Fresh Paint
bus manufacturer. BASF Coatings’ CTS
division covers the large business segment comprising transport and commercial vehicles including trucks, busses and
agricultural machines.
JOTUN INAUGURATES
NEW PAINT FACTORY
Jotun Saudia inaugurated a new state of
the art paint factory in Yanbu. The com-
pany invested SAR100 million (roughly
US$27 million) in the factory that will
exclusively produce waterborne paints.
With the inauguration of the new factory
Jotun’s installed production capacity in
the Saudi Arabia is 110 million liters of
paint, making it one of the largest in the
Middle East.
TOYOTA APPROVES PPG
CLEARCOATS FOR LEXUS REPAIRS
Toyota has endorsed the worldwide use
of clearcoats from the Global Refinish
System, Deltron GRS and Nexa
Autocolor coatings product lines from
PPG’s automotive refinish business for
repair of Lexus LS vehicles. The
approved products are Global Refinish
System D8126 clearcoat, D8122
CeramiClear clearcoat, Nexa Autocolor
P190-6490 clearcoat and Nexa Autocolor
P190-6512 SR ceramic clearcoat. Lexus
recently adopted a newly developed
OEM clear coating for its LS models.
A PROFILE OF THE RUSSIAN PAINT INDUSTRY
IRL has published a new edition of its title, “A Profile of the Russian Paint
Industry,” which now contains data for 2009. The study points to Russia having
a decorative paint market of 800,000 tons and an industrial coatings market of
510,000 tons. Future growth in the decorative sector will arise from general economic development and spending power. The industrial coatings sector will be
busy recouping lost ground from 2009, which has hit the automotive and powder coatings sectors in particular.
Environmental awareness is one of the key drivers in the Russian decorative
paint market, even in the absence of Russian legislation in this regard. There
is a rising awareness in Russia of environmental, health and lifestyle factors.
This awareness is contributing to an upsurge in the market for low-VOC
paints. Throughout 2009, there has been more emphasis on low-quality paint
and coatings, including the emergence of a super-economy sub-segment, which
is likely to disappear as the decorative market picks up again from 2010
onward. The Russian decorative paint market divides fairly evenly between
DIY and professional applications, which will be driven by a return to the middle market in the future.
One of the key long-term drivers for the Russian coatings market will be the
arrival of the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, in 2014. Construction and protective coatings demand associated with the structures for this event will be a
strong point for the paint industry. However, industrial coatings segments associated with OEM applications are the parts of the market that have been hit
hardest. To this end, the coming years are likely to witness regrowth in the
automotive OEM and powder coatings sectors, which have been hit hard by a
fall in consumer demand and hence production in their end-use markets.
IRL forecasts that the total Russian paint market should rise from a total of
1,310,000 tons in 2009 to 1,687,000 tons in 2014. It is the OEM-based segments
that will represent the best growth opportunities as consumer spending starts
to rise again.
The Russian paint and coatings sector faces an uphill battle in terms of its
balance of trade. Although the continued ingress of Western paint makers into
Russia is good for both markets and technology, the Russian paint industry is
not able to compete effectively in international markets, and certainly not all
that well in Europe. To this end, the steadily encroaching effects of REACH legislation are a threat to some Russian paint companies, but not, perhaps, the
multinationals that are already there.
OLYMPIC INTERIOR PAINTS AND
EXTERIOR STAINS EARNED THE
GOOD HOUSEKEEPING SEAL
Joining Olympic Paints, which was
granted the Good Housekeeping Seal in
early 2009, the PPG’s entire Olympic
Exterior Stains line of Maximum
sealants and stains, as well as Olympic
Wood Protector sealants and stains, will
carry the consumer-trusted Good
Housekeeping Seal beginning in spring
2010.
COMEX INDUSTRIAL COATINGS
HELPING TO REHABILITATE THE
MCDONALD OBSERVATORY
The Comex Group, through its Comex
Industrial Coatings (CIC) business, is an
integral part of the ongoing four phase
rehabilitation project at the McDonald
Observatory, a research unit of the
University of Texas at Austin. CIC coatings are being used to protect the sensitive and expensive equipment housed in
the various buildings. Approximately
14,000 sq. ft. of external surface area is
currently covered with CIC product.
Specifically, that’s 300 gallons (two coats)
of surface tolerant E- 10 Epoxy and 150
gallons (one coat) of high solids U- 10
Urethane.
JOTUN SECURES MAJOR
PROJECT IN INDONESIA
Jotun recently won a major power plant
coatings project in Indonesia. The 10,000
megawatt project will be completed during 2009-2014 for which Jotun will sup-
