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REVISTA
CONSTRU
CHEMICAL
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often include chemicals and acid fumes that are present in
industrial businesses that use these products in their pro-
duction processes, and also the sanitation market, where
the sewage treatment process attacks concrete surfaces as
well. Accordingly, the areas where these products are used
include the following:
In manufacturing:
The very structure of pillars, trusses and slabs exposed
to gases and acid fumes that attack concrete;
Industrial floor surfaces, where epoxy flooring systems
are required to be waterproof, among other things;
Levees in chemical storage areas for soil protection;
Industrial waste treatment plants;
In public sanitation:
Sewage treatment plants, where the presence of hydro-
gen sulfide in contact with air humidity forms sulfuric
acid, which attacks concrete.
Cautions
As with all coatings applied in liquid form (liquid
membranes), Vinícios Serves, new business development
manager at Dow Brazil, advises of the need for surface
treatment, which plays a variety of roles, such as:
ensuring the mechanical stability of the surface—epoxy
often displays excellent adhesion to the coated surface, but
the mortar cover on the concrete surface may break off,
thereby compromising the waterproofing system;
enhancing adhesion: surface treatment actions like
sanding and smoothing enhance the membrane adhesion
to the substrate;
cleaning the surface for improved adhesion;
detecting moisture and ascending humidity from the
floor: parameters for concrete moisture and ascending hu-
midity from the floor in contact with the soil are very im-
portant for determining the type of product to be applied.
“As industrial areas expand, so does the demand for this
type of coating, but there is also fierce competition with other
polymer classes, especially polyurethane and polyurea coat-
ings, in that these formulations can also provide high me-
chanical and chemical resistance to some harmful agents,
with the advantage of being highly resilient and capable of
being applied to structures with high exposure levels, without
prejudice to the waterproof coat,” Serves concludes.
Interview - Abramat Expects Positive Results
for 2013
The Brazilian Construction Materials Industry Asso-
ciation, known for short as Abramat, enters the year 2013
with a lot of work to do and a bright outlook for the build-
ing and construction supply chain. The entity believes that
the construction materials industry will grow as much as
4.5 percent this year. For 2012, the expected growth rate
was 4.5 percent too, but over the year it was revised to 3.4
percent, and the final figure is yet to be determined.
For the entity’s president Walter Cover, several factors
will contribute to an upturn for 2013, especially the ex-
panding consumption of construction materials by fami-
lies that are renovating and expanding their homes. “We
believe that retail will stay strong due to the continuation
of governmental policies that favor growth in income,
employment and credit at lower interest rates and longer
repayment times.”
The proximity to the completion of construction works
for the 2014 FIFAWorld Cup is a key factor in the process,
among others. “The real estate business will grow, yet at
more moderate rates, and we will see the infrastructure
segment take off, especially in the second half, on the
back of new highway, railway, port and airport concession
plans,” says Cover. “The tax relief policy for the industry
has been providing a significant contribution to increas-
ing sales, to a more compliant attitude on the part of com-
panies at large and, as a result, to higher tax revenues,
thereby creating a virtuous circle. It is thus our belief that
the tax relief policy will gain intensity in 2013,” he adds.
Abramat is also betting that the projects contemplat-
ed by the
“Minha Casa, Minha Vida”
(or “My Home, My
Life”) program, particularly in range 1, which comprises
lower-income families. “We are benefitting from the con-
tinuation of the housing policy, especially for low-income
families, as well as other governmental policies targeting
lower interest rates, improvement in logistics and realistic
foreign exchange rates,” Cover remarks.
Skilled labor, in particular, is still one of the challenges
facing us, as are the required productivity improvement in
building and construction and the development of con-
struction systems capable of making our activities more
cost-effective and expeditious. Last but not least, sustain-
ability will impose itself harder each day as a strategic
theme for consumers, governments, companies and other
organizations.
Partnerships - Tecnisa Enters into Partner-
ship with Spanish Hotel Chain and Launches
Mega-Enterprise in Curitiba
Mixed-use complex to combine high-end residential
tower, business center, mall and luxury hotel under NH
Hotel brand
To live, invest, work, stay in a hotel and go shopping.
Tecnisa has put all of these possibilities together into one
innovative project, The Five East Batel, the first 5-in-1
mixed-use hotel in Curitiba. The mega-enterprise consists
of a mall and two towers, one for commercial and corpo-
rate tenants, and one for the hotel and residential units
with exclusive services managed by European hotel chain
NH Hotel. Located at East Batel, next to Curitiba’s down-
town area and largest hotel cluster, The Five East Batel will