On the eve of the largest industrial automation conference and exhibition in South America—Brazil Automation-ISA Show 2008, promoted by the Instrumentation, Systems and Automation Society’s ISA District 4/South America—the Brazilian industrial automation market is experiencing unprecedented growth.
According the Brazilian Electrical and Electronics Industry Association (or ABINEE, for Associação Brasileira da Indústria Elétrica e Eletrônica), the industrial automation sector should close this year with about 15 percent growth in revenue (in Brazilian Real), to about R$3.6 billion. Industrial automation suppliers had 2007 revenue of R$3.1 billion, up about 11 percent from 2006. That beat the world average of 6.4 percent.
Humberto Barbato, ABINEE president, attributed the outsized growth to the strength of the Brazilian economy. "Whenever the market expands, investments will follow. This demonstrates faith in the country’s economy," he said. Barbato believes that the confluence of positive factors should be taken advantage of to attract investments to Brazil.
First half cheer
Marcus Coester, ISA District 4 vice president, said that, informal research done by District 4 shows that orders in the first half of this year increased by 30 percent, compared to the same period lastyear.
The Brazilian industries that are investing great volumes in the automation of their plants are sugar and ethanol, mining, metallurgy and, certainly, oil and gas. For example, Petrobras, the Brazilian oil company, said it expects to invest more than R$100 billion next year in the expansion and exploration of discovered oil reserves.
"The largest automation projects in Brazil are still to come. They will be the largest ever in Brazil, and they are arriving through Petrobras. With the new Petrobras discoveries, we should have solid volumes of investment in the next five or six years," completed Coester.
Brazil Automation/ISA Show 2008, Nov. 17-19, in São Paulo, already has 120 exhibitors registered with the expectation of 15,000 visitors.
For more information visit www.brazilautomation.com.br
About the author
Sílvia Pereira, [email protected], is a freelance journalist based in Brazil.
