Haldor Topsøe to establish automotive catalyst production in Brazil

26 June 2014

Haldor Topsøe announced it is establishing a catalyst production facility in Brazil. The facility will focus on manufacturing catalysts to remove NOx, as well as PM and HC emissions from the engine exhaust of diesel vehicles such as buses and trucks.

Recently Topsøe leased two buildings in an industrial park located in Joinville, Santa Catarina and work is now ongoing to obtain necessary regulatory approvals and place orders for production equipment. The goal is to get the facility up-and-running within the coming year.

“Establishing production locally is an important prerequisite for us to realize our full potential in Brazil, but also other parts of Latin America. Brazil is officially encouraging that import of parts is converted into local production – and backs it up with concrete incentives. For instance, if the local content of a heavy duty vehicle exceeds 70%, financing will be granted at a subsidized interest rate. Moreover, import duties on catalysts from abroad will increase and thereby create a a strong incentive to establish production on Brazilian ground", says Bjerne S. Clausen, CEO of Haldor Topsøe A/S.

Of all the countries in the Latin American region, Brazil offers the largest growth opportunity for Topsøe’s automotive catalysts, said the company. There are close to 40 million passenger cars, trucks and buses on the Brazilian roads today and Brazil is the largest manufacturer of heavy duty vehicles in the region. In 2013, more than 3.7 million vehicles left the assembly lines in the country out of which 225,000 were heavy duty vehicles.

Brazil introduced PROCONVE P-7 emission standards (based on Euro V) on January 1, 2012. Consequently, for more than two years, all trucks and buses leaving assembly lines in the country have been outfitted with catalysts. All of these catalysts, however, have been produced outside of Brazil, said Topsøe.

Topsøe began the sales of diesel catalysts in 2006. Today, more than 250,000 heavy-trucks and buses worldwide have been equipped with Topsøe’s catalysts.

Source: Haldor Topsøe