Braskem, in partnership with Altacoppo, a company in the Altaplast/Zaraplast Group, is offering the domestic market a differentiated option for the disposable coffee cup segment, broadly consumed in the country due to the Brazilian habit and which can now be made in polypropylene as well.  This option is considered an innovation on the domestic market and it adapts perfectly well to its new use and highlights the advance of polypropylene in the disposable segment for hot beverages.
 
"With this launch, the disposable market now has a coffee cup with the recognized quality of polypropylene found in other sizes of disposable cups, such as those used for water, soft drinks, beer, and more," underscores Luis Felli, commercial director for the Polypropylene business. Felli points out that this novelty is the result of investments Braskem makes in its innovation and technology program with the development of new markets and products, as a means to improve competitiveness in the entire petrochemical and plastics productive chain.
 
The use of polypropylene in the industrialization of disposable cups for hot drinks demanded the development of specific equipment that provides elevated productivity in the processing of a highly rigid resin and guarantees a final product with better performance and that is heat deformation resistant.  "We have set up a partnership program with NTS, the company that sells these machines in Brazil and that supplied the equipment to Altacoppo, who in turn buys our resin," explains Manoel Lisboa, responsible for the Braskem project.

Besides investing in the assembly of the production line, Altacoppo applied relevant resources in product design. According to Koby Shalev Shasho, president of Altacoppo, market studies were carried out to arrive at the new design, which combines modernity, quality and functionality, improved by vertical folds that make greater thermal comfort possible.
 
With the capacity to produce 450 T/month of coffee cups, Altacoppo has already acquired machines to double its production after only three months of sales. According to Shasho, "the excellent market response to the launch is driving the company to double capacity, which should reach approximately 1000 T/month." The expansion project should be concluded by the end of October.
 
"With the development of this segment, we expect to gain 30% of the market share for coffee cups in Brazil, which equals approximately R$ 50 million per year, within five years," underscores Shasho. Besides the disposable coffee cups, Altacoppo also commercializes other sizes of cups, all made of polypropylene. The resin market for disposable resin cups is approximately 6 thousand T/year. With this launch, Braskem projects sales of approximately 3 thousand tons of resin for this market within a two year period.
 
"The use of PP in disposables is a one-way street; it"s a global trend. We found the ideal partner in Braskem to transform this global trend into a reality in our factories," explains the Altacoppo director.
 
The disposable project for polypropylene cups at Braskem began in 2002. Since then, the company, a pioneer in this kind of development, already detains approximately 40% of the market, which is estimated at more than 80 thousand tons of resin this year.  The elaboration of the project provided the company the national Finep Technological Innovation award in the process category last year.