As the push for infrastructure development continues across South America, manufacturers of trucks and construction equipment are poised more than ever to take advantage of the trend.

Truck manufacturers, such as Swedish giant Scania, have continued to concentrate on the South American market as an area of growth. Brazil remains second among truck registrations for Scania trucks with just more than 5,000 in 2000, a slight drop from the year prior. The company has a 25.7 percent market share among heavy trucks in Brazil, bested only by the 44.4 percent Scania holds in its home country of Sweden.

Across Latin America, Scania order bookings rose by 19 percent for 2006 with fourth quarter booking reaching 27 percent. Total sales in Brazil for Scania in Brazil topped $750 million last year.

Similarly, net sales in South America were up 5 percent in 2006 for Volvo group, reaching more than 11,600 units in the region. The company reported reduced deliveries to South America over 2006 that caused a loss of profitability for that region. The situation brightened following a ruling by the Brazilian Supreme Court in favor of AB Volvo over an export credit dispute that paved the way for the company to raise operating income to more than $50 million in the fourth quarter.

The company's construction equipment sales for South America, though, jumped 10 percent in 2006 to $191 million, the company reported.

That is a trend that construction equipment giant Caterpillar has been savvy to for some time. The Peoria, Ill.-based company recorded more than $3 billion in sales to the region in 2005 — an increase of more than 75 percent from two years prior. Initial figures for 2006 indicate the company's Latin American sales increased another 28 percent last year to top $3.5 billion.

That growth was across the region, according to the company and the result of higher commodity prices, increased mine production and rapid growth in construction. With 33 dealers across Latin America and a machine facility in Piracicaba, Brazil, the company is well placed to take continued advantage of infrastructure development in the region.

The company has been aggressive in pushing for a number of free trade agreements that are currently pending between various countries in the region and the United States. Last month, President Bush used a visit to the company's East Peoria plant to highlight how administration's trade agreements and tax breaks can boost global sales and create jobs for U.S. workers.

And nowhere is that possibility more apparent than in Panama where a proposed free trade agreement and a massive project to expand the Panama Canal are prompting a hotbed of construction activity.

The Association of Equipment Manufactures is blunt in its assessment:

"The Canal expansion bidding is a large opportunity for equipment manufacturers, and an elimination of the tariff paid by U.S. manufacturers as part of a free trade agreement would offer U.S. manufacturers an advantage over their international competitors," they reported recently.