Private | |
Founded | 1970 |
Headquarters | São Paulo, Brazil |
Products | Chemical products |
Owner | Ultra Group |
Website | www |
Oxiteno, a wholly owned subsidiary of Ultra Group, is a Brazilian multinational manufacturer of surfactants and chemicals. The company develops and supplies raw materials to industries in over 30 sectors including cosmetics, personal care, household cleaning and industrial, agrochemicals, paints and varnishes.
Oxiteno operates in nine countries throughout the Americas, Europe, and Asia. It has three research and development centers, twelve industrial plants in Brazil, the United States, Mexico, Uruguay and Venezuela, as well as commercial offices in Argentina, Belgium, China and Colombia. According to research conducted by Info Exame magazine in partnership with ESPM, Oxiteno was appointed as the ninth most innovative company in Brazil in 2014.
Founded in 1970 by Paulo Cunha, Oxiteno was the first company to produce ethylene oxide and derivatives in Brazil. Its first plant was installed at the Mauá Petrochemical Complex, in the outskirts of the metropolitan region of São Paulo, and the second was opened in 1974 in the Industrial Pole of Camaçari, in the Brazilian state of Bahia. Oxiteno created a research and development center in Mauá Petrochemical Complex in 1986, built a new plant in the South Petrochemical Pole of Brazil in the city of Triunfo, Rio Grande do Sul in 1989, and expanded its production capacity in the Camaçari Petrochemical Complex in 1997.
In July 2003, it started its international expansion through the purchase of the Mexican company Canamex. Oxiteno took over the company's two plants in Guadalajara and Coatzacoalcos.
In 2006, Ultra initiated an expansion plan of the ethylene oxide production capacity and other chemicals in Mauá and Camaçari plants. In August of the same year, it opened its first sales office abroad in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
In April 2007, Ultra, through its subsidiary Oxiteno Mexico, acquired the sulfated and sulfonated assets of Unión Química SA in San Juan del Río in México.
In September of that year, Ultra bought the Venezuelan Arch Química Andina, a subsidiary of US-based Arch Chemicals. The unit, located in Santa Rita, Venezuela, was renamed Oxiteno Andina and is the only producer of ethoxylates in the country.