08/25/2008 13h34
GE plant in São Paulo receives new product line
Valor Econômico - 08/25/2008
GE Water & Process Technologies, from General Electric, opens today, in Sorocaba (SP), an assembly line for equipment that makes reverse osmosis, a process that removes minerals from water. The new unit is part of a total investment of US$ 14 million, started by GE last year, for the construction of five similar plants outside the United States, until then the only producer of such devices. The amount invested in the country was not revealed by the company. Demineralized water is pretty much used in the generation of extremely pure vapor in the industries of pulp and paper, sugar and alcohol, petrochemicals and oil and gas. In Brazil, the company sold 60 machines of this sort in the last three years. Now, with the local production and the industries, mainly sugar and alcohol, increasing the pressure of their boilers from low or average to high, the expectation is to sell 310 pieces of equipment a year, most of them to Brazil. The price of one device ranges from US$ 100 thousand to US$ 500 thousand, according to its size and application. According to Fernando Uebel, GE Commercial Officer in the country, the company works with the fact that 90% of the Brazilian plants do not use high-pressure boilers. The assembly line, with an area of one thousand square meters, is an annex of the GE plant already installed in the city of São Paulo. According to the Officer, the electronic components and the boilers' will be bought from third parties and the membranes that filter minerals imported from the USA. At first there will be no hiring of personnel, only an internal relocation. In 2002, GE started strengthening the unit with technology and processes for water treatment. Since then, it has acquired four companies which work in the segment: Betz (chemical products), Osmonics (osmosis technology), Ionics (water desalinization) and Zenon (ultrafiltration). In the country, the company produces chemical products and equipment with reverse osmosis technology. But the forecast is that it should include other solutions in the new assembly line. "As soon as the plant is in full operation we will think about bringing other technologies", affirmed Uebel. Among GE's competitors in the area of water demineralization are Enfil and Veolia.
