International Coatings Scene
LATIN AMERICA
BY CHARLES W. THURSTON
LATIN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT
THURSTONCW@RODPUB.COM
Rohm & Haas opens $20 million
Mexico plant
Rohm & Haas
increases
production
in the Latin
America
region.
Rohm & Haas has recently opened a
$20 million emulsion polymers
and polyacrylates manufacturing
plant in Santiago de Querétaro, in
Mexico’s Querétaro state, replacing an
older facility at Apizaco with dated technology. The new facility embodies the
company’s Vision 2010 plan for the Latin
American region, including best technology and lowest cost base. Dow Chemical,
which on July 10 purchased Rohm &
Haas, plans to operate the company as an
independent subsidiary.
The Querétaro facility will have approximately 100 employees. In June, the parent
company announced a workforce reduction
of up to 140 jobs from locations near
Philadelphia and in Delaware.
The new plant is designed to provide
Mexico, the Andean countries, Central
America and the Caribbean with a high performance technology and services center, as
well as with paints, coatings and additives.
The plant will also supply some materials
to the U.S. Located about 120 miles north of
Mexico City in the Parque Industrial
Querétaro industrial park, the new plant is
adjacent to Mexico’s Highway 57, the country’s primary trucking artery running north
and south.
Rohm & Haas has been ramping up
domestic Mexico sales and regional export
sales rapidly over the past few years, and
expectations are for sales growth of
between 10-15% over the coming year,
according to Jose Maria Bermudez, the
company’s Latin America regional vice
president and general manager for paint
and coatings. In 2007, the company had
total sales of $138 million in Mexico, and
demand has been up approximately 15%
over the first half of 2008, according to comments to the press by Mauro Trevisani, the
general manager of Rohm & Haas México,
at the plant opening. Expectations are that
sales will double by 2010, another company
official noted.
Rohm & Haas produces paints, coatings
and a range of additives, including biocides,
dispersants, opacifiers and rheology modifiers. According to statements attributed to
César Soto Aguilar, the marketing manager
for the company, an additional $5 million to
$7 million will be spent over the next five
years to improve production of resins and
biocides at the Querétaro plant.
Rohm and Haas also has manufacturing
facilities in Argentina, Brazil and Colombia.
The Brazilian operations generated approximately $100 million in sales in 2007,
according to one Sao Paulo report, which
also indicated that Rohm & Haas was considering a Latin American paint and coatings acquisition over the near term. Sales in
Latin America have been boosted by the
housing shortage and by the rising per capita GDP growth.
Mexico’s economy is growing much faster
than the U.S. economy, and new calculations
on the size of the gross domestic product place
it at nearly $1 trillion as of January 1, according to Banamex and UBS Pactual. The adjustment in the calculations are likely to boost
the current estimate for GDP expansion of
three percent this year. The Mexican paint
market generally expands faster than overall
GDP. In contrast, the company predicted that
the U.S. paint market is likely to contract by
at least seven percent this year, following a
similar contraction in 2007. CW
