Arkema Adds Premium Acrylic Capacity in Brazil
by Charles W. Thurston
Latin America Correspondent
thurstoncw@rodmanmedia.com
Arkema is boosting its production of premium acrylic resin products by 60 percent for paints and coatings manufacturers in Brazil, “both to serve the growing
domestic demand for premium level paints and
to serve the Southern Cone export markets,”
said Carlos Lion, the marketing manager for
the company’s coatings resins in South America,
based in Sao Paulo.
While the company declined to enumerate
the value of the investment, products that will
be included in the new lines include: acrylic,
styrene acrylic, vinyl acrylic and polyvinyl acetate. The plant is located at Araçariguama, in
Sao Paulo state, about 40 miles from the capital
city of Sao Paulo.
One reason for the investment in domestic
production is the avoidance of a mix of taxes on imported paint products that can reach
24 percent, noted Lion. Another reason was
scarcity of high-quality product in the local
market, he said. Brazil’s growing middle class
has spurred sales of high quality products to
growth rates beyond those of lower quality and
middle-quality paints. The rising labor cost in
Brazil also has skewed preferences for paints
toward products that will cover with one coat
rather than successive coats.
Although the economy of Brazil is expected to
contract by one percent this year, compared with
0.1 percent positive growth last year, the second
semester is expected to be better for the paint
industry than the current semester, Lion noted.
Brazil’s currency, the real, has dropped 14 percent
against the U.S. dollar this year, an 11-year low
in value. This foreign exchange dynamic also has
made imported paint materials more expensive.
Arkema plans to begin exports of its acrylic resins to the surrounding Southern Cone
countries of Argentina, Chile, Paraguay and
Uruguay within two or three months, Lion observed. Brazil is a member of the regional trade
bloc, which precludes import taxes on member
country products.
Apart from the production increase,
Arkema also has made investments in areas
of logistics and shipping, storage and filtra-
tion to further enhance its marketing ca-
pability. At the time of the new production
announcement, Eric Schmitt, the president of
Arkema Quimica Ltda. Brazil, said, “These
improvements will enable us to begin mi-
grating production capabilities and product
lines currently available in other parts of the
world to the facility in Brazil. We can now
provide customers local manufacturing of in-
novative, market-leading products, produced
in a modern, automated facility with a focus
on consistent, repeatable quality, and envi-
ronmental responsibility.”
The consuming business of the new capac-
ity production include “architectural coatings,
industrial coatings, pressure sensitive adhesives
and construction adhesives, textiles, sealants
and waterproofing membranes,” the company
said. Among new products that will be mar-
keted in Brazil and the region as a result of the
new capacity are Encor 265 BR, a “high scrub-
bing styrene acrylic resin for use in architec-
tural coatings,” and Encor DT 211 BR, a “100
percent acrylic ideally suited for fast-dry traffic
paints,” Arkema noted.
The Araçariguama plant produces a “wide
range of low-VOC (volatile organic compound)
resin technologies including waterborne emulsions and binders, high solids and high performance coating additives for formulators of
architectural coatings, industrial finishes, construction products, traffic paints, sealants and
adhesive products,” the company indicated. CW
Arkema is
boosting
production of
premium acrylic
resin products
by 60 percent
for paints
and coatings
manufacturers in
Brazil.
