Investments by Brazilian railway operator America Latina Logistica are set to grow to 1 billion reais ($570 million) in 2010, with its business little-affected by the global economic crisis, Chief Executive Bernardo Hees.

"Last year, we grew, we hired more people and we invested around 690 million reais," Hees said at the Reuters Latin American Investment Summit in Sao Paulo. "There aren't a lot of companies that can say that about 2009."

Brazil's railway sector has improved significantly since the government privatized the dilapidated national system in the late 1990s. Still, the railway network remains limited, forcing many exporters to transport goods by truck across a vast country with poor roads in many states.

"When we first took over the southern railways, 70 percent of it was inoperable," said Hees, 40, who was trained as a locomotive conductor and occasionally drives freight trains.

"It took a lot of investment to get the system up and running. Now we are going to focus on improving productivity. Then we will look at extending our tracks," he said. ALL, as the company is widely known, is in talks with Brazilian mining giant Vale to transport up to 20 million tons of iron ore from its Corumba mine in the state of Mato Grosso do Sul, said Hees, who has been CEO for five years.

ALL aims to increase tonnage moved on its existing railway tracks fivefold before it invests in expanding its network, he added. (Reuters)