Founded in 2002, Braskem is Latin America’s largest thermoplastics producer and one of the top five private-sector manufacturing companies in Brazil. Its innovative structure integrates strategic feedstocks with downstream petrochemicals.

Braskem makes steady investments in research and development. Its high performance standards for products, processes and management systems characterize it as a world-class Brazilian company. It owns 13 factories located in the states of Alagoas, Bahia, São Paulo and Rio Grande do Sul.

Braskem is a publicly traded company controlled by Odebrecht (38.7% of total equity). Other shareholders include Norquisa (10.7%), Petroquisa (9.9%), the Previ Foundation (3%) and the Petros Pension Fund (1.5%). The remaining 36.1% of its shares are traded on the market.

Products
Braskem’s four business units coordinate the production of upstream and downstream petrochemical products.

Feedstocks: raw materials used to make downstream petrochemical products, gasoline, cooking gas and energy.
Polyolefins: polyethylenes and polypropylene.
Vinyls: PVC, chlor-alkalis.
Business Development:PET, caprolactam, ammonium sulfate,
DMT and energy.

Final products

The products Braskem manufactures are used to make important final goods, such as:

• Plastics and acrylics for auto panels, synthetic rubber for tires, and artificial fibers for automotive upholstery and carpeting
• Plastic packaging
• Plastics used to manufacture of toys, utensils and other products
• Synthetic fibers for the clothing industry
• Chemical compounds for the pharmaceutical industry
• Resistant plastic compounds for heavy industry and machinery manufacturers
• Pipes, tubes, plastic products and shapes used for finishing by the civil construction industry
• Gasoline, diesel, LPG and additives
• Solvents

Highlights
By the time Braskem reached its first anniversary in 2003, it was one of the most highly valued companies in the capital market. Its class “A” preferred shares traded on the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BOVESPA) had risen 508%, and there was a 609% increase in the value of its ADRs on Wall Street (NYSE). In October 2003, Braskem listed its shares on Madrid’s LATIBEX market, a stock exchange service for Latin American companies.

Three companies, Nitrocarbono S.A., OPP Química S.A. and Esae–Econômico S.A. Empreendimentos, were consolidated under Braskem as the merger process continued to unfold. The incorporation of Trikem S.A. into Braskem began at the year’s end and was completed on January 15, 2004.

All financial results were up compared with 2002: gross revenue rose 27%, EBITDA leapt by 33%, and net profit skyrocketed from BRL 794 million in the red to BRL 215 million in the black, an increase of over BRL 1 billion.

Working to upgrade and expand its manufacturing plants, the company invested BRL 176 million in its units at the Camaçari (Bahia) and Triunfo (Rio Grande do Sul) petrochemical complexes and the PVC unit at Marechal Deodoro (Alagoas). In the field of technology, Braskem invested in the development and launch of a resin that made its Latin American debut: a new family of metallocene polyethylenes.

Job positions
Braskem had 2,868 people directly
employed in 2003

Gross Revenue for Chemicals & Petrochemicals Area in 2003:
BRL 12.54 billion

Output in 2003 (in thousands of tonnes)

Ethene 1,040
Polyethylenes 676
Propene 486
Polypropylene 438
Liquid Soda 432
PVC 396
PET 56
Caprolactam 49