Hospital equipment manufacturer wants to export more
DCI
The first decade of the 21st century was the great mark for the Brazilian market of hospital equipment as regards both the achievement of independence of the national production and the participation of the local manufacturers in the global market for the supply of equipment and technologies for health. And 2011 should follow the trend of growth, with emphasis on the growth of the exports in the sector, according to the Brazilian Association of Medical Devices Manufacturers (Abimo).
Despite maintaining a trade balance deficit, the national market of hospital equipment has taken long steps towards a balance between the imports and exports, and in 2010 the sales abroad were 11% greater than in 2009, closing at US$ 640 million. The main factor for the maintenance of the deficit is the national demand for equipment of high added-value, according to Tarso Evangelista, Market Intelligence Coordinator of the Abimo. "The Country still depends on the equipment the local industry does not offer", he says.
The national industry still has a major setback to face, the productive capacity. The local manufacturers currently meet only 90% of the domestic demand of a hospital at the current standards. On the other hand, according to the Abimo, the manufacturers have engaged the greatest efforts in the history of the sector to reverse the loss scenario in the country. "2010 was a record in the exports", says Evangelista. "Since 2007, the national market has been seeing growth between 9% and 11% in the exports".
According to Evangelista, the stability represents greater maturity in the domestic market. The growth rates have been greater, as in 2004 and 2005, when the average growth bordered 18%. On the other hand, the sales volume was still not comparable to that of national manufacturers like Fanen and Life Med - two of the main national manufacturers, which compete in a quite fierce market with multinationals General Electric (GE), Philips and the North-American Becton, Dickinson and Company (BD), which also produce in Brazil.
In 2005, according to Evangelista, it exported nearly US$ 250 million. But the main data in the past 10 years is that the domestic industry was more concerned on easing the difference in the trade balance in the sector of hospital equipment. Part of the institutional efforts, the executive of the entity that gathers 298 companies attributes to international events and fairs of which the national players have taken part.
Evangelista mentions as an example a partnership between the Abimo and Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brazil), which recently promoted the meeting of 55 national manufacturers with business partners in a tradeshow in Germany. The meeting generated the prospection of US$ 35 million in businesses for this year. The "Medical" fair is known by the market as the largest global platform for the show of new technologies in health.