01.01.05
Location: Gravatai, Brazil
Sales: $37 million
Description: Plant Locations
Gravataí, Rio Grande do Sul state, and Horizonte, Ceará state, Brazil
Key Personnel
Silvério Baranzano, director; Daniel Svirski, sales and marketing manager durables; Rene Ruschel, sales and marketing manager disposables; José Marin, sales and marketing manager, hygienic disposables
ISO Status
ISO 9002
Processes
Spunbonded, SMS, meltblown and carded thermalbonded nonwovens
Brand Names
Novotex
Major Markets
Hygienic disposables, medical disposables, filtration, agriculture, furniture and bedding.
Brazilian nonwovens manufacturer Fitesa last year started up a new production line for value-added medical composite nonwovens and expanded its hygienic disposable nonwovens capacity, together adding 4000 metric tons of capacity. The company’s total nonwovens capacity including spunbond, meltblown and carded is now 22,000 metric tons per year. Fitesa also manufactures 12,000 metric tons per year of polypropylene staple fibers for needlepunched and thermal bonded nonwovens.
This year, Fitesa’s investment drive is focused on a new spunmelt line with a capacity of 15,000 metric tons per year. The line will be installed at the company’s facility in Gravataí, in Rio Grande do Sul state and is expected to start-up in during the second half of 2006. This line will be designed to manufacture hygienic disposables such as topsheet and leg-cuff roll goods, medical fabrics and other special applications. It will feature a multiple beam Reicofil 4 with microdenier features which will allow the line to be upgraded at a later stage according to new market requirements.
The output from the new Reicofil line will serve growing demands in the Americas for advanced hygienic disposable fabrics, including Brazilian, Mercosur and North American markets. By segment, disposable masks and gowns in the medical segment, as well as civil engineering applications, are expected to account for 35% of Fitesa’s net income this year, nearly a four-fold increase compared to 2003 income for the same segments.
Brazil accounted for 77% of all Fitesa sales in 2004, according to Herminio Freitas, a director of Fitesa and the outlook for growth in the Brazilian economy bodes well for the company. Nonwovens sales revenues in the Mercosur countries—including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay—amounted to 10% of total Fitesa sales last year, Mr. Freitas noted. Fitesa exports to the rest of the world amounted to 13% of total sales last year, strengthened in part by the stronger Brazilian currency, the real, at least in dollar terms. The real should end 2005 trading at about 2.5 to one dollar, compared with a high of 3.53 in 2002.
Sales: $37 million
Description: Plant Locations
Gravataí, Rio Grande do Sul state, and Horizonte, Ceará state, Brazil
Key Personnel
Silvério Baranzano, director; Daniel Svirski, sales and marketing manager durables; Rene Ruschel, sales and marketing manager disposables; José Marin, sales and marketing manager, hygienic disposables
ISO Status
ISO 9002
Processes
Spunbonded, SMS, meltblown and carded thermalbonded nonwovens
Brand Names
Novotex
Major Markets
Hygienic disposables, medical disposables, filtration, agriculture, furniture and bedding.
Brazilian nonwovens manufacturer Fitesa last year started up a new production line for value-added medical composite nonwovens and expanded its hygienic disposable nonwovens capacity, together adding 4000 metric tons of capacity. The company’s total nonwovens capacity including spunbond, meltblown and carded is now 22,000 metric tons per year. Fitesa also manufactures 12,000 metric tons per year of polypropylene staple fibers for needlepunched and thermal bonded nonwovens.
This year, Fitesa’s investment drive is focused on a new spunmelt line with a capacity of 15,000 metric tons per year. The line will be installed at the company’s facility in Gravataí, in Rio Grande do Sul state and is expected to start-up in during the second half of 2006. This line will be designed to manufacture hygienic disposables such as topsheet and leg-cuff roll goods, medical fabrics and other special applications. It will feature a multiple beam Reicofil 4 with microdenier features which will allow the line to be upgraded at a later stage according to new market requirements.
The output from the new Reicofil line will serve growing demands in the Americas for advanced hygienic disposable fabrics, including Brazilian, Mercosur and North American markets. By segment, disposable masks and gowns in the medical segment, as well as civil engineering applications, are expected to account for 35% of Fitesa’s net income this year, nearly a four-fold increase compared to 2003 income for the same segments.
Brazil accounted for 77% of all Fitesa sales in 2004, according to Herminio Freitas, a director of Fitesa and the outlook for growth in the Brazilian economy bodes well for the company. Nonwovens sales revenues in the Mercosur countries—including Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay—amounted to 10% of total Fitesa sales last year, Mr. Freitas noted. Fitesa exports to the rest of the world amounted to 13% of total sales last year, strengthened in part by the stronger Brazilian currency, the real, at least in dollar terms. The real should end 2005 trading at about 2.5 to one dollar, compared with a high of 3.53 in 2002.