Coatings World - January 2010

Woolven, Sudarshan: The trends driving the market are lower costs, better quality and service—certainly not new trends. With consolidation in the traditional supplier base, and manufacturing operations and other overheads in high value currency markets, our customers are seeking alternatives who can provide economic value, while maintaining focus on what’s important—the customer—a challenge the large global players have while they spend time looking in the mirror.

Li Zhi, Trust Chem China: Governments are putting increasing pressure in India and China to improve environmental protection. This has already created and may continue to create spot supply problems and may effect pricing on selected pigments. Trust Chem has been investing in their own factories and monitoring this situation with their partner factories to minimize price and supply instability for their customers. An increasing number of high performance pigments are being made in China and Trust Chem is a leader with significant investments made in 2009 and additional expansion planned for 2010. The REACH program in Europe will increasingly become an issue for Asian pigments suppliers and their customers in 2010 and 2011. Trust Chem has made the financial commitment to register for REACH a wide range of pigments from multiple factories to support their European customers. In the U.S. the competition is intense and Trust Chem USA has positioned themselves to be a leader in quality, service and value.

CW: Have you seen any improvement in the economy? Do you think there will be improvements for 2010?

Liebelt, BASF: There is evidence that
the economy has begun to stabilize,
although any growth is likely to occur at
a low rate. Some segments have begun
to turn around, and the suppliers that
have brought innovation to their cus-
tomer base over the past few years will
be in a better position to succeed.

Falko, Clariant: Clariant has seen increased business in the third quarter of 2009 and some spike in the fourth quarter. We expect that the economy will recover partially in 2010 but not all the way to 2009 levels.

Adachi, Toyo: When compared to the robust first-half of 2008, revenues of high-performance pigments for LCDs will post a decline. Demand, however, is now rapidly rebounding. We expect hikes in raw material prices as well as a shift in demand from developed nations to emerging ones to continue in 2010.

Woolven, Sudarshan: Sudarshan’s business is presently largely based in India, as such, we have experienced double digit growth, a testimonial to our value proposition in a competitive marketplace. We are certain there will be improvements for us in 2010 as we gain traction in new markets previously not served by us.

Campbell, Trust Chem USA: Trust
Chem expects improvements in the
U.S. and European economies in 2010
and of course improvements in our
business. In Europe we are expecting
a slow recovery of the existing busi-
ness and more importantly because
of the development of many new
quality pigments, we are optimistic
we will see recovery back to 2008
sales levels. In the U.S., although we
expect economic improvements to be
gradual, we are expecting rapid
growth of the Trust Chem business.
Pigment users are generally slow to
change, but an increasing number of
customers are responding favorably
to our products and the value they
offer.

CW: What end market areas are driving growth in pigments? Conversely, what areas are flat?

Yazdani, Sun: In the graphic arts market, the increasing use of nonimpact printing methods such as ink jet means increased demand for high performance pigments at the expense of those conventional pigments used in traditional printing inks. From the market segment viewpoint, we expect continued growth in cosmetics, specialties and niche markets. We also expect flat to declining market growth in automotive, architectural and ink markets. The trend for more efficient cars in the automotive market will see a reduction in paint consumption, however, it will also increase the demand for color. This trend will help to fuel the continued growth in high performance and effect pigments.

Adachi, Toyo: Due to growth in LCD demand in countries like China and Japan, demand for pigments is also bouncing back. Toyo Ink is also seeing business growth in pigments for LCDs through the acquisition of new customers and other methods. The printing inks market, however, continues to slump in developed countries such as Japan, Europe and the U.S.

Woolven, Sudarshan: We see durable goods, such as construction and transportation, most negatively impacted by the economic downturn, while consumables continue to grow due to improvements in living standards in developing countries.