Brazilian powered access, formwork and scaffolding company Mills Estruturas e Serviços de Engenharia (Mills) said the demand for equipment had increased in the third quarter as construction activity recovered in the country.

Despite enormous investments in its equipment fleet Mills reported that utilisation rates at its Heavy Construction division had recovered to around 75%. It said progress on work already begun and an "unprecedented volume of construction work in the pipeline" would allow it to maintain these utilisation rates.

The company reported revenues for the three months to 30 September of R$175.1 million, an increase of 17.6%, with net profits down 16% to R$23.8 million.

The best performing divisions where its Jahu and Rental divisions, where equipment rental revenues increased year-on-year by 77.1% and 59.3%, respectively. These two divisions received more than 80% of all R$411.5 million investment in the first nine months of the year and new branches at the two divisions represented almost half of all sales.

The Rental division rents aerial platforms and telehandlers, while Jahu rents scaffolding, shoring and formwork to the housebuilding and non-residential construction sectors.

Mills' Heavy Construction division, which provides scaffolding, shoring and formwork equipment for large civil engineering projects, saw a drop in revenues of 16.5% compared to the third quarter of 2010. This division is now seeing increased demand following a reduction in activity after the third quarter last year.

The Industrial services division, which rents scaffolding to industrial clients, including the oil and gas sector, saw revenues up 8.4%.