São Paulo – Six Brazilian construction industry companies will showcase their products at the leading industry fair in the Middle East, Big 5, set to run from Monday (23rd) to Thursday (26th) in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. The companies will exhibit at the Brazilian stand, organized in partnership by the Brazilian Export and Investment Promotion Agency (Apex-Brasil) and the Arab Brazilian Chamber of Commerce.
This year, the exhibition will feature metal and ceramic bathroom fixtures manufacturer Deca; Tramontina, with its sinks and bowls; door company Rohden; stone flooring and wall tile company Pettrus; marble company Poliex; and ceramic tile company Itagres. The Brazilian stand will be located in the exhibition’s stone and tile pavilion.
According to Arab Chamber CEO Michel Alaby, the show is a chance to showcase products and vie for the promising, competition-heavy Middle Eastern/Asian market. “They are bouncing back (from the crisis that hit Dubai from 2008 on) and major projects are in the pipeline, not to mention Expo 2020 (the world fair that attracts millions of visitors).They need more material to meet the demand,” says Alaby. He also remarks that the fair welcomes visitors from several Arab and non-Arab countries in the Middle East and Asia, including Iran, Pakistan, Afghanistan and former Soviet republics.
The Business Promotion coordinator with Apex-Brasil, Rafael Prado claims the Brazilian participation in the expo is the result of a “successful” partnership between Apex-Brasil and the Arab Chamber, whereby promotional actions are carried out in order to boost Brazilian exports to Arab countries. The Big 5 participation is one such action.
“The Big 5 is recovering year after year. There was the crisis, which led sales to slump. In 2010, it started picking up steam again,” he says. “This year, we will work with the expectation of deals worth USD 5.75 million as a result of the event, like last year.” The amount concerns sales closed within 12 months after the trade show. Last year, eight Brazilian companies attended. This year, there’ll be six.
Prado believes that the low price of oil, which is the primary source of revenue for Gulf countries, is unlikely to cause investment across the region to drop before 2018. He notes that the export-friendly exchange rate raises the costs for a company to attend the trade show, since air travel, lodging and participation expenses go up. This cost, however, is offset by the deals closed in the wake of the expo.
Opportunity and competition
The companies are betting on the Big 5 as a “shop window” in which to display their products and meet clients and contacts from throughout the Gulf.
A case in point is Tramontina, which runs a distribution center in Dubai to service the Gulf. “Big 5 is the region’s premier building and infrastructure fair, and Tramontina has been attending for a few years now, introducing its new products to visitors. The main reason for attending, therefore, is to use the fair as a shop window to showcase our brand and find new distributors,” says Tramontina’s general manager in Dubai, Paulo Feyh.
According to Feyh, well-established players are operating in the UAE. The Chinese and Turkish win clients over with their pricing. The Europeans, he said, are strong in the medium- and high-value-added segments. “Our fight is against the European brands.” He also remarks that there are mega construction projects in the UAE, and that the Big 5 is an important avenue to seizing industry opportunities.
This year, Deca is attending the event without the partnership of a traditional UAE client. The company’s export manager Marcelo Gerhardt told ANBA that the company is exhibiting its catalog of metal and ceramic bathroom fixtures and electric showers. “We want to show our products to the public, which is varied, and also find business opportunities,” said Gerhardt.
Rohden sales manager Flávio Rohden claimed the company has exported to Arab countries in the past, but only made topical sales in the past few years. The favorable exchange rate is one of the reasons he mentions for the company’s new efforts in the Gulf.
“We have been to the fair before, we have exported to a few Arab countries before, and now we have the opportunity to go back. The best-case exchange rate scenario would be something between BRL 5.50 and BRL 5.70 (for USD 1), but BRL 3.50 (near the current levels) is better than BRL 2.20 (which was the case a few years ago) when it comes to exporting,” he said. According to Rohden, the company’s focus is on selling doors, particularly for residential real estate. “We will work on the Arab market. I got in touch with people who will be at the fair, and I am also going to meet with clients prior to the event,” he said.
Big 5 show
November 23rd to 26th
11am to 7pm
Dubai World Trade Center
Additional information: https://www.thebig5.ae/
*Translated by Gabriel Pomerancblum
