Bosch changes command in LA and gets ready for expansion
Valor Econômico - 06/11/2008
German Andreas Nobis landed in Brazil in the beginning of May with the task of taking over, on July 1, the command of Robert Bosch América Latina, subsidiary of the more than hundred-year-old and also German, Bosch group. One of Nobis' main challenges will be to keep the Brazilian car industry supplied with parts, whose production records have already become routine. Notwithstanding its operation at the limit of the capacity, Nobis guarantees that Bosch continues strictly meeting the demand from the car makers, but will have to invest to keep the pace. For this year, there is the forecast of the allocation of nearly R$ 100 million (US$ 61.4 million) to get rid of the bottlenecks of the units of Curitiba (PR) and Campinas (SP), with the purpose of increasing the productive capacity. The crunch, according to the officer, is not bigger only because of the investments of R$ 1 billion (US$ 377.1 million) made between 2003 and 2006 in capacity expansion. The maintenance of competitiveness due to the foreign exchange scenario, which favors the imports of Chinese auto parts, is precisely one of the major challenges of Nobis ahead the operations of Robert Bosch in Latin America. The company sold R$ 4 billion (US$ 2.1 billion) in Brazil last year, an increase of 5% compared to 2006. The car segment represented nearly 70% of the total amount, with R$ 2.8 billion (US$ 1.5 billion), an 11% leap compared to 2007. The sales of construction and consumption goods amounted to something close to R$ 1.2 billion (US$ 621.8 million), with a 21% increase. For this year, the group expects growth of 10% in the Brazilian sales to the automotive industry. For the sectors of construction and consumption goods, the projections point to an expansion of 20%. Besides the larger capacity and sales volume, the company bets on the launching of products to gain market in the next years.