Brazil has suffered a decline in GDP over the last two years
of more than 3.5% each year, although 2017 has started with a
slight gain in GDP and a decrease in inflation, which averaged
8.77% last year.
“Economically, the region’s largest economies - Brazil,
Mexico and Argentina - are the main drivers behind the Q1 im-
provement,” said Sergio Pera, director of Toyo Ink Brasil Ltda.
“The one bright spot has been packaging, a sector that is rela-
tively immune to recession. Consumers are going to eat, in good
times or bad. As such, Toyo Ink continues to build up its portfo-
lio of innovative packaging solutions that are manufactured in
Brazil and customized to the needs of the region.”
Sun Chemical is among the ink industry leaders in Brazil, and
the company. Fernando Tavara, president, Sun Chemical Latin
America, said the company recently opened a color center in São
Paulo, Brazil, and while Sun Chemical has seen positive growth
in Latin America during the past year, there is currently a lot of
uncertainty throughout the region.
“Latin America is a vast area with big differences between
countries and economies,” Tavera continued. “Brazil, for exam-
ple, which in the first quarter of 2017 had shown some initial
signals of recovery after two years of heavy economic contrac-
tion, has been plagued by ongoing political challenges and may
continue to languish in recession. It is hard to predict how Brazil
will fare over the next year.”
“For Siegwerk, Brazil is recovering from a difficult 2016,”
said Pablo Paduani, VP and BU head Flexible Packaging
LATAM. He added that Siegwerk saw strong growth in the con-
sumption of UV inks for short-runs, customized applications
and high-end packaging which will further drive our business in
the ink industry in the region.
Alex Garcia, director of business development for INX
International Ink Co., reported that the Brazilian digital printing industry is growing. “As always, with digital printing Brazil
leads the market in growth,” Garcia observed.
Ink manufacturers see strong opportunities ahead for Brazil
and Latin America.
“Sun Chemical expects the Latin America market to continue to grow despite the uncertainty in the region, and as a
company we’re well prepared to support the growing plans of
our customers with local operations in each and every country
of Latin America,” Tavera said.
“The long-term growth prospect for Latin and South
America remains strong, marked by growing populations, expanding middle class and rising urbanization,” Pera said.
“For Siegwerk, the LATAM region is one of the company’s
growth regions in which it is investing continuously to expand its
local capacities and offerings,” said Paduani. “We will continue investing in infrastructure and development our local competencies in
our facilities in Mexico, Brazil and the whole southern region.” CW
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