APLA ’08: Quattor provides ray of hope in 2009

18 November 2008 16:46  [Source: ICIS news]

By George Martin

RIO DE JANEIRO (ICIS news)--Brazil’s Quattor remains optimistic about its chances of achieving some growth in 2009, although it was possible that figures would not reach 2008 levels, a company official said on Tuesday.

In one of the few optimistic scenarios encountered at the 28th Latin American Petrochemical Annual Meeting (APLA), polypropylene (PP) marketing manager Gustavo Sampaio de Souza said he expects Quattor to close this year with a 5% growth, with preliminary estimates for 2009 at 3%.

Quattor plants were running at 90% capacity in November to account for slower domestic demand and a reduction of exports due to price volatility.

Domestic prices have been steady in Brazilian currency, but it was acknowledged that prices were trending down due to steep declines in feedstock prices and an abundance of foreign alternatives.

Quattor exports about 20% of its production, but that figure was estimated to be in November anywhere between 15% and 20%, De Souza said.

The crisis in the global financial markets has prompted Quattor to slow down plans to build new capacity.

Quattor is close to completing a reais (R) 2bn ($880m) investment programme, involving capacity additions for ethylene, polyethylene (PE), polypropylene (PP) and cumene, and no further investments have been approved.

Quattor’s current expansion programme includes construction of a 250,000 tonne/year PE plant in Santo Andre, Sao Paulo state.

Quattor was created in June 2008 following a major restructuring of the country's chemicals sector.

The creation of Quattor, owned 60:40 by chemical and petrochemical group Unipar and state-owned energy group Petrobras, brings together nine production plants in the Brazilian states of Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo and Bahia.

The three-day conference ends on Tuesday.

($1 = €0.79/$1 = R2.29)

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By: George Martin
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