Recently Topsoe 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.

Of all the countries in the Latin American region, Brazil offers the largest growth opportunity for Topsoe’s automotive catalysts, the company said. There are close to 40 million passenger cars, trucks and busses on the Brazilian roads today and Brazil is by far 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 the new emission standard Euro V on 1 January 2012. Consequently, for more than two years, all trucks and busses leaving assembly lines in the country have been outfitted with catalysts. All of these catalysts, however, have so far been produced outside of Brazil.