SAO PAULO, BRAZIL — Brazilian machinery maker Irmaos Semeraro Ltda., which already assembles and sells blow molding machines for Milacron Inc., has started selling Milacron extruders in Brazil.
The deal covers sales only; Semeraro does not plan to make extruders. Semeraro announced the news at Brasilplast'99, which ran March 8-13 in SÃŒo Paulo.
The agreement gives Milacron, the largest U.S. plastics machinery manufacturer, an important inroad into Brazil, according to Glenn Anderson, director of sales and marketing at Milacron's extrusion machinery business.
Semeraro has become Milacron's local link to the developing Brazilian market. Until a year ago, Ohio-based Milacron had little exposure in Brazil. But that changed when it bought the Uniloy blow molding and structural foam molding machine businesses from Johnson Controls Inc.
Semeraro has made Uniloy blow molding machines since 1995, first with Johnson Controls, and now with Milacron.
``With the acquisition of Uniloy came a marketing opportunity with Semeraro, and we piggybacked on top of that,'' Anderson said by telephone after Brasilplast.
Nelson Semeraro, company president, said his firm signed a formal agreement last month to sell extruders made at Milacron's plant in Vienna, Austria. Semeraro announced the deal at Brasilplast but did not have enough booth space to show any extruders, he said in an interview at the show.
Anderson said Semeraro also will sell U.S.-made Milacron extruders. Both firms are working on a formal agreement, but Semeraro can sell the U.S. machines right away, he said.
``We want them to sell whatever extruder makes sense,'' Anderson said.
He said Milacron's factories in Batavia, Ohio, and Vienna both make the same equipment — single-screw extruders; conical, counter-rotating twin-screw extruders; and parallel, counter-rotating twin-screw machines.
Semeraro built 10 Uniloy blow molders last year, but Nelson Semeraro expects sales to increase this year because of the new Exact line of machines, introduced at the K'98 show in Germany.
He said the Uniloy structural foam machines, sold under the Springfield brand name, have done well in his country, thanks to a booming market for polyethylene water-storage tanks. The plastic tanks are replacing asbestos-filled cement tanks found in nearly every Brazilian home.