International Coatings Scene
LATIN AMERICA
BY CHARLES W. THURSTON
LATIN AMERICAN CORRESPONDENT
THURSTONCW@RODPUB.COM
Trinidad’s economy is growing
Trinidad’s
growth
heats
industrial
coatings
demand.
The robust economy of oil and gas-pro-ducing Trinidad & Tobago is driving
a strong demand for industrial coatings, which are primarily being supplied by
imports, according to a source at Sissons
Paint, in Chaguanas. The latest large contract for industrial coatings went to
ShawCor’s Bredero Shaw division for
approximately $51 million worth of concrete weight coatings for an estimated 50
miles of Trinidad & Tobago National Gas
Co.’s (NGC) pipeline projects.
Bredero Shaw plans to move two compression coat technology concrete weight coating
plants to Trinidad and begin coating during
second quarter 2009.
The project includes the 36-inch northeastern offshore pipeline, from BHP
Billiton’s offshore facility to NGC’s network,
and includes the 12-inch Tobago pipelines
from BHP Billiton’s facility to Cove Estate
on the island’s south coast.
Oil and gas, methanol, ammonia and urea
production will help expand the economy by
5.5% this year, following an exceptional
11.9% GDP growth rate in 2007.
Trinidad is the world’s fifth-largest producer of liquid natural gas and the largest
supplier of LNG to the U.S., so much more
pipeline development is planned. Prime
Minister Patrick Manning is promoting a
plan to build a $500 million natural gas
pipeline network up the Antillean Islands
chain to Puerto Rico, predicting a 30% energy cost savings for the linked islands.
Another pipeline, to deliver Venezuelan
crude oil to Trinidad for downstream processing, has been proposed by Petróleos de
Venezuela S.A., but lacks sufficient private
sector investors, thanks to Venezuela’s
renewed habit of nationalizing industries.
In addition, a major industrial project
that would use natural gas feedstocks is the
proposed $1 billion man-made Oropouche
Bank industrial island, being proposed by
the country’s National Energy Corp. NEC
recently hired Italian engineering firm
Technital to perform preliminary design
work for the island which would cover
approximately 3,500 acres. Among energy-intensive projects planned for the new
island is an aluminum smelter. Iron, ethylene, propylene and other petrochemical
projects are now on the drawing boards.
At this point, imported industrial coatings
have “saturated the market,” the Sissons
source says. Sissons, a subsidiary of
Venezuela’s Corimon, does not produce
heavy industrial coatings in Trinidad, but
does produce light industrial maintenance
coatings under the Sissons Industrial
Coatings brand, including oil-based enamels, the source says. Sissons primarily produces architectural coatings in Trinidad and
in Grenada, according to Roger
Brathweaite, a Sissons color consultant in
St. Georges, Grenada.
Trinidad & Tobago’s total paint market,
including all segments, amounted to approximately two million gallons, another
Sissions source suggested several years ago.
If the paint and coatings market has accompanied GDP expansion, it would be close to
2.75 million gallons now.
The country’s $8 billion-plus economy provides an annual per capita income of $6,200
for its 1.3 million inhabitants, which is very
high for the region.
Government sponsorship of housing
development could help raise architectural
segment sales, at the same time as industrial and infrastructure spending—for
roads and the airport—will boost industrial
coatings sales. CW
