Finishing materials market recovers and already attracts investments

Finishing market recovery should ensure the industry of building materials, in 2018, the first positive performance in three years. In this scenario, the investments of the manufacturers are starting to return. The Astra group, who will join in the Northeast. According to Superintendent Manoel Flowers, the finishing segment began to react from the last quarter of last year, when sales reached a high of 10% on the same range of 2016. "The retail of construction grew back with the improvement of employment, who elevated industry production aimed at reforms. But the construction, which was what else fell during the crisis, still no signs of recovery, "says Flowers. The improvement in perspectives, even if treating only the finishing area, took the Astra taking the paper plan to open your first plant outside the city of Jundiaí (SP). The choice is expected to be announced until March, but it is a city in the Northeast, probably in Pernambuco, which benefits from the logistic conditions, evaluates the Executive. The remaining production will continue in Sao Paulo. The contributions to the new plant must total some R $10 million over the next three years. "Until September or October, we will operate from the Northeast, which represents 20% of our sales," he says. "We want to take advantage of tax incentives and go by diluting the investments over the next few years." The contributions of Astra last year totaled some R $5 million, amount which must move between 10% and 20% this year, including spending on the beginning of the Northeast operation. He explains that this contribution will be minimized by the use of idle machines from the factory, which will be shifted to the new plant. Today, the Astra opera with a level of capacity utilization between 50% and 60%, you can move on to approximately 70%, if the most positive scenario for 2018 is confirmed, provides for the Executive. "At the height of the crisis, fall back to 45%," he says. The company's revenue reached R $505 million last year, stable front a year before. Already in terms of volume, there was an increase of 4.5%. With Aida's operations, revenue amounted to R $585 million. For 2018, the Astra Executive estimates that the company's revenue could grow to 10 percent, with the volume accompanying this rate, before an estimated expansion of 3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP). He points out that there is still an expectation of high prices this year, after rate increase of 4% at the end of 2017. The scenario outlined by the Astra is corroborated by the Brazilian Construction Material industries (Abramat). According to the President of the entity, Walter Cover, sales, in real terms, will move about 1.5% in 2018. In this way, will be the first positive result since 2014. In 2015, the industry turnover retreated 6% by 2016 fell 13%, and last year there was a retraction of 4%. "We expect retail building has again a year of growth, around 3%, while the civil construction segment should stall with 2017", says Cover. Last year, the finishing materials recorded high of 5%, while sales for the builders fell 15%. "The finish was received last year for the release of FGTS funds. This helped the increase of income for spending on reforms ", he adds. In relation to investments, Cover estimates that companies can start to enter a new growth cycle, and so it can take advantage of the moment to allocate resources to increase capacity. "This year will be better for developers, because there's infrastructure projects, which should leave the paper; the Government promises to resume my house my life; the improvement in the atmosphere [economical] may lead entrepreneurs to resume projects that were paralyzed. We expect a resume, but it won't be a very vigorous growth, "explains.