Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 251

possible, encouraging our customers to use the best-in-class products we offer. In a nutshell, 2019 was a challenging year, and so does 2020 tend to be, but we’re nonetheless optimistic about improve- ment in the business environment and confident that our newdevelopments will launch successfully,” Aromat technical manager Fernando Rosa says. Brazil is Latin America’s leading consumer of inorganic pigments and one of the world’s top five, according to Colortrade sales manager Marcelo Neves Lopes. “While I do believe there’s much demand yet to be developed, we’ve seen growth in this business thanks to titaniumdioxide and carbon blacks.” Brazil’s climate characteristics as a tropical country that has a large highway system and countless industry segments spread nationwide, call for pigments featuring outstanding heat resistance, lightfastness and color performance, while also being heavy metal-free, according to Colormix Especialidades CEO Fernando de Abreu. “Heavy metal-free inorganic pigments are the big challenge facing technicians and formulators, who need to meet that demand in a competitive way. The companies that can contribute the most in this scenario are those in the high-tech sector that are committed to and focused on this business, which is what you see in our alliance with Ferro. In addition, it’s worth pointing out that even in times of slim pickings, the Brazilian market has been increasingly in line with the Europe- an and American regulatory frameworks, which require formulations to be more andmore compliant, so that our products can be competitive globally, as themarket ensures us that’s the way to go,” Abreu concludes. TINTING EQUIPMENT - SEVERAL HIGH-TECH VERSIONS With different designs that address the market’s every need, tinting equipment manufacturers see increase in demand and expect further growth. The tinting equipment industry is a consis- tently growing business in Brazil, leading all points of sale to inevitably use paint- -mixing machines and, in return, reduce their inventories. “Even though certain paint companies have cut their invest- ments and rolled out a massive action plan to reallocate their machines among customers, we can say we’re entering a year of recovery for all manufacturers, suppliers and customers. Fillon Technolo- gies iswatchful, bolstering even further its existing partnership,” sales and logistics manager Marco Antonio Viola says. Still many are the paint companies in Brazil providing only paints formulated in their factories, but they are certainly accumulating capital and developing their capabilities so that they can soon incor- porate POS paint-mixing machines into their business and thus produce paints tailored to each end consumer, according to Viola. “The market was on a good re- bound in 2019, investments are ongoing, and products are launching as a result if internal studies that enable us to identify the needs of customers spread over all the continents served by our company. Fillon Technologies Brazil is sure about the economic upturn and invests in facilities and to expand our range of products and services, which includes having local in- ventories of machines and parts available for a proper customer service,” Viola says. Fernando Sano Itaziki, Inkmaker regional sales manager for Latin America, remarks that, between the making the decision to buy an industrial tinting systemand having it actually implemented, unlikewith point- -of-sale tinting systems, the entire process takes plenty of time, years sometimes, due to the size of both the investment and the equipment, and that there still is plenty of room for growth over the next several years. “We haven’t experienced significant growth with our industrial tinting equipment not only in Brazil, but all over Latin America, relative to our growth in other markets, such as Europe and Asia. It’s worth pointing out that, for us at Inkmaker, 2019 was quite similar to the previous few years in terms of sales and systems installed, but much of that is thanks to all of the new developments we introduced over the course of the year, as well as the addition of new machines and new markets served, which extends not only to 2020, but also to the following years, se we’re looking at considerable growth now.” COLORANTS FOR TINTING SYSTEMS - CUTTING-EDGE TECHNOLOGY AND COLOR REPRODUCIBILITY There is no shortage of high quality and cutting-edge technology in this market. The market for colorants has been gro- wing more and more rapidly thanks to the migration from providing ready-mix colors to the POS paint-mixing technolo- gy. This migration provides a number of benefits, among them reduced invento- ries, a bigger product turnout and con- sistent quality, according to Nivio Burai Junior, of the technical marketing team for pigments at Clariant. “We have noti- ced that growth in this market displays a different behavior relative to traditional ones because it is more about the supply of more affordable colors and the color trends that increasingly influence the use of this diversity and applicability in the industry. In addition, we are seeing more demand not only for products, but also for the technical know-how, development structure and business strategies required for adhering to this technology, which makes us feel increa- singly better prepared to assist those of our customers looking to develop these solutions.” Sintequímica’s head of sales Marcelo Amaral Leite says he is really pleased by the increase in interest in solely water- -based tinting systems in the market- place. “This is key because it makes the systemmuch more competitively priced, enabling any company in this industry, not matter their size, to finally have tin- ting systems implemented in their plants and their customer’s stores. We believe that, at long last, the Brazilian market is more open to the unique features of tinting systems and the benefits they provide when used both in the plant, where it dramatically reduces finished product inventories, and in stores, where they promote company brands amid end consumers,” he said.