Efforts to grow our businesses depend in part upon access to and developing and maintaining market share and profitability in additional geographic markets, including, but not limited to, Argentina, Brazil, CIS, China, India, and South Africa. Particularly, we have invested significant resources to grow our operations in Brazil, and in 2024, we built a research and development center in Indaiatuba. We may not realize the benefits from our investment in Brazil or in other regions and may be unable to grow our market share for a variety of reasons. For example, some countries where we operate have greater political and economic volatility and greater infrastructure vulnerability than others. There are various risks associated with our global footprint, including, but not limited to, the following:
The occurrence of one or more of these events has, from time to time, impacted, and may in the future impact, our business in a variety of ways, including reducing demand for our products, increasing costs, limiting our ability to operate in certain jurisdictions, disrupting our ability to deliver products to customers on time and at competitive prices, subjecting us to fines, penalties, and sanctions, harming our competitive position, devaluation of assets, and impacting our financials.
Please also refer to the risk factors in the “Legal and Regulatory Compliance Risks” section below that address our legal and regulatory risks associated with our international operations.