Panel SA: Government raises warning about lack of asphalt for highway investment

After the announcement of the investment of R$ 1.7 billion made by the Lula government for road works in the plan for the first hundred days of the administration, the sector raised a concern: there may be a lack of asphalt.

The alert about the raw material distribution market was taken to the Minister of Transport, Renan Filho, in a meeting this week to talk about investments in the maintenance of the main corridors for the flow of the crop.

The head of the folder should meet, in the next few days, with the president of Petrobras, Jean Paul Prates, to talk about the possible impacts of an increase in demand.

The Ministry of Transport claims that it is also working with Itamaraty to try to reactivate partnerships with suppliers, such as Venezuela and other oil-producing countries, to expand supply in the domestic market with imports.

The importation of asphalt as an alternative to national production is seen in the sector as a complicated way out because it requires ample storage capacity, in addition to releasing the product according to the technical specifications required by Brazil.

Last year, at a time of high prices for the input by Petrobras, the sector talked about bringing asphalt from Russia in bulk, but the war in Ukraine made it difficult.

“The lack of asphalt that is already starting to happen and will get worse with the increase in investment. It is the price that Brazil pays for its dependence on the Petrobras monopoly”, says José Carlos Martins, president of the CBIC (Brazilian Chamber of Industry of Construction”.

Joana Cunha with Paulo Ricardo Martins It is Diego Felix