Abstract:
This essay analyses the process of concentrating
production in a small number of firms in the heavy
construction sector during the final period of the
Brazilian civil-military dictatorship (1964-1985), as
will as the process of diversification of the activities
of those firms during the same period. Drawing
on a Marxian theoretical framework to analyze
this process, this double movement is seen as a
centralization of capital and also as a search for
sectors with the highest profit rates, due to the
reduction of profit margins in the construction
sector as a result of stabilization and the reduction
of government investment in public works. During
the transition from the 1970s to the 1980s we see
the formation of an oligopoly in that market and
the beginnings of a process of expansion in the
activities of those business groups, which gives
rise to the consolidation of large and diversified
business conglomerates.
Keywords: Construction firms. Civil-military
dictatorship. Heavy construction.
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