InterviewBrazil resins market to grow over 10% in 2010 - analyst

27 April 2010 21:06  [Source: ICIS news]

By Hellen Berger

SAO PAULO (ICIS news)--Sales of resins in Brazil are expected to increase over 10% in 2010 because of better-than-expected domestic demand and increased local industrial production, a Brazil petrochemical analyst said on Tuesday.

“Our projections for 2010 are set at a growth rate of over 10% compared with the year before, and the figure could be even higher considering the positive scenario we are expecting for the economy this year,” said Walter de Vitto, petrochemical analyst for Sao Paulo-based consulting firm Tendencias Consultoria Integrada.

Tendencias data revealed that sales dipped 7.6% in 2009 year over year, largely resulting from the global financial crisis.  

In February 2009, Brazil’s chemical industry association Abiquim stopped giving figures on domestic sales of thermoplastic resins. Since then, the petrochemical market struggled with a gap in calculating the development of resins sales in the country, de Vitto said.

“We decided to make all the possible calculations ourselves and developed our own index to measure the market changes,” said de Vitto, who spoke in Portuguese.        

The positive outlook was because of increasing domestic industrial production, which would tend to follow local demand for thermoplastic resins as well as new investments being made, he noted.

“Resins are used as feedstock for the production of plastics and Brazil’s economy [signals] increased demand of those materials due to stimulus plans for the sector being promoted by the Brazilian government,” de Vitto said.

Examples of sectors and materials that would be stimulated, according to de Vitto, were polyvinyl chloride (PVC) - resulting from the massive construction of low income homes - and the auto industry, because of recent tax breaks.

“On top of that, the incomes of most Brazilians continue on the rise and the domestic economy is thriving again, with more optimistic scenario and projections ahead,” said de Vitto.

According to Tendencias, total industrial production in Brazil was expected to expand by as much as 9% in 2010 compared with the year before, while Brazil’s gross domestic product (GDP) growth was projected at 5.2%.

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By: Hellen Berger
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