What Will Latin-American Market Try to Snap up Next?

What Will Latin-American Market Try to Snap up Next?
Ivan Rosales, LATAM Representative, RT Media

We shouldn’t look at the Latin-American Market as a unified one. By this I mean, every country in the region presents its own particular challenges.

Mexico is an open economy close to the USA. Its exports to the USA represent 27% of its GDP. Still, the restrictive US import policies on printer cartridges makes it difficult for Mexican remanufacturers and empties brokers to do business with American distributors. On the other hand, importing products to Mexico, from USA or China, is very easy and common. This has placed the market in a vigorous internal situation where price is a very important issue, followed by quality and service. The real challenge in that market is to beat the OEMs who still enjoy a 77% market share.

Argentina is moving slowly from a closed economy to an open one. The previous government´s import and export policies were brutal for the Aftermarket. Remanufacturers struggled and almost disappeared, new-built cartridges haven’t made the expected impact like they have elsewhere, and OEM cartridges are limited and expensive.

Colombia and Chile, with growing and stable economies, allow for better industry opportunities are rapidly grabbing more and more market share from the OEMs. As elsewhere in the world, Chinese, new-built cartridges are dominating the market over the recycled ones.

I expect Peru will become one of the biggest markets for our industry in Latin America in the next two years. Its government has recently signed important foreign treaties with the most powerful and dynamic economies in the world. It also has one of the biggest commercial ports in South America.

In general, the LATAM market is flooded with low-priced, low-quality, refilled and new-built cartridges that keep damaging the image of the print consumables Aftermarket, preventing sustainable growth in the region.

The diagrams reflect the respective toner and inkjet cartridge market share in the LATAM region. It is important to note that the OEMs are still very strong. If we look at the “Reman” sector, we observe it is declining with only 3% in toner and 8% in inkjet market share. The new compatibles sector has taken a big bite out of the “Reman” cake, but only a slim slice from the OEMs cake.

MPS services could change all that!

(Source: Issue 74, Recycling Times Magazine (English))

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