Hello. Welcome to our conference call for earnings of Randon Companies. Apart from presenting our numbers, we will also introduce to you the main products that were launched and the highlights in innovation, efficiency, sustainability at Fenatran. I would like to say that the information that is on the screen is not any guarantee of performance. They involve risks and uncertainties that refer to future events and depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Today, our CEO, Sérgio Carvalho, will talk about important actions during this quarter and will show some products that show our technological leadership in the automotive market. Paulo Prignolato, who is our CFO and investor relations director, will talk about the consolidated results in Q3 2022, even in a complex scenario. Esteban Mario Angeletti will show the results by business vertical.
Finally, we will have our Q&A session, and we invite you to participate. During all the presentation, you can participate in the following way. By audio, clicking on the button Q&A, write your name, your company, and language. We will announce your participation, then you activate the microphone and ask your question. In writing, clicking on the button Q&A, informing your name, company, and writing your question. We will read the question. The third is by WhatsApp. Send your question to the telephone that is on the screen. If we don't have time to answer all the questions, our investor relations team will get in touch with you after the video conference. Our event is being translated simultaneously into English and also sign language. To place your audio in English, please click on Interpretation at the bottom of the screen.
To hear only the translator's audio, please click on Unmute Original Audio. If you're watching in sign language, you can adjust the size of the screen for you. I inform that this is being recorded, it will be available in our website at ri.randon.com.br after the end of this conference call. Now I pass the floor to our CEO, Sérgio Carvalho. You have the floor, sir.
Thank you, David. I'd like to welcome all of you. I'd like to talk about my satisfaction in really holding this conference call from the Fenatran Expo. Fenatran Fair, showing to you what we're doing to build the future today. Before beginning the presentation, I'd like to thank you all who participated in our event, Investors at Fenatran.
For us, it's a great honor to receive those who invest and follow our company, and to talk more about our products in the automotive sector, how it is doing, a segment that is in a very important part of its history. We are seeing fundamental changes, significant changes in the truck market and semi-trailer market related to electricity, new materials, telemetry, among other innovations. In Randon Companies, we're alert to these movements, and we're doing our part to transform these trends in solutions that will benefit our clients with more efficient and sustainable products. In this way, through our business, we're contributing to all of society since the reduction of CO2 emissions in transportation is something fundamental to fight climate change. It's always important to reinforce that ESG is always present in everything we do in Randon Companies.
In this context, I would like to begin showing to you a new concept of refrigerated semi-trailer, Randon Solar. As the name suggests, it uses solar energy to improve the efficiency of refrigeration in the semi-trailer. This product not only uses flexible solar panels and high efficiency panels, which may be placed practically in all the surface of the truck, but has an intelligent system using the energy generated in an efficient way. This is the great edge of this product. This system is unique and exclusive from Randon and is patented. To give you an idea of the benefits of this new solution, in regular operation of a refrigerated semi-trailer, we're talking about a reduction of up to 1,800 liters of diesel per year, a great reduction in CO2 emissions, considering only the refrigeration system.
Imagine if we use Randon Solar together with the e-Sys system. Now I will present to you our modular platform, a new era in the type of manufacturing that Randon uses and aligned with the best practices for production. The great highlight of modules is a reduction in 70% in the use of weld, decreasing greenhouse gas emissions, simplifying logistics and the assembly of the products in the different units and geographies where we are present, and making the products lighter, optimizing their efficiency, energy efficiency in operation. Another launch made recently is Randon Smart, which is a platform developed in partnership with Randon Ventures, Delta Global, and Our Randon Institute. This is a solution exclusively from Randon with embedded intelligence and generates data for greater control of the fleet. As I said, many changes in our products with a lot of innovation. I cannot.
I also would like to talk about Hybrid R, our hybrid trailer. Recently, we began to sell this line of products. It is equipped with e-Sys system, electric traction system, which was launched in the last edition of Fenatran exhibition. We have good news to share. The first unit sold to clients in Brazil and in Chile, and other negotiations are in progress. We're very happy with the good receptivity of the market for this solution. Before passing the floor to Fras-le and auto parts, I would like to talk about an important action that we made in OEMs. We concluded the acquisition of Hercules Enterprises. We had a video conference on this on November first, and this video is available in our investor relations site.
It is a landmark in the internationalization for OEMs because now we are present in the largest market for semi-trailers in North America. Not only this, during Q3 2022, we began the export of semi-trailers to the U.S. In total, 800 bases of containers until the beginning of the next year, and we have new contracts for more the 2,000 units more confirmed for 2023. This should make the U.S. market becoming the main geography abroad for our semi-trailers. Well, as you know, all our companies are working on new products, new solutions, and now I'd like to comment on what we're doing in auto parts and motion control.
In our stand, we showed products, concept products like hubs and drums from Castertech, which now include nanometric niobium in the cast iron, gray cast iron, making them more resistant and durable and also lighter and efficient. They are under development, but they show great potential in the future. JOST brings to Fenatran the joint or articulated bus in the segment of buses. The articulation in buses is produced in the new plant in Campinas, which began to be sold now in September. The technology was developed and led by the team of JOST in Brazil with the support of CTR and will be exported to Europe.
With suspensions, we present Unisys suspension auto directional axle, which will also be sold in 2023, and the main edge is a reduction in weight in relation to previous models by approximately 25% and an increase in durability at the same time. Unisys especially has potential to be sold in the U.S. market, apart from the market in Brazil. These were only some highlights of what we're developing together with our institute, IHR, CTR, and NIONE. Talking about Fras-le, our vertical for movement control. Last year, they inaugurated their Smart Composites line, which supplies solutions in composite structural composite materials. In the exhibition, we have the supports for bumpers used in semi-trailers, arriving at 60,000 parts produced, showing our pioneer work in the use of intelligent materials in road implements. This product is 65% lighter than metal.
Another project more recently is the supports for tail lights in trucks, three parts in one and reducing by 40% the weight of the product in comparison with steel parts. We will begin the supply of this solution next year for an important OEM of trucks in Brazil. Apart from many new things and products, we continue working to expand our manufacturing capacity, and we had an important announcement on November fourth. We acquired in an auction the assets such as machines, equipment, and real estate from Fundição Balancins, located in Mogi Guaçu in the state of São Paulo. As you know, our Castertech is in an expansion, and this new unit will be fundamental for us to expand the productions of cast and machined products, allowing us to grow in an accelerated and sustainable way.
The forecast is that we will begin the activities of the new company in the second semester of 2023. Last week also, we announced the closing, and we formed Addiante, a joint venture that will offer to the market rental services for vehicles and also road implements and other solutions related to cargo movement. This business model, which is used a lot in other countries, is not well explored in Brazil. We saw an opportunity of growth in the Brazilian market, and in the next months, we will detail in a better way the growth plan and our expectations for this new company. Before ending my part, I would like to highlight the strength and accelerated growth of Randon Companies.
The number of movements we're making, presenting new products, new solutions, expanding our portfolio, accessing new geographies and adding companies, give us the security that we're on the right track in building the future. All of this is aligned with the best practices in sustainability and governance, which makes us proud and gives us great satisfaction. You will notice from the results of Q3 2022, that Paulo Prignolato will present next, that even in a complex scenario in the market full of challenges, we were able to reach once again, record revenues and consistent margins, showing the strength of our diversified business model, which has made us more and more resilient. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Paulo to continue the presentation.
Thank you, Sérgio. Good morning. I'd like to thank all the participants, we are here at Fenatran Exhibition.
I'd like to thank investors and analysts that participated in the event that we had here this week. The results that I will present today come from everything that Sergio mentioned and a strategy that is very well built and executed every single day. Before presenting the numbers of the company, I would like to bring to you the data about truck market and semi-trailers, which have a great impact on our business. After a few months affected by the lack of semiconductors, the production of trucks grew once again in Q3 2022. Soon, the robust demand and better availability of parts helped for the higher volumes. The production of semi-trailers is recovering gradually with agro business doing very well. Exports also made progress, both in semi-trailers and trucks, with a good demand in South American countries.
Finally, the aftermarket market, which is resilient and has benefited from the low availability of new vehicles in Brazil and also due to high prices of new vehicles. Let's see the main numbers for Q3 2022. We delivered another quarter of record revenue with margin recovery in comparison with Q2 2022, even with a complex market and a challenging business environment. Beginning with consolidated net revenue, we reached BRL 3.1 billion, 23% more in relation to the same period in 2021. Year to date 2022, the progress is even greater, 27% in the comparison to last year, and representing BRL 8.3 billion.
The main factors that enabled this progress were a good demand from the market, trucks and semi-trailers, higher prices due to price increases made during the last 12 months, more capacity in our companies, added capacity through acquisitions or automation and use of robots, increase of sales in the foreign market 40% more, and our diversified business model, which strengthens the Randon Companies every day, adding new solutions to clients in all the verticals of the business, in the most different geographies and sectors where we are present. On this graph, you can observe the distribution of revenue by business vertical. Our industrial verticals continue well represented similar to the last quarters, showing that our companies are growing and also prospering. Here you can observe the distribution of revenue by business segment.
Approximately 58% of the revenue comes from OEMs, among them truck companies, semi-trailer companies, and also railway cars. I like to remind you that most of our exposure to OEMs is connected also to agro business, since more than two-thirds of the semi-trailers and heavy trucks sold in the country are for agro business. Aftermarket and export market represented 38% to our results. As I mentioned previously, the sales in the export market had an important increase. You can observe on the graph here an increase of 48% in comparison with last year and year to date. This evolution is due to the following factors, favorable exchange rate for exports, also price increases of products sold, new clients and new projects abroad.
Semi-trailers had a relevant increase in exports with the first batch of containers sent to the U.S., and the controlled companies outside Brazil are performing as planned. On this graph, you can see the distribution of the revenue in the export market by geography. Currently, Mercosul and Chile represents half of our revenue. This region and the three business verticals are very relevant. North America represents 24.3% of the revenues of the quarter, and should increase even more with exports of semi-trailers to the U.S. and the acquisition of Hercules. The other regions did not have great fluctuations, and they are taken care of especially by movement controls. Now, talking about EBITDA, we have an important evolution in comparison with Q2 2022, even in a scenario that it has more competition. In the comparison with the previous years, our margins had a drop of approximately 2 percentage points.
The greatest challenges for the recovery of margins were more competition in OEMs with a difficulty in increasing prices, some segments of products with demand under pressure, for example, closed trucks. The great advantage of our model is to be exposed to different markets. In this period, this helped to mitigate the negative effects. In this sense, we highlight motion control vertical with consistent margins, with a good level of prices and many synergies among the units. Our auto parts with the margin recovery in relation to Q2 2022 by price increases at OEMs and increases in the volume sold. As a result of the pressure on margins that I mentioned and also financial expenses due to higher interest rates, our net margin also had a drop, and as you can observe on the graph here.
When we compare with the margin obtained in Q2 2022, we already have an increase of 1 percentage point. We must remember that last year in Q3 2021, we had non-recurring revenues concerning tax credits of approximately BRL 134 million. This changes significantly the comparison with the year of 2021. Now talking about the company's debt. At the end of Q3, we reached BRL 2 billion in net debts without the numbers of Banco Randon, and a leverage of 1.42x the EBITDA in the last twelve months. On the graph, you can observe the reduction of these indicators, the drop in these indicators in comparison with the previous quarter. This was possible because we're working hard to decrease our needs for working capital and to increase the free cash flow.
Now I'd like to give an update about the two topics that are important, also financial topics and relate to Q3. On October 21st, we announced a relevant fact concerning our tenth issue of debentures, a material fact. Through this operation, we received BRL 500 million in two series. They will be paid in five and seven years after this date. This loan will be used totally to reinforce cash and liability management. The documents related to this operation are all available in our investor relations site. You can access also the material fact, scanning the QR code on the screen. The second important fact was the maintenance of our corporate rating, brAA+ from Standard & Poor's or S&P as it is known.
In accordance with S&P, the company should continue to benefit from the increase in revenues coming from abroad and its exposure to the segment of aftermarket in the next few years, compensating the challenging scenario in the domestic market in Brazil for production and sale of trucks. To access the complete rating reports, please access the QR code on the screen. Now talking about our investments. You have observed how much we have added capacity and innovation to our plans. Apart from making acquisitions and also integralizations of capital, we invested in Q3 approximately BRL 120 million, with a highlight for investments of BRL 73 million in machinery and in industrial equipment. Year to date, investments totaled BRL 728 million reais, and of this total, BRL 368 million reais referred to the follow-on of Fras-le.
I remind you that our guidance for the year is only for organic investments. Now, I'd like to comment on the performance of our shares in the stock market. On September 30th, RAPT4 had the price of BRL 9.50, and RAPT3, BRL 8.84, reaching a market cap of BRL 3 billion. In this quarter, we began buying back shares as we announced last year. Until September, we acquired 718,200 shares RAPT4. We have a free float of 60.2%, and our share base has 41,000 shareholders. Our share profile highlights the participation of the controlling group and institutional investors and foreigners, which represent together 80% of the shares of the company. To conclude my part, I'd like to talk about an important topic, corporate governance.
At the end of July, we informed our governance regulated by according to the regulation from the CVM 586. The graph that you can see now shows the evolution that we went through. We passed 35.3% that we showed in 2018 to 78.3% in 2022. In a survey made by IBGC together with Ernst & Young at TozziniFreire Advogados, they showed the average of companies by governance. We see that Randon has an average superior to all levels, including Novo Mercado in our stock market, which is a reference in corporate governance. We're very happy in making progress every year. In the last year, we implemented the management council and re-reviewed our statutes, addressing important topics such as conflict of interest in assemblies and transactions with related parties.
We continue in this journey, making progress not only in governance, but also in the other aspects linked to sustainability of the company. Now I pass the floor to Esteban to continue with the results by business vertical. Good morning. We're very happy to be here at Fenatran exhibition, showing to you many new things for the future of the company. I would also like to thank all the analysts and shareholders that visited our stands and were present in the second largest exhibition for commercial vehicles in the world. I would like to talk more about OEMs. This vertical had another quarter of growth in revenue with new lines of products, competitive new offers, and a good performance in the export market.
Net revenue reached BRL 1.3 billion in Q3 2022, an increase of 13% in comparison with the same period, 2021. This increase has to do with many factors. Price increases in the last 12 months, agribusiness, which also helped the sale of semi-trailers in the domestic market and also abroad. To give you an idea, only in this quarter, 72% of the revenue in this vertical had origin in this economic sector. Now going on to the export market. We had an increase of 68% in the quarterly comparison, reaching $50.9 million. We began exports of semi-trailers to the U.S. in September, and we had good volumes sold to Latin America and especially to Chile. This country was the first to receive our modular platform, as Sergio mentioned.
Now I'd like to show a video prepared specially to show this product. In the next quarter, we will expand in an important way our revenue from the export market in this vertical, especially in the US markets. We will intensify the exports from Brazil with the order mentioned by Sérgio previously. apart from this, we will consolidate the revenue of Hercules in November and December of this year. Now, going on to EBITDA, the good levels of revenue were not enough for us to conquer a recovery of margins. In Q3 2022, this indicator reached BRL 88.2 million with an EBITDA margin of 7%.
This happened mainly due to the following factors: a reduction in the volumes in the domestic market, more competition, a stronger competition and difficulty to increase prices, and high raw material prices, especially steel, and also our strategy to recover leadership and market share. We conquered an important market share in the market, as you can see on the graph. Our effort to expand the sales of semi-trailers gave us the best market share in the year, reaching 32.4%, 9 percentage points ahead of the second player. Here at Fenatran, the business environment is very positive. Randon Implementos launched many products, some showed previously by Sérgio here in our conference call. Now anticipating sales, the organization and strength of our distributors and unique products offered to our clients, our portfolio of orders is already full for the next three months.
Looking at auto parts with another growth another quarter with growth, I would like to highlight a revenue of BRL 1.1 billion in Q3 2022, an increase of 21% compared to the same quarter in 2021. Growth in sales in all the controlled companies, price increases to, with OEMs, increase in productivity and dilution of fixed costs due to good rhythm of production for OEMs. Synergies among the operations, gain synergies, and also we added Castertech Schroeder, BRL 52 million revenue, which is part of the consolidated as of September 2021. Even in, even on a smaller level, revenue from abroad also evolved. For auto parts, $12.5 million in Q3 2022, an increase of 23% when compared to the same quarter of the previous years.
Due to all the factors I mentioned, we reached an EBIT of BRL 191.4 billion, with a margin of 17.1% in this vertical. It was an important recovery of margins in comparison with the previous quarter, showing the resilience of our auto parts business. It's important to stress that we have made many investments, especially to increase the capacity of production and casting. In this quarter, BRL 74.2 million invested both in CapEx and also integralization of capital. We will continue investing in this vertical. Sérgio showed that the acquisition of Fundição Balancins in Mogi Guaçu in São Paulo was important. This plant was deactivated, and then now we will invest. In the second semester of 2023, it will be operational, contributing for our growth.
To conclude the presentation, I would like to show the integration of our auto parts with semi-trailers. Here you can see the Unisys suspension that Sérgio mentioned. Like the other suspensions made by Suspensys, it is part of our auto parts with hubs manufactured by Castertech and a brake system by Master, which uses friction materials from Fras-le. Now I'd like to talk to you a little more about Motion Control, our powerhouse of aftermarket parts for commercial and light vehicles. Here we have the products from Fras-le Smart Composites that have great benefits when compared to steel, with more resistance, durability, but especially reduction in weight. For example, this support is 65% lighter than this steel version. Apart from using at Randon, we also delivered this project to an OEM. Smart Composites from Fras-le has a great potential.
Now let's go to the numbers of this vertical. I would like to highlight the continuity of good results with another quarter of growth in revenue and margins, especially for aftermarket that is booming and the capture of synergies in new businesses. BRL 823.9 million in net revenue, and the revenue from the export market contributed significantly, totaling $79.3 million. This graph on the screen, here you can see the distribution of the revenue of this vertical. 55% comes from aftermarket, which gained a lot of relevance since the acquisition of our controlled Nakata. 40% have origin in the export market through exports or revenues from controlled companies outside Brazil. Another 5% comes from OEMs, especially commercial vehicles.
This year, we made an important movement at Fras-le with the logistics integration in the plant of Nakata in Extrema, in the state of Minas Gerais, with more agility and efficiency in sending products to clients, apart from the reduction in operation costs. The synergies with this operation are very important for our results. This vertical reached an EBIT of BRL 137.9 million in the quarter and an EBITDA margin of 16.7%. This margin was possible due to a booming demand in the aftermarket, price increases in some product lines, and expansion and more market share of Nakata with shock absorbers, which is growing in an accelerated way.
Apart from this, in the export market, we had a high demand from the US, especially for the disc brakes, and also an expansion in the participation of markets of Fras-le in Argentina due to restrictions on imports on the part of our competitors and a good performance of other controlled companies of Fras-le in other countries. I'd like to talk about financial services and digital service, which is also present here with Banco Randon Pool Sales, Randon Ventures, and Randon Seguros. Giving you information in Q3, BRL 133.8 million in net revenue, a growth of 77% in comparison with the same period of 2021. EBITDA, BRL 25.2 million, with an EBITDA margin of 18.9%. I'd like to give you some details about this performance.
Randon Consórcios pool sales and Banco Randon reached records in volumes and revenue. The increase in the sale of pool sales sold is linked to good performance in agribusiness. The highest volume in history of operations by Banco Randon, which is linked to the other businesses of our companies. The bank finances clients, suppliers, and distributors. Now talking specifically about the margins, we had an increase in costs for Banco Randon due to higher interest rates, which is the main factor that had an impact on this indicator. Other aspects are linked to new businesses in this vertical. We're very happy with the potential of Addiante, a joint venture with Gerdau for rental of equipment and machines and trucks. Sirros IoT company specializes in intelligent manufacturing and works already with Randon companies, increasing our operational efficiency.
Some of our companies have stands here at Fenatran, and our clients from OEMs are invited to see the solutions we offer that can add a lot of facility to your day-to-day activities. Finally, we have advanced technology and headquarters. The highlight is NIONE, which has had a great evolution in studies using nanoparticles of niobium and is present here in Fenatran with many new solutions, especially applied to Randon products, as Sérgio mentioned. There is much more that you will see in the next few months. Apart from NIONE, we also have industrial automation and collaborative innovation apart from the holding.
In this vertical, we had a revenue of BRL 41 million within the EBITDA of BRL 144.7 million, especially due to the equity in the holding, BRL 151 million, which is the result of the participation of the corporate center in the other verticals. These numbers are eliminated and consolidated because they're intercompany. Excluding this, we observe a negative result in this vertical due to the fact that the units that make up are still in the maturity phase, with more investments in the short term and great gains in the long term. I'd like to close the presentation. I'd like to pass the floor to David to begin the Q&A session.
Thank you, Esteban, Sérgio, Paulo, for the presentation. Good morning once again. We're very happy to have you all with us in our conference calls.
Now we will begin the Q&A session. On the screen, as you know, we have the instructions for your participation. I'd like to say there are three ways to ask questions. With voice in audio, write your name, company, and language, and we will call you to ask a question. Questions in writing your name, company, and writing the question, and we will read the question and answer. Also by WhatsApp, if you want to send by WhatsApp. Let's begin now the Q&A session with Lucas Laghi from XP. Lucas, thank you for being with us.
Good morning. Thank you, David. Congratulations for the results. I believe you're very busy at the Fenatran exhibition. I'd like to explore the strategy and objective for OEMs in this context of lower margins, but greater market share, and Euro 6 being implemented next year.
The idea is to consolidate the market in products where you have more relevance, like products for agribusiness or increase your share in products like siders and other types. Now, in terms of our margin, how do you analyze market share versus margin? How do you think internally of optimizing EBITDA in this vertical? That's the first question. I have one more concerning Euro 6 in 2023. This is a year when we expect a drop in the sale of implements. This greater market share that you have reported, the higher market share in Q3, aligns with more exports. Exports, you mentioned the U.S. as a market that is becoming more and more relevant. Could this combination, in your opinion, compensate this drop that is expected in this vertical next year.
General strategy, market share versus margin and Euro 6, bearing in mind this alignment of factors, whether this could compensate the drop in the market. Thank you.
Thank you, Lucas, for the question. I will share the answer with Sérgio, especially the market for implements for OEMs. Lucas, in general, I can comment a little. We are in this market more than 70 years of history. We're market leaders in practically all the business lines. Of course, in some lines we have stronger competition, but we want to use this portfolio of products, which is very diversified, even in a country like Brazil, with diversified products. We want to use this as a powerhouse to take this know-how also outside the country. Sérgio, if you want to supplement the answer, feel free. I can also talk about the second point, Euro 6.
Thank you, Esteban.
Can you all hear me?
Yes.
Thank you, Lucas, for the question. Esteban described well. We have a complete line of products in the Brazilian market. There are products where we have a strong market share in the sub-segments. These products have to do with agribusiness, and our intention is to defend, yes, our leadership position that we have in this segment with all our strength. Now, concerning other product lines, we have developed the few products where we're not leaders. We have developed leading technologies to add value to our clients, and this will be the way we will grow our penetration in the market.
Thank you, Sérgio. Now, concerning the second part of the question, I will begin answering about the possible competition in OEMs and auto parts and the sales abroad. Emerson, you could talk about motion control, the outlook for aftermarket.
In a nutshell, Lucas, yes, we see a maybe greater difficulty next year for semi-trailers. This can be linked to higher interest rates, but also substitution due to Euro 6. We also see opportunities to use this moment to expand exports. Reminding you a drop in the domestic market would be compensated by the 5,000 units of Hercules. That's their production capacity, plus 2,000 units that we're exporting next year in the U.S. market. At this point, it would be more than sufficient to compensate. Concerning auto parts, I see not only an increase for our vertical in auto parts, but also more capacity with the purchase of Fundição Balancins by Castertech. This should help us to continue with the growth rate we had this year.
It's worthwhile reminding you our strategy of diversification with focus has given us results, bearing in mind that in a year with lower volumes, as we see this year, we have been able to have a growth, a double-digit growth, showing that we're on the right track. Emerson, I would like you to talk about motion control, but I'd like to congratulate you and Fras-le for the excellent results announced yesterday. This is part of our strategy.
Thank you, Esteban. We're very happy to leverage and grow Fras-le's business. For Randon shareholders, the performance of Fras-le benefits Randon since Randon has 52% of the shares of Fras-le and controls the company. Thank you, Lucas, for the question. We always reinforce Fras-le's leadership in aftermarket in Latin America with a strong reference in Brazil.
We're one of the main players for aftermarket spare parts. Leaders in many of the lines where we are present. This is a different market in terms of stability. These are markets that don't suffer that much with different interest rates or economic uncertainties. They grow sure in more complex moments. We can see, especially Fras-le, if you look at a decade, it always grew. Now it's a time to consolidate this platform with acquisitions and with a footprint of future projects that show to us that the outlook continues to be optimistic and obviously due to many issues, but due to 90% of the revenue of Fras-le comes from the aftermarket parts. Thank you. We're available not only here in the conference call where we participate, but also through our investor relations team. Please get in touch with us. Okay.
In the first question, volumes was clear, but thinking of margins, we saw this drop year after year in OEMs. So what is your strategy to increase margins when analyzing market share and profitability? Thank you.
Okay, Lucas. Well, I'd like to remind you, every family of products, as we call them, has its contribution margin. It's about the margin. We control this in an analytical way, both in Brazil and abroad. The truth is that we have capacity to be market leaders, as Sérgio mentioned, in all these lines. We don't need to look at volumes in a selective way. Well, we sell with good margins, always looking at the market, our market share, reminding you that the return for shareholders is not only from semi-trailers, but also auto parts.
Thank you.
Thank you, Lucas.
Esteban, if I can supplement.
It's important always to bear in mind in this vertical the many units we have, investments we made during the last years. Araraquara 1, 2, Chapecó, Linhares, Messias. Giving you some examples because this is directly linked to the decisions that we evaluate on margin in each product line.
Oh, yes. Thank you, Paulo. Well, our next question, Lucas Marquiori, BTG Pactual. Lucas, you can ask your question.
Good morning. Two points. First, auto parts. We saw the group increasing exposure and also capacity in casting. I believe this is one of the bottlenecks for expansion in volume and auto parts. Apart from foundry, do you have any other bottlenecks, painting, and other areas that you will have to invest to increase capacity in auto parts? And the second question, OEMs. Trying to understand the economics for transportation companies.
The price of fuel went up, although there is volume, we see, for example, semi-trailers being expensive. What are transportation companies doing? Are they buying less year after year? What is the situation, the economics of transportation companies to understand purchases next year?
Thank you, Lucas, for the question. I will share this answer with Sergio. Sergio, I'll comment quickly about our strategy in foundries and the casting market. You can comment on the other auto parts and transportation companies. We had a good week talking to clients at Fenatran Exhibition. Lucas, talking about cast products. Yes, today this is one of our bottlenecks. We buy some cast products from third parties. One point that I have mentioned to the market since the acquisition of Fundituba, Menegotti, it's important to say that Castertech doubled its production in the last 18 months.
Now with the purchase of Balancins, we see the importance of this vertical for our business, and this comes from three factors. Our captive demand of our own auto parts, cast products also because we're going to new markets, increasing our exposure to agribusiness and also from new technologies, as we mentioned. An important pillar of Randon in the future, NIONE, developing applications of nanoparticles with niobium and titanium, which can be used in the cast products. With all of this, we have made progress growing in auto parts. The other companies have also grown. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Sérgio. Please talk to us about this.
Thank you, Esteban. Lucas, thank you for the question. Yes. As Esteban already mentioned, there is no doubt cast products are a bottleneck.
We invested a lot in the last few years to expand our production capacity in all the companies. We invested in all the companies. We've removed bottlenecks at Controil. In the Fras-le world, we invested in Nakata, we invested in the Fras-le world. As I said, we have a new shift, 6 by 2, a new work regime in Fras-le in Brazil to expand our production capacity for heavy linings. We expanded our capacity in products for OEMs through Araraquara 2, our second plant there. We invested in the expansion in Triel. In Chapecó, we invested in our company, Master. We expanded capacity at JOST Brasil with new equipment for suspensions, removal of bottlenecks. We made a lot of progress in this sense, but foundry cast products continue to represent bottlenecks. That's why we acquired these equipments.
As you mentioned, we purchased Fundituba, Menegotti, now Balancins, but also in the light line. In Fremax, we have cast products which also represent a bottleneck for us. We're investing as we just did, and we intend to continue investing wherever necessary to remove these bottlenecks. Now, your second question. Yes, 2022, we had higher interest rates, increase in the price of fuel, a great increase of prices for transportation companies and consumers. Making the life of these companies, our clients, more difficult. The interest rate now stopped going up, fuel prices stopped going up, inflation is dropping, and now the situation is better. With the stabilization, the businessmen of these sectors were able to adapt themselves to the new reality, and they are buying once again. We saw this as something very positive.
The continuity of this is being seen here at the Fenatran exhibition. We see a lot of optimism, which surprised us with a good performance. Reminding you that agribusiness is a very important part of everything we're discussing, and businessmen in agribusiness are well-capitalized. They have conditions to face problems and continue making their investments. Our expectation is that agribusiness in Brazil has an enormous potential. We don't see anything in the short-term, 12 months, to have a negative impact on this market.
Thank you, Sérgio. Well, we have a question from Rogério Araújo, Bank of America, about Fenatran, the exhibition, the fair Sérgio mentioned. The transportation companies, trucks, sales in Q4 first semester of 2023, especially with Euro 6.
Yes, we covered this in the first question, but the horizon shows us a more delicate scenario for new products because of the increase in price of Euro 6 and also higher interest rates. This should make volumes drop. We have a strategy to win new markets and go into new markets, new geographies, and new products. Finally, Rogério, price reduction, price drop in raw materials. If we intend to pass this on to clients and how this can affect the revenue in the next quarters. Rogério, first, we want to see if this reduction is here to stay. We expect to have a drop in prices, but we haven't been able to pay less for our purchases. First, let's feel if there will be an actual drop in raw materials. The market is we need to see what will happen.
In all our negotiations, we try to have the best combination of volume and price. David, please to the next question from Renata Cabral, Citibank. Renata, thank you for being with us.
Good morning. Thank you. I have two questions. Concerning the strategy for the U.S., you announced the purchase of Hercules and the exports of trailers to the U.S. Possibilities in the short term to manufacture trailers in the U.S. because of the worldwide trend called nearshoring. Many companies going to the U.S. and Mexico because they want companies close to them, close supply chain. How are you seeing this? And also Smart Composites. What is your ambition concerning percentage of products using these materials in the next few years, in the next five years? Thank you.
Thank you, Renata, for the question, for following us.
Concerning the first question, I will share the answer with Sérgio, Emerson on Smart Composites. Feel free. Now, giving you a vision about Hercules. Hercules manufactures and assembles semi-trailers with a different model from Brazil. Ours is more verticalized. In the U.S., they buy components. They assemble. They're not verticalized like us. They don't produce all the parts. We see a great opportunity to replicate the model we have in Brazil, in the U.S. Certainly, this is the right time to do this with the price wars between the U.S. and China. But Sérgio, please comment, and then also Smart Composites.
Thank you, Esteban, Renata. Yes, we made the acquisition, as you know. We have exported, and our objective is to expand our presence in the U.S. Hercules has this certain production rhythm. We want to expand, to grow, remove obstacles, and expand our production capacity.
As you said, nearshoring is here to stay for this market. The U.S. market for trailers is almost all produced in the U.S. The expansion of this production capacity, the expansion of the portfolio of products will increase our revenues in the U.S. We have the intention to expand in a more accelerated way our production. We may make more acquisitions in the U.S. or start a greenfield project in the U.S. For the time being, we're expanding the production capacity in our operation in Hercules. Concerning your second question, Smart Composites. We see a great potential, Renata, with this technology that we announced shortly an agreement with a large manufacturer of trucks in Europe and in Brazil with this type of product. It has gained a lot of visibility, attention in many important projects, and this is only one type of product with composites.
There are another four categories of composite materials that we're interested in, and we're not participating in these other segments. Our expectation is that in five years, this will become a relevant business within our structure. We don't want to give you numbers where we have shares in the stock market, Fras-le too, but our expectations are that this will have a relevant growth. These products will have a relevant growth, and soon we will give you some more highlights on this.
Perfect. Thank you.
Well, the next question from Gabriel Grezzetti, Itaú BBA.
Good afternoon. One question. Competition in implements. We saw Randon with more competitive prices, recovering market share, and we have a scenario that is challenging for your competition. What should we think of the competition, their capacity next year in a scenario that may not have space for them to recover share?
Randon is a very diversified company. It has auto parts, exports. Now it is stronger in the U.S., also aftermarket. Your competitors are not diversified like you. So what happens to the players next year?
Thank you, Gabriel, for the question. A good point. I believe a lot of our strategy to diversify aims at avoiding this dependence on a single market, this volatility. We have shown this. We have shown how this has added value to the company. Today, only 35% of our revenue comes from semi-trailers. The other 65% come from other products, other geographies, other markets, especially the aftermarket that is more resilient. Gabriel, yes, we believe that a more difficult year next year in volumes will give an additional challenge to our competitors, especially in working capital with high interest rates and also margins. There should be pressure on margins.
In this sense, we don't see a great space for consolidation. The main players have financial health, and the small players will probably suffer more with a more complex year. Thank you.
Okay, our next question, Victor Mizusaki, Bradesco. Victor, thank you for being with us in this conference call.
Good afternoon. Congratulations for the results. The first question, Sérgio's comment, the exports, 2,000 semi-trailers to the US. Are you developing resellers in the US? Could you give us more color for this and the products you are exporting? And the second, related to auto parts, commercial vehicles. You mentioned in Lucas' question, acquisitions, removing bottlenecks to accelerate growth, but at the same time, with verticalization. This can have a positive contribution in EBITDA margin.
Could you comment on this, if this improvement in Q3 is due to the strategy, and how much more can we expect in the future?
Thank you, Victor. I will pass the floor to Sérgio, but a quick comment on your last question concerning better margins due to verticalization. You are right. An analogy, part of the production of Castertech or the sale of Castertech that we acquire from third parties, we have a penalty in margins and also tax, a surtax that we have to absorb and pass on to the clients. We could have a better price, a better margin. Sérgio, please comment on these two points.
Hi, Victor. Thank you for the question. Victor, the sales that we have for next year, export from Brazil, they are not sales to distributors. No.
These are direct sales, directly to a segment. The market is booming. We're selling direct and our products, they leave Brazil ready. When they are unloaded in the U.S., they go into operation immediately because they are registered already. They send us the license plates because they need these products. It's a niche market, as we mentioned for the reasons that we explained on other occasions. It's a simple product. We don't need a large structure to distribute this product. These are concrete businesses with great potential for 2023. We're not talking about larger volumes due to logistics problems, international logistics. If the world economy suffers a drop, and if we have more availability in logistics, yes, we can increase our sales. We can export more than the numbers we announced.
Thank you, Sérgio.
If you wish to talk about acquisitions concerning improvement in volume and margin potential. You already mentioned well, Esteban. We have today business with many foundries. We buy a large part of cast products from other companies. We have a new technology, nanoparticles, that brings improvements. It's transformational for this type of product, and we don't see. We develop this technology. This adds value, will make us more competitive, but we need capacity to produce them. That's why we're investing more in production capacity, not only to continue cooperating with our clients, but also to do what we believe will be transformational, to have new products with alloys based on nanoparticles of niobium. So it's an important action, and we intend to continue to expand this more and more. Thank you.
Thank you. Well, our last question.
We had additional questions from the chat we won't be able to answer now, but after the conference call, we'll get in touch and answer. We have a question from Igor, Genial Investimentos.
Thank you, David. Congratulations for the results and also the events. Two points. Financial planning for next year and the other, the strategy of the bank. Now talking of plans for next year with the last actions, the acquisition, the entry in the U.S. market, how much will this increase your investments next year? And the second part, strategy of the bank. Since you're going into rental, what is your strategy to expand the portfolio of products? Do you see new opportunities within the bank? These are the points.
Thank you, Igor. Thank you for following us. These two questions are for Paulo. He can help us with the answers.
Investment planning and financial planning for next year and the bank's strategy due to this partnership with Gerdau for truck and implement rentals.
Thank you, Esteban. Igor, thank you for the questions. Thank you for following us. Concerning financial planning for next year, 2023, our commitment is to grow with financial discipline. These operations of M&A that we just announced, with the exception of Balancins, all the others will add EBITDA immediately, like the case of Hercules, that will add revenue as of November and EBITDA. Balancins will need maintenance. The plants have been shut down, so they will bring revenue as of the second semester of next year. Organic investments, historically, they have always followed a percentage in cash generation. You can expect investments next year in very similar to historical levels.
At the end of the day, we want a leverage between 1 and 2 with larger M&A projects, but always with plans to go back to 1x the EBITDA in terms of leverage. Concerning the second question related to financial services, the project with Gerdau and the bank's strategy. The project with Gerdau is a joint venture, 50/50, and both Gerdau and Randon Companies will not consolidate these results and debts in their year-end report. It's a business that works with greater leverage, and it's a format where this joint venture in the future will have to take out loans from banks and even get other partners for this business. Banco Randon, with its 12 years of existence, year after year, we have grown in an organic way in the bank.
It's very important to help us in financing for our clients, and we want to continue growing in an organic way so the bank can grow together with industry. Since last year, we announced this new line of investments in the bank, which is to use a digital strategy. We have done this, launching an application, an app, and the intention is to grow in this market too.
If you'll allow me a quick follow-up, Paulo. The idea is to work in your market niche. Are you thinking of working with your partners in auto parts?
The idea is to be closer and closer to our end clients, the logistics operators and drivers. It's this universe of logistics which is the priority, offering a complete service package.
We have the bank, we have pool sales, we have our insurance company, we have the apps for information on routes, services. Our idea is to be closer and closer to our end clients offering these services for logistics.
Thank you. Congratulations for the results.
Thank you, Igor.
Well, we'd like to close our Q&A session for Q3. Now I'd like to pass the floor to Sérgio for his final comments.
Thank you, Davi. Well, I'd like to thank all the participants. It's always a great pleasure to be with you. We are honored to have you here, have your support. Our investor relations team, Paulo and I, are available for any additional clarifications you may need. All the material shown is on our website. You know us.
Please feel free to contact us, and we will give you more details and give you all the clarification that is necessary. Thank you, and we wish you a good day. Thank you.