On May 6-10, Brazil hosted Expomafe, Latin America’s most-attended manufacturing technology show. Here are some quick facts relevant to this massive market, the show, and the industrial demand it aims to drive in the region:
The country’s population is projected to close 2025 with 218.5 million people.
Brazil is the world’s 10th-largest economy and Latin America’s largest economy.
Brazil is a founding member of Mercosul, a trade bloc for South American economies, which it will lead as president beginning June 6.
Brazil is working toward fully implementing a trade agreement with the EU.
It is the only country in Latin America with a domestic aircraft manufacturing base – which supports more than 16 aircraft manufacturers, including Embraer, the world’s third-largest jet manufacturer – as well as a machine tool base and a tooling manufacturing base.
Brazil boasts strong and prominent industries in the automotive, aerospace, machinery, tooling, software, agriculture, electronic, and electric sectors.
In its largest edition ever, Expomafe 2025 exceeded all expectations. It filled an exhibition space of 90,000 square meters, welcomed more than 50,000 attendees, and showcased more than 900 domestic and international brands during the week. Pavilions from Germany, Spain, Italy, Taiwan, China, India, and others took part in the show.
A very diverse audience of representatives from global companies met and started conversations with exhibitors. Companies such as Petrobras, Novonor, Tupy, Whirlpool, Audi, ZF, BMW, Embraer, Schulz, Scania, Volvo, Mercedes, Cummins, Taurus, Fiat, VW, and many others attended.
The five-day show was well rounded, and visitors noted that it presented a broad array of industrial solutions to support the increasingly sophisticated expectations of industrial customers.
Brazil’s total output of manufacturing goods in 2024 was close to $300 billion, with expectations for continued growth.
Brazil consumed more than $6 billion of manufacturing technology products in 2024, and demand for machine tools grew more than 13% year over year.
Brazil has emerged as a significant market contributor to the global industrial robot market, which is projected to grow at a CAGR of over 10% across various sectors from 2025 to 2033.
Brazil is undergoing a major effort to reinvent itself and is seeking to increase its standing as a global industrial powerhouse, as well as in oil and gas, farming, automotive, appliances, electronics, aviation, and iron and steel. The tradition for southern Brazil to be a large contributor to the country’s GDP remains, so during the show, an array of very sophisticated solutions for asset management, programming, value-add processing, welding, and more were introduced, as the economy expects to adopt and understand the current manufacturing trends around the world.
AMT – The Association For Manufacturing Technology also opened an information booth at Expomafe 2025. Additionally, more than 80 member companies exhibited directly or through their distribution partners during the week, highlighting expectations for the introduction of advanced manufacturing solutions in Brazil. According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, the country is one of the few in Latin America still forecasting solid economic and industrial growth in 2025 despite global market uncertainty caused by tariffs worldwide.
The Brazilian customer base for manufacturing technology or digital solutions mainly focuses on:
Technology. The market is interested in exploring state-of-the-art solutions, especially where the ROI clearly justifies the cost.
Domestic/local representation. For any global company to be successful in Brazil, there is a need for a level playing field, or as understood by the customer base, the availability of product, spare parts, technical support in Portuguese, and strong local representation near their operations.
Commitment to the market. The Brazilian customer base demands clear signals of commitment to the market.
AMT maintains a knowledge base and professional relationships in Brazil even when executed remotely from McLean, Virginia, and Monterrey, Mexico. We work to support member companies doing business in Brazil or help them capitalize on the country’s many opportunities. We offer experienced, well-connected guidance in navigating complex issues related to international trade, regulations, logistics, financing, and customer expectations.
For additional information on the opportunities presented at Expomafe 2025, the overall manufacturing market, or the array of services AMT maintains and offers remotely for Brazil, please contact Carlos Mortera, senior director of Latin America, at cmortera@AMTonline.org, or Achilles Arbex, director of Latin America, at aarbex@AMTonline.org.
