Brazil’s chemical industry has shrunk in recent years. What are the main challenges it faces?

In 2011, Brazil’s chemical industry had revenues worth US$150 billion, and in 2017 this total had gone down to less than US$120 billion. The industry faces several issues, starting with the cost of energy and raw materials. In some regions, the cost of energy is three times the price you would pay in the United States. Additionally, logistics are difficult – we have just concluded an in-depth study on the logistics situation around the chemical industry, and we realized that if you are in the state of Sao Paulo it is cheaper to bring chemicals from China than from Bahia. In Brazil, most transportation is done by road, which is very costly. Adding to all that, bureaucracy incurs significant cost for companies.

Can you outline your vision for sustainable development, and how you think the industry is currently perceived in this regard?

Unfortunately, the general population does not have the correct view of the chemical industry. The industry is very responsible and has voluntarily contributed to sustainable development for a long time; we started implementing the Responsible Care program 25 years ago at a time when sustainability was not even part of our vocabulary. The chemical industry in Brazil was the first industrial sector to take a position on carbon pricing. We are doing a lot of work with regard to carbon pricing and we have already reduced almost 30% of our emissions in the last 10 years in the chemicals sector.

What are the key messages of your “365 days with you” campaign?

The “#365DiasComVc” campaign is an initiative by Abiquim that utilizes social media. We wanted to share with our followers how chemistry is present in our daily lives, helping us build facilities that make our lives better. With this campaign, we have been able to show that chemistry facilitates a better quality of life and sustainable solutions to everyday challenges.

What can be done to address the issue of plastics pollution?

I think the plastic pollution issue is mostly concentrated in Asia, more than in South America, but still we are doing a lot of work to try to solve the problem. Sustainable development is a shared responsibility between the industry, the government and the population, so we have a lot of dialogue with the government and the wider society to try to find solutions together. In Brazil, there is a parliamentary caucus on the chemical sector of which Abiquim is the Secretary General, and we raise discussions about sustainable development, including the plastics issue, to bring awareness to the importance of this topic in front of members of Congress. We try to show how the industry is the solution and not the problem, because the chemical industry is one of the most important sectors for sustainable development.

Looking to the future, can Brazil leverage its pre-salt resources to give a new boost to the chemical industry?

Today we are the eighth largest chemical industry in the world, but we used to be the sixth largest. Moving forward, there is good opportunity for Brazil because we are going to have more oil and gas from pre-salt fields. It all depends on the government’s interest. We are trying to persuade the government to use this oil and gas for the industry, instead of adopting a model of exporting raw materials and importing finished products.