder and mentioned the vertical. Our vertical of advanced technology has a few acting two ways. We have a few products and services that are directed to the external market and take part of what it does. Então, nós já estamos colhendo frutos nos outros verticals. So we've been harvesting the initial benefits in several internal verticals. Some examples: we developed some years ago an ABS system, and it today represents 70% of our semi-trailer production using our ABS system. And the benefit is felt inside the vertical. We launched the EBS at Fenatran.
So we developed Randon Smart, developed many other technologies associated to nanoparticles and e o que é mais disruptivo and what's more disruptive é a aceitação e de escala the acceptance period in the scale de quantity increase for those technologies is a little slower than the incremental innovations, the evolutions. So everything that's more disruptive takes longer to become solid business models. A great example is the e-Sys system we announced as a concept for the market in 2019. And it was so innovative that the vehicles could not be tested because the clients could not test the concept because the vehicle could not operate in Brazilian highways for lack of regulation for having a semi-trailer with electric traction. So we had to overcome those obstacles for two years for us to be able to have the regulation.
And then we started selling at the end of last year and this year. So we're going to sell 50 units this year, we believe. But it's gaining momentum, the green rate. So many business people, you're talking, I'm closing deals due to your traction system. And it's multiplying. So we are at the part of the exponential curve that's a little flat. But we believe that we're going to scale up those businesses for the years ahead. So everything that is disruptive takes a little longer. But we're going to get the results from that with great margins. But it's going to take a little longer. Another example, we've been talking about the wheel hub, the different material based on Nione, our nanoparticle of niobium. So we presented that in Canada. So a wheel hub weighs 32 kilograms. The preceding hub is going to be reduced to 19 kilos.
The American version is going to be almost as light as an aluminum hub. The American was approved, was validated. We're going to test in the field for two years in the American market. We have this big expectation in bringing incremental results and revenue. In the Brazilian case, we believe that we're going to start a conversion of that process at some moment of 2025, second half. It's just an example. Everything that is cast in a vehicle and many other that are stamped and welded represent a big potential for us to convert in castings with this new test parts, with this new technology of material. It's a journey. The clients cannot attack the whole vehicle and say, "Oh, let's get all the parts and convert everything into this new material." We're going to do that gradually, following their pace.
But we are very optimistic because the technology will pay out, will bring dividends and assist us in increasing the margins. But the time scale, the more disruptive it is, the more difficult for you to translate into results. So I don't know if there were another part of the question, if it was my part. If it has, can you repeat that? It was basically that. Advanced technology,
Sergio. I think you covered everything. Lucas, if you have a follow-up, so I'll give the floor back to Paulo. Não, talking about Rands in the third quarter.
Perfect. Lucas, thanks for your question. Without any questions, the MBPAC agreement that was announced was relevant for Rands. We have over 1,600 assets. We doubled the size, and now we have presented positive results, which impacted our Equity Method line. Of course, we are moving on solid.
We are very happy with this investment. And the more it grows with newer operations and agreements, this equity method line is going to keep being important for the Rands vertical and for Randoncorp as a whole.
He talked about Alexandre Mendes. He asked the question about Addiante. And Lucas, if you have any follow-up regarding the answers, be free to do it, right? Be free to ask them.
So moving on to the next question. It comes from the analyst Luiza Mussi by Safra. Good morning, Luiza. How are you doing? We're going to open your mic now. You may ask your question.
Good morning. Can you hear me?
Yes.
My question is about the Autoparts vertical.
If you could explore a little more about the margin expectation for that vertical, considering many moving parts, like the logistics that affected the quarter, the ramp-up of Castertech, and the contract that Suspensys more recently, e-Sys. How can we think on that in a more structured way ahead? Thank you.
Thank you, Luiza, for your question. Sergio, I call you up to talk about the Autoparts and what we have in mind for this vertical, for the margins of this vertical ahead.
So we have our traditional businesses, obviously, the involved productivity variations of raw material costs. Part of what we do in the Autoparts are related to supplying contracts for big manufacturers. So this basic dynamics, they continue, and our team is making great work in making the positive evolution in this productivity process.
So we have bought many castings in our new operations in our Castertech in Mogi Guaçu. It is still being ramped up. So we have a second shift operating now. We're considering a third shift. And everything leads to an operating efficiency internally. Very, very relevant, as we can say. So the first months of the operation, as you can imagine, it's not profitable, sure. But we showed the break-even line. But now we are in the positive side, and we're going to expand this operation. And we have a big launch at Suspensys in the first quarter of 2025 with the front axles for Mercedes. And the initial stage is a little delicate, of course. But on the other hand, we have a big increase in our mix. And we want our auto parts to be more connected to the aftermarket.
So being Castertech, Suspensys, and all the other brands, all the other units, they have been putting the effort to expand their role in the aftermarket segment because of rentability, profitability, stability of revenue. And as we commented before, we concluded the acquisition of EBS. And their segment is aftermarket as well. So this business unit has its dynamics. So we can see the growth in our aftermarket segment inside our autoparts segment. Obrigada, pessoal. Thank you. Luiza.
Next question. Gabriel Rezende, are you there?
Carol. Yes, Carol.
Yes, of course. You can ask your question?
Thanks for the opportunity. Two quick follow-ups. Sergio commented at the beginning of the call about the changes in governance.
I'd like to understand, Sergio, if this new division of the directories can change the manufacturer's margins between the manufacturer vertical and the autoparts vertical. I understand that are we going to see a change, a shift for the margins for attachments? With this new change. The second here is commented on the expectation of increasing volumes in MIGS for 2025 due to the agribusiness. I understand it makes all the sense to move for agro increase in the latest move. But for interest rates, they're a little pessimistic. So how can we balance that? How agro can overlay this interest rate dynamics, especially when we're talking about autoparts being sold to direct manufacturers?
T hank you, Gabriel. So, Sergio, can you comment on the first one? And Esteban, in sequence, if you can comment on market and interest in agro. I thank you. So let's begin with you, Sergio.
Gabriel, thank you for your question. Gabriel, our primary vision perspective here is to maximize synergy, and we tried to do that. We have been trying to do that forever, so we upgraded our structure because we judged we could do that to optimize our new areas in a series of areas. So all the possibilities are open, and if we see the possibility of optimizing our operating efficiency or our tax efficiency, so to speak, we're going to consider that, sure, but the main reason for us to carry out those changes in governance is to allow us to improve production, realign investments in verticals in a way that we can maximize the return over Randoncorp's costs as a whole, but if we could have a better tax efficiency through this rebalancing, we're going to consider, of course, sure.
Thank you, Sergio. Não, Esteban.
Thank you, David.
Thank you, Gabriel, for your question and for following our call. Being very objective, we see that this improvement in the agro moves is going to overcome the perspective for interest rate increase. As we can see, as the market projects in 100-150 bps increase in the interest rates, it's not going to be a barrier for the recovery of investment. What we observe with this new harvest projection is a recovery of the normal regular volume for sales to agro, potentially an increase for the demand because of the fleet that was not renovated this year. So next year, maybe we can get back to the regular demand, but also probably a higher demand, an additional demand for what was not renewed this year. So talking about volume, not only in the domestic market, but also we see this recovery for the external market as well.
In South America countries, Chile, Argentina, some clients, some Argentinian clients were at Fenatran negotiating products, and mainly the North American market.
Thank you. It was clear. Thank you, guys.
Gabriel, Esteban, if you allow me just to corroborate your answer, Esteban's answer, what we can see this week at Fenatran is very relevant because it's heated up, the mood is good, the agribusiness representatives are struggling, of course, but they have capital. Many people don't need funding for their transactions, and we can see that.
It's very clear, Sergio. Thank you.
S o we're going to move on to our next question. It comes from JP Morgan analyst, sell-side and Marcelo. You can ask your question to Marcelo Motta.
Thank you. It's a quick question about the tax benefit on MOVER.
If we're not miscalculating, you have like BRL 15 billion as a benefit this quarter. Is it a line that we can consider recurring? It's a new one. I'd like to understand those benefits and how you're going to use that along the following quarters. Thank you, guys.
Thank you, Mota, for your question. I'm going to give the floor to Paulo to address this MOVER issue. Can you reply? Can you answer, Marcelo Motta?
Mota, thank you for your question. Thank you for your participation. Yes, this impact, this estimate that you calculated is aligned with what we registered this quarter. And this is a long-term program for the government. And since we have that in all the verticals, many projects that are aligned to innovation and green fuel sustainability, for sure, we will keep capturing those benefits.
Of course, the government has a system in which it approved this project. And it's, of course, our goal is for that to be long-term. And every year, the government has to approve the specific budget for that project. But we understand that no doubt it's going to bring important contributions for all the verticals for the following years.
Thank you, Paulo. Perfect.
So now we're moving to our last question. It comes from the sell-side analyst of Citibank Kiepher Kennedy. Good morning, Kiepher.
Good morning, everybody. Thanks for the opportunity. Two quick questions. You comment about logistics challenges, the increase in the theft rate. How do you see that? How can you mitigate those impacts?
Related to the factory units at Castertech initiating operations, as Esteban is concluding by the end of this year, given the challenging macro contexts due to all the factors that we discussed, how do you imagine the use of the factories for 2025 and incremental revenue opportunities for next year? The agreement for front axles with Suspensys has no impact, but potential new agreements and updates for this factory plan.
Thank you. Regarding freights, I'm going to talk about that with Esteban. If you could, Sergio, talk about the Mogi plants. Besides the contracts that we have in our pipeline, it opens doors for us to connect with new clients and new projects. The Mogi site is very relevant to us. So first, we're going to comment on this first point, and then Sergio finishes that.
Kieffer, thank you for following our call and for your question regarding freights. Since Fras-le Mobility, our vertical, that has more exposure to the international market, it felt a little more the pressure of the freight costs, the freight costs the first half. So we saw that in the earnings release by Fras-le. But our role here is to manage that, to be able to run around that. In our models, we have to solve that internally for us to preserve our margins and eventually expand opportunities that we can see. So looking ahead, of course, it's going to normalize the availability of containers. And of course, it's like demand and offer. The cost of the freight is going to be normalized as well. So Sergio, can you comment on the second part of the question, please?
Yes, perfect. Kieffer, thanks for your participation.
Our perspective, Castertech and Castertech Mogi, I mean, is in the ramp-up process, as I mentioned in a previous question. We are starting the second shift across the break-even line, so it has a positive impact on our results. But the business volume that we have is significantly superior to our production capacity. So we have all the variables aligned for having 2025 operating at full capacity in our unit in Castertech Mogi, even though we will need more capacity and we are going to buy to purchase material. And we have many opportunities that will demand the expanding of capacity for production for the future. So we have a trust level that is very significant. We are sure that the evolution is going to be positive and sufficient.
But in parallel, in the very same site, we have the front axle unit for Mercedes, so it's going to be implemented. There are many stages. We're not going to have a full year at the beginning. It's the beginning of production. So it involves some processes that we are starting safely in Caxias do Sul, machining, and some equipment are being transferred. Some pieces of equipment of Mercedes are being transferred to the operation in Caxias do Sul. And once the equipment is there and installed, we start machining those components there. And then we're going to begin the assembly in different categories and segments. At some point in 2025, we're going to supply 100% of Mercedes-Benz necessities. So it's a long project that involves many stages, different vehicle models, different levels of aggregated value that we're going to see along the year.
The purpose there is to perform a good job for us not to have any issues and any problems and compromise the success of this launch. From there on, when we have the project well-rounded and established, we can think of a new expansion. Possibly, we're going to have to assemble axles for our own operations, semi-trailer axles that we produce, manufacture in the south. We're going to transfer that to Suspensys for them to improve logistics in our manufacturer vertical in Araraquara. Many other products are going to be added. We have some negotiations to expand the front axle activities to other clients, but we are still negotiating and we are pending. We cannot tell you when it's going to happen, but we have the intention to do that in the following years after 2025, having bigger volumes of production at Suspensys Guaçu.
Our perspective regarding auto parts in this industry complex is very positive.
So now we conclude our Q&A session. We thank you very much for your participation and our directors as well. Now I pass the floor back to Sergio for his closing remarks.
Thank you, Caroline. Thank you for your participation, for attending this earnings call. We have this material available on our website, available for download, and we have many content available about Fenatran, the trade show that's happening this week. And it's available for you. And if you have further questions, and if you need to have detailed breakdown, any other issue, any other points here, please feel free to call us that we're going to reply to you at our earliest convenience. Thank you for your participation. Have a great weekend too. Thank you, everyone. Have a great weekend.
Bye-bye. Thank you. Have a great weekend.