Research and development
66 new solutions were launched on the market during 2016
Oxiteno is leader in the manufacturing of surfactants and specialty chemicals in Latin America. With a payroll of nearly two thousand, it operates in the segments of Agro-chemicals; Personal Care and Domestic and Institutional Cleaning; Oil and Gas; Paints and Coatings; and Performance Products. Oxiteno was founded in 1973 and is Ultra’s chemicals and petrochemicals arm.
Specialty chemical sales reported a decrease of 1% in 2016, above all due to the adverse socio-economic scenario in Brazil. The company has endeavored to offset the lackluster market in specialty chemicals by enhancing efficiency in the use of capacity and dilution of plant costs as well as boosting sales of commodities.
Sales volume, Net Revenues and EBITDA
1.9 thousand
work in the team at Oxiteno
In 2016, the company’s organization model was reformulated with the regrouping of the business units and a new structure more suitable to development. The units are currently: Mercosur (including units in Brazil and Uruguay and for meeting demand in Brazil, Chile and Argentina), MAC (with units in Mexico and Venezuela and covering the Mexican, Andean and Caribbean markets) and the United States (structured to serve the North American market). These changes were driven in large part by Oxiteno’s international expansion with the enlarged Pasadena unit in Texas to be concluded in 2017. The unit already manufactures surfactants for agrochemicals but is to cover all segments. The new ethoxylation plant will come on stream by the end of 2017 with a production capacity of 170 thousand tons/year. Finally, in early 2017, the company opened an office in Houston.
Innovation for clients
One of Oxiteno’s strategic pillars, innovation is seen as transversal to the business. It permeates all areas of the company, extrapolating the product and development stage to reach the other internal processes. The company sees innovation as fully complementary to the characteristics of sustainability: the focus is on developing and delivering products and services that prioritize the efficient and responsible use of natural resources for production with the least impact on the environment and conducive to user wellbeing and health.
The Greenformance platform sets out a series of sustainability guidelines to be considered at the product and services stage of development. Among these is the adoption of raw materials of green origin replacing synthetic materials and petrochemical derivatives. Focus is also on the efficient use of energy, water and packaging, particularly the development of concentrated and biodegradable products.
Among the gains from Greenformance are: the creation of solutions that reduce irritation to the skin and eyes; the adoption of clean technologies in the energy matrix; substitution of polluting products such as those with a high degree of volatile organic compounds and the adoption of renewable raw materials.
In 2016, Oxiteno intensified its Innovation Day activities. These involve internal team visits to a specific client for verifying short- and medium-term plans for innovation and to understand how the company can contribute to the implementation of this plan. Onsite contacts such as these have resulted in the development of a series of differentiated customized products. An example is concentrated formulations for cleaning surfaces delivered to the consumer as sachets and compounds used in the manufacture of bar shampoos, both capitalizing on the efficient use of water and energy and reduction in waste and emissions.
A further development in the process of implementation during 2016, is the CRM system for establishing the more assertive management of client relationships. This tool will allow the integration of a large variety of strategic data to be made available from a user-friendly platform to different areas of all Oxiteno’s businesses, facilitating decision-making and ensuring the traceability of information. The tool is to be implemented in full by the end of 2017.
The company launched 66 new solutions on the market in 2016, a reflection of its investments in research and development.
Research Center in the United States
With the new ethoxylation plant due for completion by the end of 2017, part of Oxiteno’s strategy for the Pasadena unit’s expansion is to invest in a research and development structure to rapidly satisfy the demand for innovation in the North American market.
Based on a unique structure, the company announced an agreement at the end of 2016 with the University of Southern Mississipi to use the R&D installations on campus situated in the city of Hattiesburg.
The new center will give researchers access to advanced technologies and other lines of research and includes a surfactant pilot plant and space set aside for the agrochemical segment.
Other developments in R&D infrastructure include the expansion and modernization of the company’s agro-chemicals and paints and coatings laboratories in Brazil. Three microbiology laboratories have also been opened in San Juan Del Río and Montevideo with quality control and at the Tremembé, Brazil facility, which has both quality control and R&D. Previously, these functions were conducted by outside partners.
The company also has a central laboratory at the Mauá unit with more than 100 R&D professionals.