JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015 - 32

Brazil, country guest of honor

Brazilian composites sector revenue
remained stable in 2014
The growth of the world's 6th largest economy was disappointing
in 2014 with a decline in household spending, industrial activity and
investments, but the country should show a modest recovery in
2015. Within this context, and as Brazil is the featured country at JEC
Americas 2015, we focused on the composites sector and talked to
ALMACO, the Latin American Association of Composites Materials, to
find out more.

T

he Brazilian composites sector
revenue totalled US$ 1.202 billion in
2014, down 0.1% compared to the
performance in 2013. In terms of volume,
the decline was more intense; last year,
composite moulders consumed 2% less raw
materials, totalling 206,000 tons. These figures are part of the latest survey conducted
by Maxiquim, a consulting firm hired by
ALMACO.

A dull context
"We experienced interruptions and delays
in infrastructure investments from the
federal government, which were added
to the drastic fall in the transportation
segment and the lack of creativity and innovative power of the composites sector. As

interview

for the revenue, some factors sustained this
close tie with 2013, such as the generalized
increase in costs and the uncontrolled price
increase charged by fibreglass manufacturers," said Gilmar Lima, president of
ALMACO. With a 51% share in 2014, the
construction industry remained in the top
ranking of the main consumers of polyester composites, ahead of transportation
(15%), corrosion (12%) and sanitation
(5%), among others - totalling 151,200
tons. On the other hand, wind power generation accounted for 90% of the demand
for epoxy-based composites. The oil market
ranked second, with 5%. In total, 54,800
tons were processed.

A 2,4% revenue increase
For 2015, Maxiquim estimates a 2.4%
revenue increase in the sector represented
JEC Composites Magazine: What motivated
the launch of this new event, given that
Brazil already has a trade show dedicated to
composite materials?

Gilmar Lima: We want to create so-

Gilmar LIMA
President
Almaco

mething new, provide a new perspective for
the composites segment, and simply show
that we can notice the different applications
in our daily lives just by walking down the
streets of a city. In addition, we want to turn
this new concept into a new way to learn and
create opportunities for our market.

32 jec composites magazine / No97 May - June 2015

by ALMACO, totalling US$ 1.231 billion,
with the consumption of 207,000 tons
of raw materials (+0.5%). Even with the
expectation of a bad year, some projects
that benefit composites can no longer be
postponed, such as those to be conducted to mitigate water and energy supply
problems. For the first quarter, the study
estimates a revenue of US$ 327 million,
4.5% higher than the first three months of
2014.

Innovations and trends
The main innovations launched over the
past months include electric poles, modular
constructions, a recycled composite wall,
an environmentally-sustainable ATM
booth, an RTM skin process for wind
turbine blades, etc. The most significant
trends are the growth of carbon fibre
JCM: Compocity 2015 will be the second
large-scale session of this type after the
one in 2012, and the fourth if you count
Plaztech's Mini-Compocities in Brazil and
at ColombiaPlast in Colombia.
What is your return on experience from
these past events?

G.L. : This new concept was a big attraction

in all these events, which generated comments, good ideas and innovations, and led
to business deals. In Latin America, the use
of composites and engineering plastics is still
JEC COMPOSITES MAGAZINE - Issue #97 - Special JEC Americas - May/June 2015

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