08/29/2008 15h08
Alcoa and CBA invest in products for construction
Gazeta Mercantil - 08/29/2008
The good performance of civil construction is making manufacturers of aluminum profiles invest in the increase of the capacity and in new lines of products, with prominence for the high standard segment. Alcoa, for instance, launched a line of frames designed by architect Ruy Ohtake last week. On its turn,
Companhia Brasileira de Alumínio (CBA) is investing US$ 161 million in a new extrusion unit that will feature a line of special finishing, to give aluminum a wide variety of colors, besides the traditional flat, champagne, bronze and black ones. It will also include burgundy, dark gray, green, blue and "stainless steel".
Única, as Alcoa's new line is called, received investments of R$ 1.5 million (US$ 955.4 thousand), and, according to the director of extruded items of the company, Luís Augusto Barbosa, the company should spend at least the same amount in promoting the product. Besides, the company is increasing its output capacity by 35%, a project that should be concluded in 2011. "The market of home building is extremely heated, and in order to meet the demand we will expand our capacity in the plant of Tubarão by 60%", affirmed Barbosa, without detailing values or volumes. "But as this project will only be ready in 2011, in the meantime, we will turn on a piece of equipment in the tool plant of Sorocaba (SP) again, which will guarantee an expansion of 15% during this period", he added. Alcoa owns four plants of extruded products in Brasil: Tubarão (SC), Itapissuma (PE), Sorocaba (SP), and Santo André (SP). The Country is one of the few where the company owns the division. In most of the world, the area was sold. In Brazil, the division responds for 15% of the revenue of the company, which produces 96 thousand tons of primary aluminum. The global revenue of the company is US$ 30.7 billion. CBA is also investing in expansion. The company, which can produce up to 40 thousand tons of extruded items, should expand its capacity by almost 50%, to 78 thousand tons, which required investments in another physical area of 32 thousand square meters, integrated to the pant in the municipality of Alumínio (SP). The project, which will start operating in the first quarter of next year, will include, in addition to the new production lines of profiles, the first line of painting of the company and another one of anodizing (process of finishing) that will have Italian technology of product colorization that is different from simple painting, because the color last longer.
