Sales of nitrocellulose by company Nitro QuÀmica, a subsidiary of Votorantim Group, to the Arab market are posting solid growth. This year shipments totaled 2,837 tons, against 949 last year. From one year to the next, sales tripled.
If compared to 2006, when shipments totaled 693 tons, the 2008 growth was fourfold. "In 2009, we believe that our sales should be even greater, despite the crisis," said the international market manager at the company, Ricardo Colla.
Nitro Química has already been present in the Arab market for six years and is winning more and more clients in the region. Currently, nitrocellulose, which is a synthetic resin used in vehicle painting, wood finishing, printing ink and nail varnish, among others, is exported to Morocco, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Tunisia, Lebanon and Kuwait, as well as another 60 countries.
According to the manager, the Arab nations are considered a strategic market for the company. "It is a strategic market and a hard one as our main competitors, Europeans and Asians, also operate there, but we have fortresses that cause us to believe in further growth in coming years," said Colla, who travels to the Middle East three times a year.
To win new clients in the region, Colla has been participating in fairs in the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, which is not an Arab country, but is located in the Middle East. Currently, the Arab market represents 12% of company exports and to increase this participation, the organization should continue investing in trips to the Arab countries.
In March 2009, Egypt should be the next stop of Colla, where the company should participate in the Middle East Coatings Show, an equipment and raw material fair for the coating industry.
In March this year, Colla participated in the same event in Dubai. "At the fair in the Emirates we managed to open other accounts in countries we did not yet export to," said the manager, who hopes to return to exporting to the Emirates, which stopped buying from the company in 2006, and also to win new clients in countries like Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, Oman and Algeria.
Established in 1935, in São Paulo, and in operation since 1937, the company was officially inaugurated by then Brazilian president Getúlio Vargas. The organization grew with the greater demand for Brazilian products, as a consequence of the shortages caused by the Second World War. In the 1940s, the company became the largest 100% Brazilian base chemical company.
Currently, Nitro Química employs 500 people and produces 35,000 tons of nitrocellulose a year, of which 70% is turned to the foreign market. Apart from nitrocellulose, the company produces fluorides and sulphuric acid.
Nitro Química belongs to Votorantim Group, one of the largest business conglomerates in Latin America, with 60,000 employees and eight business units.
Votorantim Group has operations in the cement and concrete market, mining and metallurgy (aluminum, zinc, nickel and steel), pulp and paper, concentrated orange juice, chemical specialties, self-generation of electric energy and financial sector, with Votorantim Bank, and also in investment in biotechnology and information technology organizations.
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Nitro Química
Website: www.nitroquimica.com.br
