Rotocast #30 | Resin at R$ 20/kg: how do you protect your operation? — LIVE

What you gain by watching

• Learn to identify where cost is leaking on the factory floor before passing on price and losing competitiveness.
• Discover real ways to protect your margin with energy, taxes, and material recovery without giving up quality.
• Prepare your company for the recycled content law and for public tenders that keep buying even in a crisis.

Episode chapters

1. 1

   Resin at R$ 20 per kilo: how big is the real panic in the market?

   Resin that used to sell for R$ 14 is now showing up at R$ 18 per kilo, and the 20% to 30% increase that was predicted has arrived knocking on companies' doors. We revisit the 2015 and 2016 crisis — the GDP that shrank, investments that fell about 10% — to separate rumor from real risk and show that, even with the wheel spinning and costs rising, every crisis also opens space for those who see opportunity.

   Some companies were selling at around fourteen, today it's already eighteen reais per kilo of resin.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 11:46
2. 2

   Diesel at twenty reais and the bill nobody sees: how to get through the crisis without passing everything on to the customer

   We recall here what the industry felt between 2015 and 2016, when the accumulated crisis squeezed cash flow and only those seeking alternative paths came out stronger — and today the fear returns with diesel nearing twenty reais and the uncomfortable question: hold prices artificially and face shortages, or pass it on and feed the inflation that drives up everything, from freight to the consumer's table?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 16:51
3. 3

   The bolt on the floor that almost shut down an entire factory

   In an old unit that only generated losses, the group had already decided to shut everything down and send 380 people out the door, until the team itself decided to cut expenses and began to see the waste that was right under their feet — new bolts thrown on the floor, discarded fiber, poorly done maintenance. By training the operator for small adjustments and making use of what was going to waste, the plant turned things around and even came to pay expenses for the other units; it's that eye for what drips in the process, in rotomolding and in any segment, that we defend here at Rotocast.

   How much waste makes you sink deeper and deeper. So within this crisis, you have to see where it's dripping, where it is, you know, leaking there, leaking in your, your process.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 22:28
4. 4

   Solar panels at the studio, gasifier at the factory: real alternatives to hold costs when gas and resin go up

   When LPG and resin weigh on the budget, the question that remains is how much it's worth switching the energy source — and we showed that the math works out: here at the studio, the electricity bill dropped from an average of three hundred eighty to four hundred reais, with peaks of seven hundred thirty-eight, to levels of eighty to one hundred ten reais, paying back the investment in about two to three years, well before the five years the initial study predicted. It was along the same lines that we talked about the gasifier as an alternative to LPG, with cases reaching eighty percent savings per kilo of gas, and about how a tax adjustment with someone who knows the subject can turn into gigantic savings for your company.

   Do you still think accounting is a cost for your company or is it an investment?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 27:28
5. 5

   The tax that stayed in the government's coffers and could become an investment in your business

   A transportation company invoiced about two million five hundred forty thousand reais in the last quarter and, under the natural presumed profit regime, would pay nearly six hundred twenty-five thousand reais in taxes — until a tax adjustment showed that four hundred eighty thousand reais could stay in the coffers and return to the business. We also talked about the other side of this coin: the payroll done wrong for years, which turns into silent labor losses when accounting is treated as a cost and not as an investment.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 32:30
6. 6

   The accountant who ran off with the taxes and the lesson that became a warning for the factory floor

   We told the case of a former partner who only discovered the pending issue from the old company when he tried to open the new one: the accountant received the charges and simply didn't pay the taxes — loss, headache, and the company that never really closed. It's the same kind of silent bomb that shows up in the wrong pay stub, in the part burning, and in the hands of the operator who unloads the mold without gloves: that information nobody noticed until the lawyer is already going for the jugular. That's why we hammered the point of having someone you really trust, close control, and well-trained people — not button-pushers, but rotomolders — because these small details only show up when it's too late.

   The problem is that sometimes you only notice the mistake when it's already too late, when the bomb has already gone off.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 37:48
7. 7

   Open oven, gas burned for nothing: the simple adjustment that avoids waste

   We found that many rotomolders leave the oven open for three to five minutes between cycles without realizing they are burning gas and time — not for lack of preparation, but for not knowing that this was not ideal. The solution we show is simpler than it seems: control cooling by touch, with a glove, assessing whether the part is still soft or too hot, because often the bottleneck is not the oven, it is poorly calibrated cooling that deforms the part. And for those who want to extract the maximum, we defend data and measurement technology — remembering that everything depends on the need and the budget of each company, with no single recipe.

   Sometimes it is not your oven time that is your bottleneck, it is your cooling, because the part deforms.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 42:50
8. 8

   Non-toxic resin is not enough: the toxic detail that contaminates your food product

   You use the right resin for the food industry, follow all precautions, but the release agent you apply is toxic — and this detail can compromise everything. We talked about how traceability of raw material, including recycled, and switching to suitable additives and release agents open the way to real savings without giving up safety: the secret is not only in what goes into the part, but in everything that touches the process.

   Your product, your resin, it is non-toxic, fine. And what you are putting there, is it proper for this? Is your pigment proper for this? Is your release agent proper?

   ▶ Watch at approximately 47:52
9. 9

   Virgin resin, hostage to the price? The way out may be inside your factory

   Depending only on virgin resin leaves any rotomolder exposed to adjustments of 18% from one batch to the next, with no control over its own cost. When the company decides to recover the material internally — extrusion and micronization in-house — it gains control over what goes in and what comes back, but this requires technical care: it is not enough to recycle, you must replace what the useful life consumed, because unlike aluminum, which melts and returns to what it was, plastic loses mechanical resistance, UV and smell, and that is where the right analysis and compensation come in.

   Plastic material is infinitely recyclable, as long as you recover the material.

   ▶ Watch at approximately 53:23
10. 10

    Porosity, parts sticking and the mold standing still: how to cut this loss in the short term

    When the part doesn't come out of the mold, the operator loses time, the cycle increases and the finish suffers — we even mentioned a case of more than an hour just to demold, until adjustments to the mold left the part practically loose on the lid. We talked about the compensation technologies that our partners bring, including the powder release agent that acts directly on porosity, so you can recover productivity without having to stop the mold for a week, and we also put recycling on the table: a material with traceability and good additives delivers quality, but without control it becomes a contaminant in your product — and that's the debate we'll go deeper into in a next episode.

    I've even mentioned some examples here of a mold that worked there, it took more than an hour to remove the part there. And after we made some improvements to the mold, when it opened the mold, the part was practically loose on the lid.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 59:01
11. 11

    The recycled law is coming: how your company prepares for the water tank with a report and the bids no one wants to lose

    The requirement to use 20 to 30% recycled material in virgin material is already knocking at the door — and anyone who manufactures water tanks, dairy products or any rotomolded item will have to adapt, with a traceability and non-toxicity report in hand. We talked about the partnerships we are establishing to provide this documentation and about monitoring bids, such as the portable toilet and playground tender notices that have already appeared, so you can get through the crisis without feeling the 20, 30% price difference in your pocket.

    If you're going to have this requirement, obligation to use 20 to 30% recycled material within your virgin material, that's going to become law, right?

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:04:05
12. 12

    The market that doesn't talk about crisis and almost no one sees

    A client told us that at the price practiced three years ago he would win any bid, but he got stuck on documentation — and we discovered that many people simply don't know that the country's biggest buyer keeps buying, from portable toilets to playgrounds, without crisis. We showed that it's possible to put you in front of the goal, with the right company to adapt everything, but the one who kicks is you: preparing and updating yourself is what separates those who seize the opportunity from those who just wait for the next crisis to pass.

    It's a market niche that won't talk about crisis. There's no crisis. There's no crisis, you know? And it's the biggest buyer there is today in the country. And there's no lack of money in that market either.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:09:17
13. 13

    Crisis for one, opportunity for another: what to do when the market panics over inventory

    When the pandemic crisis drove waste pickers off the streets, products disappeared from the market due to a lack of packaging and many people panicked, stocking up on raw material as if there were no tomorrow — one company snapped up eighty tons at once. But the message we take from this is clear: the market doesn't stop, and every difficulty leads us to reflect; the secret is not to leave money sitting idle in inventory and to keep investing in machinery, molds, or product, because a crisis is seasonal and passes.

    A crisis for one is an opportunity for others

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:14:19
14. 14

    Don't decide with your gut: the cost reduction that never causes a loss

    When the resin supplier runs out and panic sets in, the temptation is to decide with your gut — and that's when we remember that this isn't always the best option. The way out we show is to start with what is 100% guaranteed: reducing costs, training, and raising awareness among the team, because the operator who discards a deformed part due to lack of knowledge fails to save money every day. And in consulting, on the very first visit we usually identify a significant reduction, one that offsets the investment itself.

    Doing cost reduction is never a wasted investment

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:19:31
15. 15

    If the analysis already pays for the trip, imagine what comes next

    Every time a company calls us to evaluate the process, they invest in our travel, and often just by looking at the factory floor we already identify a problem that covers that cost — and that amount even becomes credit toward the engagement. It's not about replacing equipment, it's about adjusting the process and showing with data that the investment pays off over the long run, because visible waste on the floor is the client's money going down the drain.

    The most that can happen is you get a stubborn operator. Show him this. That's my money right there.

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:24:41
16. 16

    The mold market is speaking and Portal opens the microphone to everyone

    There are mannequin molds, windbanners, dumpsters and selective collection available for those who want to diversify — and demand only tends to grow because of the elections. We opened the channel for you to negotiate directly with those who already have the structure, training and warehouse, and we also invited any company to advertise for free on ROTO Cast and promote their product during our chat.

    Ah, I have a machine to sell, a mold to sell, services to provide too, get in touch with us here and we'll place the ad here on ROTO Cast

    ▶ Watch at approximately 1:29:44