The Launching of raphia sacks can enhance the exportation potential of the sector that is limited to 2% of the national production, and replace in specific segments the traditionally used sack.

A new plastic packaging for the cement industry, developed by Braskem and Embrasa is a promise for the exportations improvement of the Brazilian product. This initiative meets a demand of the international market for a high performance cement packaging that can ensure better stocking and transportation conditions, bringing more visibility to the quality and competitiveness of the Brazilian product in the international market.

Leader companies in the sector, like Cimentos Cauê and Cimentos UAU, approved the innovation and are already commercializing some of their products with the new packaging. The raphia sacks are ideal for the international market and for long distances transportations within the national market through railways, roads and ships.

For Jorge Mônaco, the Development Manager of new products at Braskem, the segment of packaging of polypropylene for cement has excellent potential of growth, once this innovation presents many advantages when compared to the traditionally used sacks in Brazil.

"We are about to begin the supplying of resin for a strategic market that has potential to consume around 10 thousand tons of propylene per year. We strongly believe that the improvement of this market for Braskem is a question of time, because the consumers will realize the advantages of the new packaging for the transportation and stocking of the product and will prefer the companies that use this kind of packaging", states Jorge Mônaco.

In order to offer the polypropylene packaging to the market, Braskem participated in the studies to develop the technology used to produce the new packaging and the company also developed specific resins for this application. Embrasa invested around US$ 8 million in machinery and equipments acquisition, with capacity to produce 60 million packagings per year.

"The raphia packaging has enormous potential to conquer the market because it meets specific needs of a sector that has been looking for a special material that could respond to the market and consumer demands", explains Ricardo Vivolo, director of Embrasa, bringing the importance of the partnership with Braskem to develop the packaging.

Vivolo says that the objective of the new packaging is to offer for specific segments of the cement sector, a different solution that guarantees the maximum protection for the cement during all the logistic process, and also for the special premium products, like the white cement, in order to offer the consumer a more differentiated product.

The new cement packaging of polypropylene with capacity for 50 kg, offers excellent resistance to humidity and tears, reducing the waste rate during the logistic process to 0,02%, what can reach 3% when working with the traditional packaging - especially in long distances transportations. This represents a reduction of 840 thousand tons to 6 thousand tons of waste.