Latin America
by Charles W. Thurston
Latin America Correspondent
thurstoncw@rodmanmedia.com
Arkema is augmenting its Brazilian investment this year in production technology at its recently acquired
plant in Araçariguama, in Sao Paulo state,
with plans to offer more of the companies’
global portfolio to customers in Brazil from
local production. The company has already
completed quality control upgrades at the
plant, acquired in mid-2012, and is in the
middle of installing a new technical service laboratory, said Eric Kaiser, Arkema
Coatings Resins’ business director for the
Americas, based in Cary, North Carolina.
The new investments will help the
company offer more domestically-pro-duced rheology additives and waterborne
emulsions, which are substantially taxed
as imports in Brazil. While Arkema declines to cite the dollar value of its existing or planned investments in Brazil, the
acquisition was expected to contribute
some $20 million per year to subsidiary Coatex. “South American sales in
2013 were three to four percent of our
total global sales, and I do see that number growing,” said Kaiser. The company
books Central American and Caribbean
sales within its North America numbers.
At the same time that Arkema’s new
facility has established local production
in Brazil for both Coatex and Arkema
Coating Resins, the company’s coatings
resins business also is expanding into
other new markets in Latin America. In
late November, Arkema forged a strategic alliance with Miami-based Andes
Chemicals for the distribution of Arkema
products in the Andean region, as well as
in Central America and the Caribbean.
“We see that certain countries in the
Andean region, like Peru, have an attractive
growth rate, and the region as a whole has a
good growth rate, so an important first step
for us was to establish a strong partnership
with someone who can take our product to
market there,” said Kaiser.
In 2013, Peru’s gross domestic prod-
uct expansion was the third fastest in
Latin America, at 5.2 percent, following
neighboring Andean nation Bolivia at
6. 4 percent, and Paraguay at a stunning
13 percent. The Latin American regional
growth rate last year was 2.6 percent, ac-
cording to the United Nations’ Economic
Commission for Latin America and the
Caribbean (ECLAC).
“The Andean region could be a hot mar-
ket over the next few years, and Peru will
lead growth for the region,” said Mauro
Trevisani, the chief operating officer for
Andes Chemical, based in Miami. “That is
why last year we opened a subsidiary includ-
ing a warehouse in Lima; a lot is going on
there in terms of infrastructure,” he noted.
Arkema expects to serve the
Andean countries from its U.S. grid of
manufacturing primarily, since cross-
continental logistics west from Brazil are
difficult given the Amazon and the Andes
mountains. “Having both east coast
and west coast operations in the United
States gives us the option of serving South
America either from the United States or
from Brazil. Arkema coatings resins sup-
plied to clients in Brazil now are largely
those being produced within the country.
Arkema’s PVDF, a paint additive with
broad functionality enhancement and in-
creasing demand, is marketed under the
Kynar brand, and is among the company’s
higher performance products gaining mar-
ket share in Latin America. Among polyac-
rylate dispersing agents, Coatex markets the
Ecodis and Coadis brands; among acrylic
water-based paint thickeners, it markets the
Rheotech, Thixol and Viscoatex brands.
Coapur is the company’s polyurethane-
based thickener brand. CW
Arkema Increases Investments in Brazil
