Rhodia doubles annual investment in Brazil
Valor Econômico
The pace of investments of Rhodia in Brazil will be doubled in 2011. The subsidiary of the French company has already started this year with a portfolio of strategic investment of US$ 100 million, and the typically available portfolio is of US$ 50 million a year on average.
At the end of 2009, the company announced the disbursement of US$ 200 million in the country for the next three or four years, as of 2010, investments that would focus on the organic growth of the units and on product development. According to the President of Rhodia for Latin America, Marcos De Marchi, the US$ 100 million to be invested in 2011 are part of the total already announced by the multinational, which, in the opinion of the Executive, should be increased.
In the past three years, the Brazilian subsidiary has maintained steady its participation at nearly 17% in the overall results of the French company. But the growth in the sales has drawn attention. In 2010, the earnings in Brazil increased 28% to US$ 1.325 billion, while the overall sales amounted to US$ 7.81 billion, an increase of 21% compared to 2009.
The investments in Brazil this year will be allocated in the areas of biomass - project closed in December with the Paraíso Bioenergia plant, located in Brotas (SP) -; in the polyamide chain (which includes intelligent yarn and engineering plastic); and in the areas of solvents and chemical specialties. Thus, the capacity of the industrial center of Paulínia and units of Santo André and São Bernardo do Campo should be increased.
In the results of 2010, announced yesterday, the highlight was for the high of 15% in the exports from the Brazilian subsidiary, amounting to US$ 354 million. With a business model based on the use of raw materials, the trade balance of the company had a surplus of US$ 114 million. In the domestic market, the sales amounted to US$ 971 million, growth of 33%. In the overall results, the group had net profit of 259 million in 2010, reversing the € 132 million loss of 2009.