Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 226

CLIPPING 8 | PAINT&PINTURA | Outubro 2017 “AFTER A STORM COMES A CALM” This is a special issue focused on amajor event in coatings industry’s most - Abrafati 2017, which is taking place on October 3 through 5 at São Paulo Expo Exhibition & Con- vention Center, in São Paulo. The trade show is expected to receive around 12,000 visitors from Brazil and many other countries. This is the 15th edition of the International Coatings Con- gress and International Exhibitionof Coatings IndustrySup- pliers, and themain theme for the show is “Adding Value” to paints and coatings. It comprises 193 exhibitors in total, and a broad technical and scientific programconsisting of 90 lectures, four plenary sessions, a few dozen papers at the Poster Session, and seminars on radiation curing, and responsible consumption and use of solvents. More than 800 people are expected to attend the Congress, for a total of 150 studies being presented. Paint & Pintura Magazine has had an interview with Antonio Carlos de Oliveira, executive president, and Tel- ma Florêncio, Abrafati 2017 coordinator and director of Corporate Events at Abrafati, who told us all details and what they expect from the show. “We have very high expectations. We want to bring together the same num- ber of people as we did in the 2015 edition, which had an exceptional turnout of 800attendeesfillingsixauditoriums to learn more about the branches of knowledge covered by our Congress. As for the Exhibition, we also expect it to keep up the number of visitors at 12,000. When we say we expect to keep up those numbers, it’s because this is a maturemarket now. Gone are thedayswhenwe aimed for 30,000, 40,000or 50,000visitors sincewhatmatters today is the visitation by our target audience, which is the paint and coatings industry. We have focused on the participa- tion of paint company professionals, mostly technicians and specifiers at technical and purchasing departments, which means people with decision-making power. This is a trade show for a qualified audience,” Telma sums up. Abrafati’s executive president, for his part, stresses the growth expectations for 2017 and 2018. “Our outlook for the market for this year is one of growth, probably one percentagepoint above theGDP, whichhas been adjusted on a near weekly basis, and upward, by the way, which is good news. And since we’re looking at 0.5-percent GDP growth, thenour industry is sure togrow1.5percent,which is still too low to make up for a 7-percent drop. However, all indicators for this year are positive, the second half seems well on track tobeingbetter, and things are lookingupat stores, supermarkets, and the automotive industry, for example. That makes us believewe’re going to outpace the GDP growth by at least one percentage point,” Oliveira anticipates. With the year 2018 comes election season, which, as challenging as it may be, is a period when the government usually runs the economy better, and if that proves true, then the coatings industry will perform better as well, according to Oliveira. “We have great opportunities inmajor government programs, such as the federal housing program ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida”, and others involving airport infrastructure, aircraft, and highways - which require road-marking paints - and they will trickle down to the industrieswe serve, such as the auto industry and others that require protective coatings, among them machinery and equipment, which is already experiencing growth. For this reason, for next year we are probably looking at a growth rate much more than one percentage point above the GDP. We are working on it, and after Abrafati 2017, we certainly will be in a better position to live up toeverybody’s expectations. Butwhat I can say at this time is 2018 will be better than 2017, and that for 2017 the industry is going to grow faster than the GDP by one percentage point. The full version of our interview with Telma Florêncio and Antonio Carlos de Oliveira is available in Portuguese only. It is followed, however, by our exclusive preview of Abrafati 2017, which covers themost important exhibitors in three languages: English, Portuguese, and Spanish. We can expect good news to break as early as this year, and Abrafati 2017 is certainly poised to lead to excellent deals for our industry. Lucélia Monfardini