São Paulo – The Brazilian Timber Group, established this year to export wood to the Middle East, is developing its first deals in the region. The group, headed by trading company GCM Trade and four mills from Santa Catarina and Paraná, participated in a fair this month in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, from where it returned with promising contacts and sales discussed. One of the owners of GCM, Gustavo Milazzo, believes that it will be possible to export between 30 and 40 containers a month to the Middle East by the end of the year if the contacts made result in deals.
Representatives of the consortium are going to return to the Emirates in May to participate in the Brazil Trade Middle East, business roundtables promoted by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) in Dubai. According to Milazzo, the intention is also to participate in the Big 5, a fair in the building area that takes place at the end of the year in the Emirates, and to travel to the country at least once prior to the fair, excluding the trip in May. “Business should be made, it is just a question of adjusting cultural and exchange aspects,” said Milazzo.
According to the owner of GCM, at the fair in the Emirates, Dubai Wood Show, the most promising talks were with businessmen from Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Jordan and Syria. But he said that the reach was broad and contacts were also made with executives from Oman, Kuwait, Afghanistan and Iraq. Milazzo travelled to Dubai in the company of his partner at GCM, Astor Weiss Júnior, and Juliano Vieira de Araújo, from FV de Araújo, members in the consortium. They also plan to find a representative for the Middle East and, later on, to establish an export product showroom.
The Brazilian Timber Group is headquartered in Paraná and was established targeting the Middle East. The consortium includes companies BrasPine, Laminadora Catarinense and Indústria de Portas Vert, as well as FV de Araújo. Most of the companies already export and are going to continue working on other markets to which they already sell individually. The consortium, according to Milazzo, should operate exclusively in the sale of wooden products in the Middle East. GCM itself already sold to the Middle East, but only commodities – bulk wood – and should continue developing its individual business. As a group, they are going to sell higher value-added products.
The range of wooden products offered by the consortium includes from Vert doors to the BrasPine frames, the FV de Araújo film faced plywood and the clear pine by Laminadora Catarinense. According to Milazzo, having several products to offer, under the umbrella of the same consortium, simplifies purchases by importers. Brazilian Timber Group, according to him, is also open to evaluating the entry of new Brazilian companies into the group.
Contact
Brazilian Timber Group
Telephone GCM: (+55 41) 3335 1900
E-mail: gustavo@gcmtrade.com.br
*Translated by Mark Ament
