The characteristic discipline of the Chinese people and the ease of dealing with entrepreneurs from the Asian continent were vital for Pancomex, a family business specializing in foreign trade, to establish ties on the other side of the world. Headquartered in Curitiba (PR) and with only four employees, it exports monthly more than 2,000 tons of iron ores, copper, manganese, niobium, tantalum and ground-minerals (ore used in the manufacture of photographic camera lenses). Currently, it is undergoing a process of market opening to commercialize agricultural commodities (soy, coffee and corn). Importers from China, India and South Korea are among the company’s customers in 2014.
At the head of the company, a professional multifaceted, Letícia Chun Pei Pan, is divided between the dental office and the routine of procedures necessary for international sales. The interest in acting in the East is of family origin. His father, Pan Yi Bo, left the province of Henan in Central China in the 1960s to settle in Brazil. “I was ‘trained’ to develop the sense of use, finding the useful in the useless, the organization and, above all, the discipline.”
Pancomex was able to record a sevenfold increase in first-quarter revenue in the first four months of 2018. Working with Chinese entrepreneurs, she says, requires a high degree of professionalism. “It requires, above all, transatlantic and commitment in the negotiations and almost permanent availability, mainly due to the time zone between the countries.”
Diversification
In 2018, Pancomex ceased to be just an ore buyer and started exploration for copper and manganese, niobium, tantalum and rare earth mining in Pará and Rondônia. Without revealing details of the operation, it intends to broaden its global performance.
The entire process of understanding the rules of fiscal and accounting legislation of foreign trade is supported by Eaco Consultoria e Contabilidade. Kimberly Xavier, a member of the accounting department of the affiliate GBrasil in Curitiba (PR), reports that “one of Eaco’s missions is to assist the client in making decisions, offering accounting as an important management tool.”
If trust and credibility are essential to winning over Asian clients, Leticia is betting on the Chinese resilience present in her personality. “I was educated to keep the results obtained through repetition and practice.
- This is a content of the magazine Gestão Empresarial nº 44. To access the edition in its entirety, click here.
