With an innovative booth and a series of groundbreaking products by our customers made with steel, Ternium played once again a lead role at Argentina’s main agribusiness exhibition in San Nicolás, Buenos Aires province.
Seed drills, hoppers, road trains, silos, pickup trucks, houses. The connection between steel and agribusiness is quite strong and dynamic. And Ternium’s participation at the Expoagro exhibition on route 9 —with our steel mill in the horizon— is already a tradition
On March 13th Ternium welcomed more than 150 agribusiness leaders in a booth that was inspired by the setting, emulating the shape of a harvester surrounded by six products that have been granted the Ternium Expoagro Awards to Agribusiness Innovation in the last years.
“After plunging to 4% or 5% in recent years, today agribusiness represents once again between 7% and 8% of our sales, which has always been the historic share. Machinery production figures have almost doubled. It is also worth mentioning that agribusiness is motorizing other sectors,” highlighted Martín Berardi, Ternium Argentina’s Managing Director.
“In this edition of Expoagro we are close to our customers again. Our country has deep roots in the farmland, and for us, it’s very important to be here next to the sector’s value chain, which is one of the key engines of Argentine industry. This year we present previous winners of Ternium Expoagro Award, which acknowledges innovation in agribusiness, a distinctive feature of the sector. Currently, several of these products are being exported worldwide,” said Natalia Chalup, Sales Chief of Agribusiness and Transport.
Fernando Favaro, Social Development Manager at Ternium Argentina, highlighted another essential edge for the company: the link with San Nicolás, Ramallo and surroundings. “The agreement to organize Expoagro in the city means that we are now playing locally. Nowadays, not only is it essential to promote our customers’ network at the exhibition, but also to work together to achieve a sustainable development of the region and to boost quality of life of its inhabitants.”
Quality development
Fernando Actis, Quality Director of the company, celebrates the fact that, during the last years, agribusiness quality standards have been raised in Argentina. “Years ago, classic product development was limited to putting best quality steel on the market. Today we add joint development with customers for them to get the most of the material we’re offering,” he says.
“Technological borders start to blur integrating steel features with customers needs and appropriate regulations. For example, road trains, which are the stars of Expoagro, use hot rolling MLC 500; another ones are silos. In the context of the exhibition, we’re launching new high strength steel with resistant zinc layer for long-term protection, called ZAR 420. We support the productive chain to ensure its competitive repositioning,” adds Eduardo Soding, Product Manager.
A dynamic exhibition
Meanwhile, microalloy steel has managed to shine in road trains during Expoagro 2018. Carlos Moriconi, Vulcano’s Sales Director, is proud to show Bitren LA6x4 RN 560, loaded with 5 Ternium steel coils, instead of 3 usually carried by a common truck. “Microalloy steel not only allows road trains to offer an improvement in terms of lowering trucks’ tare but also provide trucks with a better weight per axle distribution; and it reduces the number of trips required for goods transportation resulting in a prolonged pavement lifespan and fewer CO2 emissions. Tests have already been performed together with Ternium allowing further steel development for cargo transport,” claims Moriconi.
AD Barbieri presents a house designed for a typical family in the countryside., which has completely been built with Steel Framing and Eme Construcciones’ design. “Working with a building company and a backup supplier like Ternium boosts professionalism, synergy and innovation. It demonstrates how a building system like Steel Framing (which has just been acknowledged as traditional building) can contribute in terms of efficiency, sustainability, and habitability performance,” expressed Silvano Cantón, Marketing Director of the company.
Likewise, Eduardo Borri, Metalfor President, values its relationship with Ternium given their proximity. “They have supplied us with steel and special steel for many decades. But, apart from the quality of the raw material that allows us to manufacture our equipment, human factor is essential. Their support through ProPymes and constant counseling are an essential fundamental for our business.”
ProPymes Program
The program showcased its training platform at Ternium’s booth in Expoagro and joined customers from its value chain. Currently, 848 SMEs are part of the program, many of them agricultural machine producers. During 2017, 229 diagnoses and assistance in industrial management initiatives were carried out, aimed at increasing productive efficiency of customers and suppliers. The program has already carried out more than 1310 diagnoses and assistance since 2003. Besides, 3740 people have been trained by Propymes and, from the start, financial support for US$57.5 million has been executed.