RadiciGroup Makes New Investments in South America
RadiciGroup has just celebrated ten years in Brazil, one of the Group’s most strategic markets. This country offers excellent investment and growth opportunities for Group companies RadiciFibras Ltda and Radici Plastics Ltda in the fields of nylon and acrylic yarn, engineering plastics, copolymers and elastomers.
The two Brazilian firms achieved good results in 2007. RadiciFibras Ltda, with two sites covering an area of 300,000 square metres, had gross revenue of about BRL 301 million (equivalent to about EUR 117 million). RadiciFibras Ltda annually produces about 34,000 tons of acrylic fibre and 7,000 tons of polyamide yarn for the Brazilian furnishings, clothing and protective fabrics markets.
Radici Plastics Ltda, on the other hand, attained revenue of about BRL 100 million (about EUR 39 million). The latter firm has been active since 1997 in the production and sale of polyamide 6 and 66 engineering plastics and copolymers for the Brazilian automotive, electric/electronics, packaging and industrial products sectors.
“During our 10 years in Brazil, we have invested about USD 110 million (equivalent to about EUR 75 million),” said Angelo Radici, chairman of RadiciGroup, in the course of a meeting with Waldir Agnello, vice president of the Legislative Assembly of the state of São Paolo, “and we are determined to continue investing. This country has great potential yet to be tapped. We intend not only to improve the quality of our products and increase our market share in the plastics and synthetic fibres sectors, but also to offer new high-tech products.”
Maurizio Radici, vice chairman of RadiciGroup, explained the Brazilian investment plan in detail: “In the next few months Radici Plastics will install a new extrusion line to increase its polyamide production capacity by 3,300 tons per year. The 2008-2010 three-year plan provides for investments of about USD 1.750 million (about EUR 1.2 million), more than half of which is scheduled for 2008. At RadiciFibras Ltda, during the next two years we plan investments of USD 9.2 million (equivalent to about EUR 6.3 million) to improve yarn quality, optimize manufacturing costs, increase the Group’s range of products and launch new products for the civil construction industry. Finally, we plan to increase our presence in the Brazilian market by setting up a joint venture with local partners to manufacture high-tech products.”
“In Brazil we are also working on important projects aimed at innovation in fibres,” explained Luciano Radici, RadiciGroup country manager who oversees all Group businesses in South America. “As a matter of fact, we are currently fine tuning a product to replace asbestos and are developing carbon fibres. Both projects have generated attention and interest in the Brazilian government, which is obviously of great significance for our Group. Concerning the carbon fibres, RadiciFibras has already obtained test results confirming the feasibility of manufacturing a high-quality product. The industrial use of carbon fibre is of great strategic importance to Brazil. Therefore, we should expect a sizeable increase in demand for this kind of fibre. Our project is targeted at an initial production quantity of 280 tons per year to meet Brazilian demand. In the second stage we expect annual production to rise to 1,000 tons, and then 5,000 tons.”
