Eight Northern Ireland firms have just returned from a trade fair in South America.

Invest NI supported the visit to the Mining and Construction Equipment Trade Fair, which was held in Sao Paulo, Brazil.

The trade fair, now in its seventh year, features over 350 exhibitors from 25 countries and around 45,000 machinery buyers from South America and other parts of the world.

Major equipment buyers attended from Argentina, Bolivia, Cuba, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela and Uruguay.

Invest NI's Vicky Kell said: "Our market research shows that there are significant and growing opportunities in Brazil, now one of the most important global markets, for construction and quarrying equipment.

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"Business links exist between Brazil, other South American markets particularly Peru, and Northern Ireland. Local engineering companies such as Powerscreen International of Dungannon and Omagh’s Terex Finlay, have already provided machinery to customers in South America over a number of years.

"Brazil is one of a number of markets that we’ve been evaluating as part of our focus on assisting the local construction industry to surmount problems from the downturn in business in the UK, Ireland and Europe.

"Over the past year, we've also encouraged several companies to develop business in India and have also helped others to build business relationships with major construction groups in Saudi Arabia and other parts of the Arabian Gulf," added Ms Kell.

The exhibition was organised and promoted jointly by the Brazilian Association for Technology in Equipment and Maintenance and Alcantara Machado.

(PR/JM)