Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 229

CLIPPING PAINT&PINTURA | Jan/Fev 2018 | 9 The company supplies its stringent customers in the paint and coatings industry with containers made of type 304 stainless steel, all of which bear the seal of approval from INMETRO(short inPortuguese forNational InstituteofMe- trology) as assurance that they are safe for transportation, according toFerreira. “Weprovide the 1,000-liter Cylindrical IBC, featuring the RGND technology, which enables it to be hooked up to the agitator - also provided by Rentank - kee- pingthepainthomogeneouswhilepreservingitsproperties. Wealsoprovide theRentankLiner system,whichconsistsof a disposable liningmaterial applied onto the insidewalls of the IBC to ensure protection fromcontaminants and, since it is disposable, eliminate the need for tank clean-ups. It’s also worth pointing out that we have a laboratory at our site that analyzes every container to make sure it is free of any contaminants whatsoever.” FerreirasaysthatinadditiontoitsIBCsavailableforstandard rentaldeals,RentankEmbalagensprovideseitherscheduled oremergencytechnicalsupport,aswellasnewprojectdeve- lopmentandcontainerfleetmanagementservices.“They’re all made as specified in the written agreement signed with the customer, and certain complimentary services can be included as a courtesy in contracts involving large volumes. We’realsodevelopingareal-timefleetmanagementsystem, which means that customers will have an option to track their products at all times, helping to avoid cargo theft, amongother problems.Webelieve that the technologywill be available as early as 2019.” EVENTS - ASSOCIATION PRESENTS 18TH ABRAFATI COATINGS SCIENCE AWARDS December 6sawtheBrazilianAssociationof PaintManufac- turers (known for short in Portuguese as Abrafati) present the threewinnerswith itsAbrafati CoatingsScienceAwards at Clube Atletico Monte Libano during its traditional year- end dinner party with leading officials of related entities, partners, and personalities of the paint and coatings indus- try. The Association also honored Antonio Carlos Lacerda and all of the sponsors to the 2017 International Coatings Congress. In attendance at the event were Freddy Carrillo, chairman of the Abrafati management board, and Antonio Carlos de Oliveira, theentity’s executivepresident. Duringhis speech, Carrillo thanked all Abrafati members for the excellent job done in 2017. “We’ve had a very good year as far as the endeavors and advances of our association go. We want to convey our wish to transform Abrafati, while stressing theworkwe’ve done in this year of strategic planning.” He also pointed out Abrafati’s optimism about growth in the industry: “Although theyear 2017was reallychallenging,we stillexpectthattheyear-endresulttoshowaslightrecovery, with around 1-percent growth in the paint and coatings in- dustry,thanksespeciallytothesecondhalf,duringwhichwe wereabletoseesome improvement. For 2018wedoexpect to turn things aroundand resumegrowth, as our estimates indicate that the coatings market will grow 2 to 3 percent - and we’re rooting for that. We still have a longway to go, but we are optimistic about our mission in 2018, andwe obviously count on all of your support.” TheAbrafati leadershipalsopresented trophies to the threewin- ners of the 18thAbrafati Coatings ScienceAwards, who received the recognition for authoring three high-end technical studies that have stoodout for their out-of-the-boxapproachandstrong concern with sustainability. ASSOCIQUIM-SINCOQUIMHOLDSYEAR-ENDDINNERPARTY IN SÃO PAULO TheBrazilianAssociationof Chemical andPetrochemical Distribu- tors and Union of São Paulo State Chemical and Petrochemical Wholesalers (known for short in Portuguese as Associquim- Sincoquim) held their much-awaited year-end dinner party on December 7 at Buffet França, in São Paulo. Joining the more than 130 guests was the entity’s president Ru- bensMedrano,whogaveaspeechandhighlightedhisconfidence that better results are coming in a near future. “The industry has seen business pick up, yet moderately, and enter a virtuous circle. The fall in interest rates for suchaworkingcapital-intensive industryasourshasbenefittedcompanies,whichhaveseen their performance improve.” Medrano also emphasized the business management skills of entrepreneurs, as well as the need to keep pace with the rapidmodernizationprocess that hasbeen imposing remarkable change in every respect. “We’ll be looking ahead in an optimistic way and preparing ourselves for the challenging future being brought to us by the technological advances we are witnessing, such as digitization, artificial intelligence, new platforms, and these clouds with storage capacity for millions and millions of pieces of information and data. It’s about being prepared for a newkindof youngconsumerwho is avid for innovative solutions anddoesn’t havemuchpatience towait for results. The industrial businesseswearepleasedtohaveaspartners, onboththesuppli- ers’ side and the customers’ side, are starting to introduce these newtools into their production systems, aswell as their business partner relationship management, which tools require, for their part, businessmodels that succeed in seizingandmultiplying the benefits arising out of these technological advancements,” said the president of Associquim-Sincoquim. In his view, distributors, which play a key role within the supply chain, must not ignore this new cycle. “The creation of smart businessplatformswill have tobe incorporated intoour business models,”Medrano said, adding that training human resources is just as important. Other factors pointed out by Medrano demonstrate the impor- tanceof chemical andpetrochemical distributors. “For example, there’s the way we have mastered the logistics of handling, storing,movingand transportingchemicals andpetrochemicals, which is so critical in a continent-sized country like Brazil, and the excellence in business shown by the Prodir responsible dis- tribution program-subscribing distributors as they adhere to the conducts and practices championed by the program’s methods