Brazilian government plans to complete $3.38 billion railroad by 2013

Brazil's federal government aims to complete the 5.42bn-real (US$3.38 billion) Transnordestina railroad by 2013, President Dilma Rouseff recently announced.

More than 50 percent of work to be carried out on the railroad is currently underway, Rousseff said in her weekly news column, published in several Brazilian newspapers.

The 1,728km railroad is divided into two stretches. The first runs between the town of Eliseu Martins in Piauí state and Suape port in Pernambuco. The second section connects the city of Salgueiro in Pernambuco state to Ceará state's Pecém port.

The Transnordestina railroad is being built by Companhia Ferroviaria do Nordeste (CFN), and is one of the three largest private projects in Brazil. It is expected to transport some 30 million tons per year of produce, including grain and minerals, when it reaches full capacity. CFN is a subsidiary of local steelmaker CSN (NYSE: SID), which has a 75 percent stake in the railroad, with the federal government holding the remainder. The firm expects Transnordestina's revenues to reach 200mn reais in 2012, jumping to 1.6bn reais in 2018.

Source: World-Grain.com