Australian Composites Explores Brazilian Auto Market
Composites raw materials manufacturer, Australian Composites Pty Ltd, signed an exclusive supply agreement with Brazil’s automotive, petrochemical and building fiberglass materials supplier Vivian Regina Brasil Ltda, to distribute the Company’s rapid UV curing pre-impregnated fiberglass materials (Prepregs) into Brazil’s massive automotive and transport parts assembly market.
Australian Composites CEO Daniel Leipnik says the country is experiencing solid growth thanks to abundance in natural resources. “Brazil traditionally has a strong manufacturing base and higher per capita income. As a production hub in Latin America, one can find the presence of all the global players in the Brazilian composites industry; and business is estimated to reach $4 billion USD by 2013,” he says.
Though Brazil is booming, Leipnik says there are still some difficulties unique to the area the company must face. “Brazil is highly bureaucratic and enjoys an extremely complex tariff and taxation system on imported goods. This brings important financial hurdles for small to medium size businesses in terms of capital management, and pricing policies while attempting to remain competitive,” he says.
Leipnik hopes to tell customers of the advantages he sees in using UV curing prepregs instead of wet hand lay up. “Price reductions are created through increased production output as UV cure parts can be made 10 times faster than catalyst or oven cure procedures,” he says. He also cites reduced labor requirements, energy costs and styrene emissions as notable benefits.
Vivian Regina plans to warehouse large quantities of the UV cure Vinyl Ester and Polyester E glass prepreg and begin marketing the technology to local manufacturers beginning February 2010.
