Pirelli sees heated market and speeds expansion in Brazil
Valor Econômico
Attentive to the positive predictions for the Brazilian car industry, which should register record production this year, Pirelli is speeding up the growth investments in the country, with the purpose of keeping up with the potential growth in the demand for tires. The Italian group says that throughout this year it will increase the capacity in two of the five plants it operates in Brazil and it will hire more than 500 employees for their lines.
The investments scheduled for 2010 are part of the package of US$ 400 million intended for Latin America between 2008 and 2011 and they also meet the strategy mapped out by the group to maintain the leadership in sales in the Latin American market achieved last year. "Being a leader requires dedication and that is a path with no return in our strategy", says the Chief Executive Officer of Pirelli in Latin America, Guillermo Kelly.
Worldwide, says the Executive, Pirelli shall invest € 300 million during 2010. "That is what the group will have to invest with the purpose of speeding up the increase in production", he says. Specifically in Latin America, the goal, within two years, is to raise by 24% the installed capacity in the segment of tires for passenger cars, which are made in Venezuela, Argentina and in the units of Feira de Santana (BA) and Campinas (SP), and by 20% that of tires for trucks, concentrated in the plants of Santo André (SP) and Gravataí (RS). In Sumaré (SP), Pirelli produces (steel) metal ropes used in the manufacture of tires.
According to Kelly, the first months of 2010 have already showed the market will keep on fairly heated. According to the projection of the National Association of Vehicle Manufacturers (Anfavea), the production of cars should get to 3.39 million units this year, surpassing the historical mark of 3.22 million units in 2008. Notwithstanding it does not disclose the sales estimates for the year in the Latin American market, Pirelli has already informed it expects growth of 10% until 2011, taking into account the more than US$ 2 billion earned in 2008. In that year, the earnings in Brazil exceeded US$ 1.2 billion.