Brazilian petrochemical company Braskem will benefit by BRL 600M (USD 284M) this year, and up to BRL 900M in 2014 as a result of the government’s decision to cut taxes on purchases of chemical raw materials, chief executive officer Carlos Fadigas said.
In an interview with news agency Agência Estado, Fadigas said that the company’s clients have already asked it to increase its plant utilisation rate because of the tax cut. “Braskem itself is analysing some exports that are now viable in the resins market,” he added. “With the tax cut, we have a greater capacity for investment,” he said. “We are analysing the construction of new units and even the scale of Comperj.”
Comperj is a giant refining complex that national oil company Petrobras is constructing in Rio de Janeiro. Braskem is currently deciding on the petrochemical capacity to invest in at the site. It expects to complete the planning stage in 2014 and then take an investment decision. Fadigas said the tax cuts will not benefit Comperj itself, as they expire in 2017, but said that they have given Braskem greater financial capacity. “We could make Comperj a little bigger,” he said.
He also said that of the investment projects that Braskem is considering, the company’s ‘green’ polypropylene project, which would use ethanol from sugarcane as a feedstock, is the closest to being approved. Braskem has requested unspecified support from the government to make the project more financially attractive.