Trombini Embalagens’ R$120 million Farroupilha expansion includes a Mitsubishi flexographic machine specified at up to 42,000 boxes per hour. Over an eight-hour shift, that headline speed equals 336,000 boxes.
Now apply a purely illustrative OEE scenario. At 85% OEE, the fully productive equivalent is 285,600 boxes. At 70%, it is 235,200. At 60%, it is 201,600. The gap between 85% and 60% is 84,000 boxes in one shift.
Those percentages are used only to demonstrate the mathematics. They are not Trombini operating data and they are not claimed as Brazilian corrugated-industry averages. Vorne/OEE, a general manufacturing reference, notes that 85% is often described as “world-class” OEE but is not a universal benchmark, while many manufacturers operate closer to 60%. OEE combines Availability, Performance and Quality — exactly the losses that nameplate speed does not show.
That is why LatamCORR Brasil 2026 matters. On November 12 at Royal Palm Hall in Campinas, São Paulo, corrugated board and box manufacturers will meet national and international suppliers of machinery, equipment, automation, consumables, software, technologies and specialist services.
The useful question for a plant is simple: how much of the rated speed becomes saleable output?
Brazil’s market makes small losses expensive
According to Empapel’s Anuário Estatístico 2026, Brazil’s corrugated sector generated R$33.2 billion in revenue in 2025 and shipped 4,233,226 tonnes, keeping Brazil as the world’s sixth-largest corrugated producer.
The market remained strong into 2026. Empapel/FGV IBRE data show first-half shipments of 2.104 million tonnes, 3% above the same period of 2025. January, April, June and July set monthly records, with July reaching 379,925 tonnes. Preliminary August shipments were 366,477 tonnes, down 1.3% year on year. One softer month is not evidence of a downturn; it is a reminder to test CAPEX against more than one demand scenario.
For a plant director, the logic can be reduced to two lines:
Saleable output = rated speed × planned production time × real OEE
Economic gap = lost saleable output × contribution margin per box
In the 42,000-box illustration, an 84,000-box gap in one shift becomes a financial number as soon as a plant multiplies it by its own contribution margin. That is where an engineering discussion becomes a board-level CAPEX discussion.
Brazil’s CAPEX pattern: capacity plus control
Recent Brazilian projects show a common direction: new capacity is arriving together with automation, process control, quality systems and material flow. The disclosed figures are not directly comparable, but the pattern is clear.
Trombini’s own production manager, Mauro Diogo da Silva, made the operational problem unusually concrete: “Today, we face print quality limitations, which restricts the clients we can serve.” The Farroupilha project is therefore not only about adding square metres or boxes per hour; it is also about moving into higher-value work that the existing process cannot reliably serve.
Brazilian projects are adding not only capacity, but control over quality, material flow and downtime.
Financing and FX can change the payback before the machine starts
Machine economics in Brazil do not begin on commissioning day.
On September 16, Brazil’s central bank cut the Selic rate to 13.75%. Financing is becoming less restrictive, but the cost of capital remains high enough to change the payback period of a major equipment project.
Currency can move the purchase price before installation even begins. Banco Central do Brasil’s PTAX closing rate for September 22 put €1 at R$5.8487 on the sell side. At that rate, a hypothetical €5 million equipment package is about R$29.24 million before freight, taxes, installation and financing. A 5% weakening of the real against the euro would add roughly R$1.46 million to that local-currency equipment cost.
Financing structure matters just as much. The current BNDES Finame Máquinas 4.0 page lists a BNDES fee of 0.75% per year, financing of up to 100% and terms of up to 10 years for eligible accredited equipment. But 0.75% is not the customer’s final interest rate: the financial cost and the financial agent’s negotiated fee are added.
For qualifying capital goods without a national equivalent, Brazil’s Ex-Tarifário mechanism can also reduce import duty temporarily. It is discretionary and product/NCM-specific, so it should be checked before a project model assumes any saving.
Who is actually in the room?
Latampaper’s September release says 62.5% of registered manufacturer-side attendees are in senior leadership or management roles; 19.3% are operational leaders and 18.2% are technical or specialist roles. The significance is not that every executive arrives with a purchase order, but that the room includes people who can turn a quantified production problem into an approved CAPEX project.
The current public participant list includes manufacturers such as Klabin, Grupo Penha, Trombini, Embrart and Ibéria Embalagens. Announced suppliers and programme participants include Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Koenig & Bauer Corrugated, EMBA Machinery, KOLBUS Group, ISOWA America, Emmepi Group, Cassioli, Rudolf Sizing Amidos do Brasil and Petroplast. The programme is still developing, so that list should not be treated as final.
Service is one place where the brochure and the plant reality can diverge. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries says its EMEA corrugating division covers South America and that each regional headquarters maintains stock parts and service manpower. That is useful context — but a Brazilian buyer should still ask for the Brazil-specific SLA, where critical spares are physically stocked, who the named technicians are and how many hours emergency response actually takes.
The event format combines technical presentations, an exhibition area, business meetings and networking, with English–Portuguese simultaneous interpretation advertised by the organiser. That makes Campinas useful only if plant teams arrive with their own numbers.
Seven questions worth asking every supplier in Campinas
- If this machine is faster, what becomes our next bottleneck?
Ask: show how the complete flow changes, not only the new machine.
Demand: line balance, WIP minutes, buffer capacity and sustained output.
Red flag: “The machine is faster, so the plant will produce more.”
- What is the difference between rated speed and sustained saleable output?
Ask: for a comparable customer case with similar board grades, product mix and shifts.
Demand: OEE or equivalent, good-output rate, average sustained speed and measurement period.
Red flag: only maximum mechanical speed is shown.
- How much downtime can the solution remove?
Ask: separate failures, setup, waiting, material and planned stops.
Demand: Availability, MTBF, MTTR and downtime minutes per shift.
Red flag: “higher uptime” with no baseline or measurement window.
- What happens to changeovers?
Ask: define exactly when the changeover clock starts and stops.
Demand: average and 90th-percentile changeover minutes plus first-good-box time.
Red flag: a best-case demonstration presented as the normal production result.
- What happens when service is needed in Brazil?
Ask: who responds, from where and with which critical spares.
Demand: response SLA in hours, local parts list, remote support and historical MTTR.
Red flag: “global support” with no Brazilian commitment in writing.
- Who owns the integration?
Ask: who is responsible across PLCs, APIs, ERP/MES, corrugator, converting, WIP, palletising and internal logistics.
Demand: interface list, data ownership, commissioning milestones and FAT/SAT acceptance criteria.
Red flag: “integration is possible” but the customer must coordinate every vendor.
- What is the payback after everything is included?
Ask: for installation, commissioning, ramp-up, training, spare parts, software, maintenance and financing to be included.
Demand: payback, IRR or NPV under base, upside and downside scenarios, including FX and OEE sensitivity.
Red flag: ROI calculated from nameplate speed alone.
What to do before November 12
There are roughly seven weeks between September 23 and LatamCORR Brasil. A plant team can use that time to turn the event into a working CAPEX exercise.
First, pull 8–12 weeks of production data for the line under discussion and separate Availability, Performance and Quality rather than looking only at one combined OEE number.
Second, rank the three biggest constraints in minutes and money: unplanned downtime, changeovers, WIP waiting, palletising labour, scrap/rework, maintenance response or scheduling losses.
Third, bring the baseline metrics suppliers will need: changeover minutes, MTBF, MTTR, scrap/rework rate, staffing per shift, service-response time and sustained good output.
Fourth, prepare a one-page CAPEX brief for each project: current state, target, measurable loss to remove, integration requirements, local-service requirement and maximum acceptable payback.
Fifth, pre-book meetings around those problems. Asking five suppliers the same quantified question produces a much more useful comparison than collecting five brochures.
What is still unknown
- The organiser has not disclosed a final attendance total.
- No combined procurement budget or individual 2027–2028 purchase intentions have been published.
- A supplier presentation is not evidence of ROI in Brazilian operating conditions.
LatamCORR Brasil 2026 in one minute
Date: November 12, 2026
Venue: Royal Palm Hall, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil
Focus: corrugated board, box manufacturing and paper packaging
Participants: manufacturers/converters plus national and international suppliers of machinery, equipment, consumables, technologies and specialised services
Format: technical presentations, exhibition area, business meetings and networking; English–Portuguese simultaneous interpretation is advertised
Registration: brasil.latampaper.com/latamcorr
Brazil contact: Lurdes Garcez, Business Development Brazil – Latampaper
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +55 19 996 055 140
The fastest machine in Campinas may win attention. The supplier that can prove more saleable output, fewer lost minutes and a credible payback is more likely to win the project.
corruga.expert
