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WEG SA reported its third-quarter 2025 earnings, highlighting a 4.2% increase in net operating revenue compared to the same period last year. The company’s EBITDA rose to R$2.3 billion, marking a 2.3% increase. Currently trading at $7.68, WEG maintains a robust market capitalization of $32.27 billion. According to InvestingPro analysis, the company demonstrates GREAT financial health with an overall score of 3.32, supported by strong profitability metrics and growth indicators. The company continues to focus on global expansion and innovation, investing heavily in new facilities and acquisitions to bolster its market position.
Key Takeaways
- Net operating revenue grew by 4.2% year-over-year.
- EBITDA increased to R$2.3 billion, with a strong margin of 22.2%.
- Significant investments in global expansion, including a BRL 1.1 billion energy unit in Brazil.
- Acquired a controlling stake in Tupinambá Energia for e-mobility solutions.
- Stock price rose by 0.2% post-earnings announcement.
Company Performance
WEG SA demonstrated solid performance in Q3 2025, driven by robust industrial activity in Brazil and strong external market performance. The company’s diversified product portfolio and strategic investments in key markets helped mitigate challenges, particularly in North America, where tariffs have impacted the market. The European market showed significant improvement, contributing positively to the company’s overall performance.
Financial Highlights
- Revenue: Increased by 4.2% compared to Q3 2024.
- EBITDA: R$2.3 billion, a 2.3% increase year-over-year.
- EBITDA Margin: 22.2%, maintaining a strong position.
- ROIC: 32.4%, reflecting efficient capital utilization.
Outlook & Guidance
Looking ahead, WEG SA expects continued annual revenue growth and plans to maintain high operating margins. The company is focused on expanding its presence in both domestic and international markets through significant investments and strategic acquisitions. WEG SA is also monitoring geopolitical and macroeconomic challenges that could impact future performance.
Executive Commentary
- André Luiz Rodrigues emphasized the company’s commitment to its investment plan, stating, "We remain focused on our investment plan to support growth in Brazil and abroad."
- André Menegueti Salgueiro highlighted WEG SA’s strategic shift, noting, "WEG is not only focusing on manufacturing products, but rather being more and more focused on following a complete solution."
- On revenue growth, Rodrigues added, "We continue to expect annual revenue growth and high operating margins."
Risks and Challenges
- Tariffs in North America remain a significant challenge, potentially affecting profitability.
- The distributed generation market has slowed, which could impact future revenue streams.
- Geopolitical tensions and macroeconomic uncertainties pose risks to international operations.
- Supply chain disruptions could affect production timelines and costs.
Q&A
During the earnings call, analysts probed into the integration of Regal Rexnord and its impact on WEG SA’s operations. Questions also focused on the effects of U.S. tariffs and the company’s strategy for expanding transformer capacity. Executives addressed these concerns, highlighting ongoing efforts to mitigate risks and capitalize on growth opportunities in the e-mobility sector.
Full transcript - WEG SA (WEGE3) Q3 2025:
Conference Moderator: Good evening. Welcome to the third quarter 2025 earnings conference call. I would like to highlight that simultaneous translation is available on the platform on the interpretation button via the globe icon at the bottom of your screen. We would like to inform you that this conference call is being streamed live, and the audio will be available afterward on our investor relations website. During the company’s presentation, all participants will be on mute. Following the presentation, we’ll begin the Q&A session. To ask a question, please click on the raise hand icon at the bottom of your screen to join the queue. When announced, a request to unmute your mic will appear on the screen, and then you should activate your mic to ask your question. If you have more than one question, we recommend that you ask them all at once.
If we do not have time to answer all questions live, please feel free to send your question to our email at ri@weg.net, and we’ll answer after completion of our conference call. We would like to emphasize that any forward-looking statements contained in this document or any statements that may be made during the conference call regarding future events, business outlook, operational and financial projections and goals, and WEG’s potential future growth are merely beliefs and expectations of WEG’s management based on currently available information. Forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainties, and therefore depend on circumstances that may or may not occur. Investors should understand that general economic conditions, industry conditions, and other operational factors could affect WEG’s future performance and lead to results that will be materially different from those in the forward-looking statements.
Joining us today from Jaraguá do Sul are André Luiz Rodrigues, Chief Administrative and Financial Officer; André Menegueti Salgueiro, Finance and Investor Relations Officer; and Felipe Scopel Hoffmann, Investor Relations Manager. Please, Mr. André, proceed.
: Bom dia a todos.
Conference Moderator: Good morning, everyone. It’s a pleasure to be with you once again for WEG’s earnings conference call. I’ll begin with the highlights of the quarter on slide 3, where net operating revenue grew 4.2% compared to the third quarter, 2024. In Brazil, performance was driven by solid industrial activity, continued deliveries in transmission and distribution projects, and healthy demand for commercial motors and appliances. Growth was partially offset by a significant year-on-year decline in wind power generation revenue. In the external market, industrial activity remained strong in our main regions of operation, especially in Europe. In the power generation, transmission, and distribution businesses, T&D operations in North America continued to show solid delivery volumes, despite some fluctuations in general project deliveries. Our operating result, measured by EBITDA, reached R$2.3 billion, an increase of 2.3% compared to Q3 2024.
EBITDA margin remained at a very healthy level, closing the quarter at 22.2%. Along the presentation, André Menegueti Salgueiro will provide more details on these points. As for our return on invested capital, one of our main financial indicators, remained at a high level of 32.4%, as we can see in more details on the next slide. Revenue growth and sustained high operating margins contributed to maintaining our return on invested capital at healthy levels, despite a decrease compared to the same period last year. The reduction was mainly due to higher invested capital, driven by investments in fixed assets and acquisitions during the period. It’s important to remember that the ROIC for Q3 2024 was positively impacted by the recognition of non-recurring tax incentives in Q3. Now, I’ll turn the floor over to André Menegueti Salgueiro. Thank you, André. Good morning, everyone.
On slide 5, we show the evolution of net revenue by business area. In Brazil, demand for short-cycle products remained solid, particularly for low-voltage industrial motors and gearboxes across several operating segments. We also observed positive performance in long-cycle equipment deliveries, such as medium-voltage electric motors, especially in the oil and gas and mining sectors, despite an investment environment that remains somewhat restricted. In T&D, the T&D business continued to perform well, driven by deliveries of large transformers and substations. The declining revenue in this area was mainly due to the absence of new wind turbine deliveries, as the pipeline for 2025 had already been anticipated. There was also a reduction in solar generation revenue this quarter, mainly reflecting the completion of large centralized solar generation projects executed over the last three quarters.
In commercial motors and appliances, we continued to deliver positive results, with growth in sales to key segments such as air conditioning, water pumps, and compressors. In coatings and varnishes, sales of our main products remained strong, with notable demand for liquid coatings used in the oil and gas segment. In the external market, short-cycle equipment benefited from continued healthy industrial activity across multiple regions, with an improvement in the European market standing out. For long-cycle equipment, such as high-voltage motors and automation panels, delivery volumes contributed positively, although geopolitical uncertainty continues to weigh on new investment levels. In T&D, we maintained good delivery volumes in T&D operations in North America, despite a lower volume of deliveries in another key region, South Africa.
Revenue moderation in this area was mainly driven by fluctuations in generation project deliveries in Europe and in India, a typical dynamic for this type of business, even with strong performance from the maritime generator operations in the United States and China. In commercial motors and appliances, demand remained positive, particularly in China and North America, along with contributions from Volt electric motor operations in Turkey. In coatings and varnishes, revenue growth was supported by strong performance in Mexico and the recent acquisition of the operations of Heresite Protective Coatings in the United States. Slide 6 shows EBITDA evolution, which grew 2.3%, while EBITDA margin closed the quarter at 22.2%. Although slightly lower than the same period last year, mainly due to higher costs of some raw materials, EBITDA margin remained strong, supported by the current project mix.
Finally, on slide 7, we show the evolution of our investments, which total R$673 million, with 52% in Brazil and 48% abroad. In Brazil, we continue to modernize and expand production capacity in T&D, while increasing capacity and productivity at our Jaraguá do Sul and Linhares sites. Internationally, we continue investments in Mexico, particularly the progress in building the new transformer factory and in the expansion of motor production capacity in China. That concludes my section, and now I’ll hand it back to André. On slide 8, before moving on to the Q&A session, I would like to highlight a few points.
First, during the quarter, we announced several important investments, including a BRL 1.1 billion plan in Santa Catarina to expand the energy unit’s product portfolio and production capacity, and also a $77 million investment in the special transformers plant in Washington, Missouri, and a $160 million investment to further integrate and expand electric motor production at the Linhares unit in Espírito Santo. In September, we also announced a target to address greenhouse gas emissions reduction in Scope 3, in addition to having our Scope 1, 2, and 3 targets for 2030, validated by the Science-Based Targets Initiative. More recently, we announced the acquisition of a controlling stake in Tupinambá Energia, a company with a strong presence in software and services for electric vehicle charging network management, aligned with our strategy presented at the last WEG Day to provide complete solutions for the e-mobility market.
Finally, a few words on our outlook for the remainder of the year. Despite mitigation measures already underway, the geopolitical and macroeconomic environment requires close attention and brings short-term challenges. We remain focused on our investment plan to support growth in Brazil and abroad, both to strengthen our market-mature businesses and to develop opportunities in new markets. Even amid a complex geopolitical backdrop, we continue to expect annual revenue growth and high operating margins, supported by our international presence and diversified product and solutions portfolio. This concludes our presentation, and we can now move on to the Q&A session. We’ll now begin the Q&A session. As a reminder, to ask a question, please click on the raise hand icon at the bottom of your screen to join the queue. When announced, a request to unmute your mic will appear on the screen. You should activate your mic to ask questions.
We kindly ask you that all questions are asked at once. Starting, our first question comes from Lucas Esteves from Santander. Mr. Esteves, you can ask your question. Thanks, everyone. Congratulations on your results. I have two topics that I would like to approach, starting with the results acquired from Regal Rexnord that you did not disclose this quarter. I’d like you to give a bit more color on this business, how it behaved. I ask that because previously you said that you were increasing capacity with generators, so I would like to understand if this is already reversing in an increasing volume and result, or if this is to be seen in the coming quarters. Second question, how WEG S.A. is positioning itself as a solution provider more than an equipment supplier? I ask that because when talking to stakeholders, we hear more and more that WEG S.A.
is offering complete solutions, generator instead of solar panels. All that said, I would like to understand your strategy, if the company is going to position more and more as an OEM to products, if that can expand your market, and if that somehow connects to the company’s strategy to expand its footprint in the aftermarket. Thank you very much. Hi, Lucas. This is André Luiz Rodrigues speaking. Thanks for your questions. It’s a long question. If we forget something, please just remind us of the main points. I will start talking a bit about the integration of Regal Rexnord. It is going on. It is as expected. When we talk about Regal Rexnord, Ameriton, I’m sorry, when we talk about the businesses of Regal Rexnord, we are basically talking about two businesses: low-voltage motors and alternators. For low-voltage motors, we saw an accommodation in the market.
I think the main focus now of the entire industrial team of WEG Motors is gaining synergies in the stage where we are without many investments in terms of verticalization. Optimizations of products, opportunities to reduce costs, all following as expected. The alternators business, as we mentioned on WEG Day, is a business that is developing very well. João Paulo da Silva, right after the acquisition, focused to try and increase capacity the most. We are making investments to increase capacity. This is probably to be completed at the end of this year, beginning of next year, to continue developing the business, giving the markets that demand these equipments and that have contributed positively for this business. Regal Rexnord businesses have a very strong recognized brand in the U.S. market, particularly. Integration of the main areas, we are also evolving relatively well.
We did have a huge challenge in terms of carve-out of systems. We are talking about more than 150 systems. We’re able to develop all the efforts before the deadline of this year that we had with them. Also, in terms of shared services that were provided, especially in the North America region by the Regal Rexnord organization, we also were able, before the deadline, to migrate to our shared service model, which is called WEG Business Services. In this migration, we had especially gains in IT and to bring the business to our model. With this, we had already a reduction of approximately $6 million in annual costs. Consequently, with this, together with all efforts in the industrial area, the good performance of alternators, Regal Rexnord’s margins are improving quarter on quarter. We highlight that it is an integration process that will take four to five years.
The message is positive, and it is following as scheduled. This is Salgueiro speaking. As for your second question, WEG’s model of becoming more and more focused on solutions, this is a reality. This was the main focus of our presentations on WEG Day, the last WEG Day that we held recently. There, we brought three major topics. One, solutions for e-mobility. WEG not only focusing on manufacturing power trains or recharge stations or batteries for buses, but rather being more and more focused on following a complete solution, integrating it all. This comes from the service center that we announced in São Bernardo do Campo for support, and also the acquisition that we recently announced of Tupinambá Energia to complement the ecosystem. We have been working to integrate more and more services and solutions. The three main topics of WEG Day were e-mobility, microgrid, and network reliability.
That is, to have more and more complete solutions for the market, not only focused on the product, but on the whole solutions and how we can help our clients on their journey. Thank you very much, Rodrigues, Salgueiro. Thanks for your answers and have a good day. Moving on, our next question comes from Gabriel Rezende from Itaú BBA. Gabriel, you can activate your mic. Hi, André Luiz Rodrigues, André Menegueti Salgueiro. Good morning. Thanks for taking my questions. I have two questions. First, I would like to understand about the added capacity for transformers in West. I think this is going to be effective by 2026, beginning of 2027, and the markets more and more thinking of what 2027 is going to be like for WEG. Are you selling already the additional capacity that you’re going to have in transformers for 2027? What is your pipeline for transformers?
If you could talk about prices and volumes, that would be very good, especially about the additional capacity. The second question, we have been monitoring yourself and the competitors, and prices are going up in the U.S. because of tariffs and some inflation in the sector. I would like to know if you understand price increases in the U.S. offset loss in competitiveness, or if you could have a drop in volume as price increases take place. Thank you very much. Hi, Gabriel. I’m going to talk a bit about transformers, okay? We have been announcing for some time now, three years, I would say. Every year, a new package of investments of the business, given the demand and how the market is heated in several segments: energy, efficiency, generative, AI.
WEG, by the end of 2023, made a solution, and in the beginning of 2027, we would have double global capacity for WEG in the transformer business. We are following the investment plans unchanged. Whenever we see a new opportunity, we reinforce the plan. We had a recent announcement, the modernization and increase of capacity in the special transformers plant in Missouri, an investment of $77 million. In addition, we have the new plant in Mexico, a new plant in Colombia, increasing capacity in Gravataí, Betim, to use the opportunities in the market. When we have visibility, as we are having now, of the completion of the projects, we start already to have a backlog. The answer is yes, we are building our backlog in all the units where we have visibility of completion.
That is going to be by the first half of 2026 to the end of 2026, for us to seize opportunities as of 2027, perhaps enjoying opportunities in the second half of 2026. As for prices in the U.S., Gabriel, I think the whole process, when the tariffs started to be discussed, made it clear that inflation would happen, not only for WEG, but for the whole American market as a whole. It is just natural in our strategy to try and mitigate impacts, to use our commercial strategy in prices in the U.S. You did say it’s not only WEG, it is WEG and almost all the players in the market. This is a movement, especially the most relevant parts that happened more recently, that we still cannot measure in terms of details of impacts because in practice, it came into force in October.
We have to see how the activity is going to evolve from now on. This is something that we’ll have to monitor in the coming months, how the market will respond to the commercial strategy. Again, it’s not only motors, transformers, or other products. It is the U.S. economic activity as a whole, due to tariffs and the price adjustments that are being made throughout the industry. Very clear. Thank you very much for your answers. Our next question comes from Lucas Marquiori from BTG Pactual. Mr. Marquiori, you may go on. Thanks. I have just one question, but perhaps with some items. Still about tariffs, I was a bit lost in terms of times. Probably you already had an impact of the tariff this quarter.
You are saying that you are having an effort of repricing your product, and then you have the waiver of what was shipped until mid-October. Perhaps the full impact in costs and margins is just going to show in Q4. I would just like to see if my understanding is correct. The full quarter is just going to be in Q4, and how far you are in terms of passing on prices. You mentioned 10% in Q2. Then we said meetings for the next quarter, just to understand how long the curve is. Finally, the passing on costs to balance tariffs. This is something that the whole market changed the price dynamics. If you have a decrease in tariffs, you don’t necessarily have to return that to clients. You can keep it in margin. Do you think this is pending if and if tariffs are renegotiated next year?
Just these questions, but the same topic, tariffs. Thanks for your question, Lucas. I’ll try to answer all the points. The first point, what you mentioned, is correct. We are going to have the full impact in the fourth quarter. We did have some impact in the third quarter, particularly the last month of the quarter, in the month of October, we did have this impact. Throughout this moment, when we had the information of tariffs, we started working on several fronts to mitigate the impact. There is not a silver bullet. You talked about recomposition or realigning prices, WEG’s logistics chain to minimize that, and the company continues to work along these lines. Our expectation for the fourth quarter is to have a greater impact because of the tariffs. Again, we have lots of action plans and initiatives to mitigate the impact.
In the end of the quarter, we are going to have a clearer view of whatever was possible to be mitigated and the impact. As for price realignment, the thing is, we have to know what the market is going to be practicing. I cannot say that this is a given. If the tariffs change, if there is a changing process, a changing dynamics, we have to adjust according to the wind. Okay. Very clear. Thank you very much. Moving on, our next question comes from Alberto Valerio from UBS. Mr. Valerio, you may turn your mic on and go on. Thanks for the opportunity. Good morning, Salgueiro, Rodrigues. A follow-up on tariffs, because we are seeing lots of news on WEG S.A. suiting its capacity in Mexico, United States, Brazil, Mexico. What is missing in Brazil for WEG S.A. to eliminate 100% of its tariffs?
That is, not producing anything in Brazil to be exported to the U.S. Second question, the exposure of bus in WEG S.A. There is an auction now in December, another larger auction for June next year. What should we expect from WEG S.A. for 2026? Thank you. Hi, Alberto. Thanks for your questions. One point that is very important to reinforce is the investments that WEG S.A. is making in the U.S. Along the recent years, the revenue that is produced and generated in the U.S. is increasing, and WEG S.A. is doing that in transformers alone. We expanded in the last five years our two existing plants. We had a greenfield project. We are renovating a new one and increasing capacity. Added to everything we mentioned, restructuring logistic chains and other initiatives that we are talking about, also the increase in capacity in the U.S.
will help us to minimize the impact. Alberto, as for bus, we did show on WEG Day our solutions for microgrid, even home use, the monogrid, industrial use, commercial, agribusiness, until getting to bus. It’s important to mention that WEG S.A. has a full portfolio today of products to serve the different segments, and we have been working very hard in this project of a small, medium size, which is a good market demand. To give an estimate for the next years, perhaps it’s too early because that depends on the development of the market from now on. You did mention two important things, the auctions that are expected to happen this year and next year, and indeed, if they do happen, they may be a very interesting opportunity, much greater than we have today. Because today, opportunities are concentrated on mid-sized projects.
We are seeing people wanting projects, perhaps at a greater scale than we are having, but different from utility projects, which are the large projects that generally take place. If the auctions happen, that can change the market as a whole can grow, and that will depend on how much WEG is going to capture up this market along the next years. Very good. Thank you very much. Moving on, our next question comes from Rogério Araújo from Bank of America. Rogério Araújo, you may go on. Hello, good morning, André Menegueti Salgueiro. Thanks for the opportunity. I have two questions on my side. The first is the external GTD revenue. It did go down despite the favorable T&D movement. We did some accounts with transformers in North America, some assumptions considering the revenue of generation abroad. It may have dropped from 30% to 50% year on year.
Does it make sense? Are our accounts correct? If you could talk about the deliveries in the past, until when this comparison basis is going to be capped? This is my first question. Second, about margins. I do not recall if it was one or two quarters ago. You said if it weren’t for the renewables mix, especially solar farms, margin would have gone up. Now the mix is down, especially solar farms, and the margin did not really show the difference. I would like to know what hurt you. You did talk about tariffs affecting October. Was it this? Any other factors? Just for us to understand margins in the short term. Thank you very much. Hello, Rogério. This is Salgueiro speaking. Thanks for your question. I’ll answer the first, GTD in the foreign market, and then André is going to talk about margins.
We don’t break down in our releases. What I can say is that indeed, generation did have a significant drop this quarter, especially because of a somewhat weaker performance in the joint venture that we have in Europe compared to last year. That, especially for the fact that we did have some important projects and concentration of deliveries last year that were not replicated this year. Also because of a reduction of revenue in generation in Asia-Pacific, especially for projects that are served by the Indian operation. We did mention that in our release. I don’t know if it was 100% clear, but in T&D, the quarter was slightly different. T&D had been growing in all operations in the external market. This quarter, we continue with positive performance in T&D.
North America continues with good performance, but in Africa, it did have a drop in revenue in the quarter because of some large transformers that we delivered last year and that these projects were not replicated this year. There is an effect of a lower growth in GTD, the external market in generation, but also a portion of T&D in Africa. What is doing well, positive, without changes is T&D, North America, and Colombia, altogether in this context. Rogério, about margins, you were right. I think it was in the first quarter that we broke down how much margin we would have consolidated, excluding that movement that started in the last quarter last year about solar farms and continued in the first and second quarter. I don’t recall exactly the amount, but we can talk about that later on.
We did mention that, and it is in the transcription of our last calls. I think it was the first quarter. Undoubtedly, what we see in terms of margin behavior, it is according to expected. We expected a first half a bit more pressure because of the product mix. As the product mix with solars went down, the margin will improve, and it is improving. If you get year-to-date margins of WEG, it is within expectation to fluctuate between what we had in 2023 and 2024. Remember that when we are monitoring margins, we cannot talk about one quarter. This is very complicated because we have several business dynamics and everything. For instance, we did have the impact of the tariffs this quarter, not all action plans to mitigate that in place.
What we saw this quarter compared to what we had last year, and perhaps it is a bit of the result of the margins, is that there was a bit of an increase in prices of the main raw materials, especially steel and copper, which also impacted the margin of the quarter. Again, I would like to stress that margins are improving quarter on quarter as expected, and we want to believe that it’s going to be fluctuating between what we had in the last two years. Very clear, gentlemen. Thank you. Our next question comes from Lucas Laghi from XP Investments. Mr. Laghi? Good morning, Rodrigues, Salgueiro, Felipe. Thanks for taking my question. I have two. Thinking about the GRE performance, I think it was the highlight of performance this quarter. I would like to know your dynamics for external markets, especially in the U.S. Any concentrated delivery?
Any anticipation of purchases because of tariffs? Anything out of the ordinary? Thinking of industrial activity as a whole, when I take a look at the release of your competitors, you see a backlog that is very strong in the third quarter from the U.S. In the U.S., some segments are doing very well. Others are doing poorly. I would like to understand if you could have an acceleration of revenues driven by the U.S. Try and understand how you see industrial activity as a whole, especially the U.S. For internal GTD, and perhaps that was the downside in terms of revenues, especially because of the drop in solar, as you had mentioned. Just to understand if we are already on a normal level, or if you think that you can still have a decline in solar. How are things going on in GV residential, other?
Do you think that one-third would be in T&D? I know that things are changing with solar, but how would you consider the internal GTD? Basically, external GTD and internal GTD. That’s my question. Hi, Lucas. Good morning. This is Salgueiro. Thanks for your questions. As for industrial electronic equipment, first, I would like to reinforce that we did see the market resuming. That’s the upside. Brazil grew by 3.3%. We do see also growth in the external market of 7.1% in reais and even stronger in dollars, almost 9%. That shows a market and an industrial activity that’s quite interesting. That is reflected in our numbers. We did highlight the performance of Europe. I think it was the main highlight in terms of recovery because Europe was a region that was not doing well in recent quarters. As of this quarter, we did see significant improvement.
That’s an important point to highlight. In the U.S., the U.S. has a bit of a different dynamic because of tariffs and everything that we have discussed before. Also, the performance of industrial activity, especially with motors and projects, is going on. It’s happening, not at the same pace as before. We did mention in the call last year that the decision of new investment was on hold. With the dynamics, we still do not see a major change. An important point that you did mention, and we can talk about that, is that when you see orders coming, the performance is better than in the past, which shows that we might have for the future an industrial activity in the external market with a more positive dynamic. Here, considering all regions and also the U.S.
When we talk about GTD in the domestic market, you did mention two important points that justify the drop: the wind power, because we already knew that there was a lack of new projects, and that continues. The news this quarter that we tried to adjust to you in the comments of last call is that solar would be weaker in the second half of the year, especially for the fact that we no longer had the GC projects. That was the main reason. When we look into the performance of the third quarter compared to the second quarter, this is clear. When we compare the third quarter and third quarter, that’s not so relevant because in the third quarter last year, we didn’t have these projects. They started in the fourth quarter. That’s interesting.
Considering your question, when you look into the future, we do have a challenge for the fourth quarter, which is when we started centralized generation a bit stronger, and we don’t have the projects this year. Another point is that the GTD market, distributed generation, is not heated either. We do have projects. They are evolving, but at a pace that’s slightly slower than in the past. Putting together the factors, we have a solar dynamic already reflected this quarter with a weaker performance and expectation. Because of the comparison base of centralized generation of last year, this movement can be even accelerated in the fourth quarter. Very good. Thank you very much, Salgueiro. Our next question comes from André Mazini from Citi. Mr. Mazini, you may go on. Hello, Rodrigues, Salgueiro. Thanks for taking my question.
My question is about the competitive scenario with the acquisition of 50% of Prolec. In yesterday’s call of Javanova, they talked about commercial synergies. Do you think that changes anything in the North American market? Also in the call, they said 20% of the orders of Prolec come from hyperscalers and data centers. If you would have an estimate of how much T&D orders in the foreign market come from this type of customer. Finally, a follow-up of the last question. I don’t know if you did mention that there was a rebuy. I didn’t understand that. That’s it. Hi, André. Thanks for your question. Competitive scenario, what we saw yesterday, I think does not change much. It’s a competitor that has already been in the market. They are just acquiring the remainder of the business. We know that everyone is making investments to expand capacity and to enjoy demand.
WEG positioned itself in the past. We believe that we started before the competition if we compare most of the competitors. We also understand that in 2026, we are going to be one of the first in the main markets to add this new capacity. As for supply to data centers, the number that you mentioned to WEG is very close to that in the U.S. Again, we do not see major changes considering the competition. I did not understand the second part of your question. Of course, it’s another topic. If there was a pre-buy in the third quarter in EEI, given the tariffs, if there was a pre-buy, if people advanced their orders. Hi, Mazini. This is Salgueiro. We cannot say that. The increase in tariffs started in the beginning of the year. The discussions and more concrete effects started with the 10%. Then we had the 50%.
It is important to reinforce that the 50% was specific to Brazil. Obviously, people know that WEG is a Brazilian company. It is based in Brazil, but it is very specific with its dynamics with local players. It can provide motors from different countries, Mexico, Asia. We cannot say that this movement was relevant or if there was a significant effect on the third quarter. Thank you very much. Our next question comes from Marcelo Motta from JP Morgan. Marcelo, thank you. Good morning, everyone. I have two questions. First, a follow-up on tariffs. We have a meeting of Trump-Lula this weekend. We do not know if it’s going to happen. Do you see anything? I do not know, considering information from the Ministry of Industry, what kind of a lobby is going on? Do you have backstage information for something that we should look into?
Also, your effective tax rate along the year, it has been going down. 15% was the top compared to the 7.5%. Do you think that this rate is going to continue to go down, or it was just something that happened this quarter? Just to understand its curve because it’s now below what it was last year. Thanks for your questions, Motta. We would love to have some additional information. Unfortunately, we are also following the information with the same channels that you have. When there is an opportunity to sit down and negotiate, we see it as a good sign. We hope that when it happens, when the meeting happens, it will help all of us to try and decrease tariffs to a more reasonable level. As for the effective rate, we always say that this is a number that will continue to fluctuate quarter on quarter.
It’s natural that it happens, especially because of the mix of results that are generated in Brazil compared to what is generated in other regions. I think that’s very important to say. When we compare it to last year, there are two effects. One, it is a better use of interest on equity for two reasons. We had an increase in our profit and loss. We had a capitalization this year, and also an increase of PJLP, which is the rate that we use to calculate interest on equity. In addition to that, we had the mix of growing results in the external market compared to Brazil, which also contributed to the positive fluctuation. For the future, once again, fluctuations are part of the day-to-day. From what we understand, consider PJLP and others, we don’t think we are going to have any significant change, at least in the short term.
In the mid-long term, it is hard to elaborate because there are too many variables, too many discussions going on that may change assumptions. In the future, the scenario can change. We do not expect major changes when we consider this year, beginning of next year, more of the short term. Thank you very much. Moving on, our next question comes from Pedro Martins from Bradesco BBI. Mr. Martins? Good morning, everyone. Thanks for taking my question. It’s Daniel Fedemi from Bradesco asking. My question is about EI, especially long cycles. It seems that past portfolios contributed to revenues, but sales are weaker at the front end. My question is, should we expect a drop in long cycle products for the coming quarters? How long does it take from weaker orders to generate weaker revenues?
The second question related to that, should we see a weakness in long cycle products as an indicator of what’s going to happen in short cycles? That is, the projects that are not happening right now would generate for the future a drop in short cycle products. Hi, Daniel. Thanks for your questions. You are correct. When we look into projects, considering Brazil and also the external market, we do see an environment in which products are running at a slightly lower level than what we had in the recent past. Abroad, more concentrated in the United States because of uncertainties related to tariffs. We did mention that in the last call, we were feeling that clients were postponing projects. In Brazil, because of higher interest rates, some markets, and remember, projects, sometimes they are connected to commodity cycles.
We had a very important cycle of investments in pulp and paper two or three years ago. It went down. We are seeing some projects being resumed. Mining continues to be okay. We had a drop. We’re seeing now some resumption. It depends on the dynamic of each of the markets. When we talk about leading indicators, generally, the normal cycle is to see a deceleration in the demand of short cycle that will impact in long cycle projects. Quite often, when long cycle projects are being impacted, we see a resumption in short cycle. I did mention that the coming of orders in short cycle gives us positive signs for Brazil and the external market. We already see a resumption in a short cycle. Eventually, we can see a resumption of projects for the coming quarters.
We cannot say that because we still do not have hard numbers on that. Perhaps the natural cycle would be like this. Let’s wait and see. We are going to give you updates as months go by to see if the demand and the long cycle portfolio starts to respond to what we are seeing in recent quarters. Thank you very much. We are now closing our Q&A session. Remember, if you have any more questions, you can send your questions to our email, ri@weg.net. I’m going to turn to André Luiz Rodrigues for his final remarks. Mr. Rodrigues, once again, thank you so much for attending. I wish you all an excellent day. The WEG S.A. conference call is now concluded. We thank you for your attendance and wish you a good day.
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