DuPont should invest US$ 18.7 million until 2010 in research in Brazil
DCI
With an eye on the potential growth the market of emerging countries have been showing since 2002, DuPont inaugurated yesterday the first of a series of eight research centers in Brazil which will serve as a basis of support to research of the company all over Latin America. The investment in this first unit amounted to R$ 4.5 million (US$ 2.3 million) and should get to R$ 36 million (US$ 18.7 million) until 2010 only in order to erect and equip the center.
According to the CEO of the company for Latin America and international vice-president for emerging markets, Eduardo Wanick, the sum of the sales in the regions like the Eastern Europe, Southeastern Asia, besides the very Latin America, has been increasing at an average of 17% a year and represented, in 2008, 25% of the world sales of the company that amounted to US$ 30 bi last year, that is, US$ 7.5 bi. Only Brazil is already responsible for 24% of the sales to emerging countries and this is one of the reasons that led to the investment. Among the several materials it researches on, the company emphasized studies like bioethanol and with safety materials that are applied to the armoring of jackets and cars besides the possibility of using them in the exploration and production of oil due to the flexibility of the material.
For the CEO of DuPont do Brasil, Ricardo Vellutini the company will resume growing nearly 20%, a level that, according to him, was seen in the last years. In spite of that, he admits the figures of 2009 will not be at the same level as those of 2008, when the local subsidiary achieved US$ 1.8 billion in sales. The optimism of the officer was justified because of the measures of incentive announced this week which maintained the reduction of the IPI (Excise Tax) for cars, building material and white line household appliances. With that, the company started hiring again. Amid such hiring there are researchers for the centers that should amount to 40 people still this year, according to the officer of research and development of DuPont for Latin America, John Janssen, which also revealed that due to the great demand of the newly-inaugurated center, as of September, the company will start the works for the new modules of the center.
With these measures Vellutini believes, in 2010, the company will once again present the same growth performance. "In the last five years we increased the size of the company three times, going from an income of US$ 600 million to US$ 1.8 billion, which places Brazil as a fundamental point for the company". Worldwide, DuPont invested US$ 1.3 billion in R&D last year.