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www.paintshow.com.br 10 Jan/Fev 2013 PAINT & PINTURA
strong position in several market segments, has been
supplied with our products since 2008. Accordingly,
being presented with this award is a great honor to
us, in that it crowns our efforts to deliver the best
products with high quality and great care for safety,
health and the environment,” says Quimicraft’s direc-
tor of operations Edison Veneziano.
Before it was named the winner, Quimicraft was as-
sessed by BASF according to four criteria: Corporate
Social Responsibility; Safety and Environment; Legal;
and Finance. “These awards are part of a process that
BASF has introduced as a way of assessing and encou-
raging its suppliers. In so doing, the company created
an excellence environment, as a company recognized
for excellence meets all of the requirements imposed
by BASF. Therefore, we have been assessed in every
respect, especially our health, safety and environmen-
tal performance,” explains Quimicraft’s sales director
Marcelo Reis.
The directors also say that even though Quimicraft
is a young company and has a relatively small struc-
ture, they succeeded in creating a culture of extreme
compliance right from the outset. “Our employees are
already trained in this culture, and that has really
helped us get this award. In addition, BASF also asses-
ses the logistics of the operation, and not only is our
service perfect in this regard, our site is near BASF’s,
which has allowed us to deliver our products fast and
safely,” Reis points out, adding that 33 companies
were running for the award in the Raw Materials
category alone. “Only nine out of those 33 companies
reached the required level of excellence, and Quimi-
craft had the highest rating, with all items found
compliant.”
The award is also an extremely important achieve-
ment in terms of how it opens even more doors to
Quimicraft’s business, while adding to the company’s
credibility in the marketplace. “If we have what it
takes to serve BASF, then we can also supply other
multinationals. After seven years in the market, we’re
already reaping great rewards,” Veneziano celebrates.
Industry in the Spotlight - Rhodia Celebrates 70 Years
in Paulínia
December 12 saw Rhodia, part of the Solvay
Group, celebrate 70 years of the implementation
of its industrial site in Paulínia, São Paulo, which
is one of the world’s most modern chemical com-
plexes and totally in line with existing and future
sustainable development requirements. “Rhodia’s
Paulínia site is a milestone in the Brazilian indus-
try. It has been contributing to the development of
the nation’s chemical industry for the past seven
decades by permanently making investments,
creating thousands of direct and indirect jobs and
fostering sustainable growth in the communities
around our facilities,” says the company’s manu-
facturing director Fernando Rodrigues. “Everybody
who works or has worked at this industrial site
certainly takes special pride in being part of this
story,” he adds.
Rhodia’s history in Paulínia began in 1942, when
the company bought what was then a farm known
as Fazenda São Francisco to set up its own alco-
hol distillery, so that it could meet the cellulose
acetate manufacturing requirements of its Rhodi-
aceta site and its chemical plant in Santo André.
Back then, alcohol was in short supply in Brazil
due to its federal government’s decision to use
the product as a fuel, as well as the sea blockade
imposed by World War II, which prevented alcohol
produced in the country’s Northeast region from
reaching the rest of the country.
The sugar-cane growing adventure required vil-
lages to be set up in Rhodia’s land in Paulínia for
workers and their families to establish residence.
Business establishments, such as butchers’ shops,
drugstores, etc., and even a school, were gradually
opened over time. “The first key milestone took
place in 1944, when the first sugar-cane crops
grown in that land were crushed, and the com-
pany had a few liters of ethyl alcohol very shortly
afterwards. This pioneering spirit made Rhodia
the first inducer of the alcohol chemistry route
as it used alcohol for industrial purposes,” says
Rodrigues.
The first complete chemical plant on the Paulínia
site was implemented in 1958 to produce oxygen-
ated solvents for various industrial markets. “We
are currently the Latin American leading sup-
plier to customers in this segment. In the decades
that followed, the site went through an enormous
expansion process, with the implementation of
dozens of chemical plants,” Rodrigues says.