Resins Market Panel Discussion
For this year’s annual resins market update, Coatings World asked a panel of experts
to address key issues facing the market including the economy, new technology and
strategies for moving forward in 2010. The panel is made up of individuals from some
of the world’s largest and most diverse resins suppliers including BASF, Eliokem,
DSM NeoResins+ and Celanese.
BY TIM WRIGHT
EDITOR
How did the resins market
perform in 2009? How did this
compare to 2008 and what are
your predictions for this year?
Uwe Liebelt, group vice president, dispersions and pigments, BASF North
America: The market for resins in
2009 was strongly influenced by the
respective markets in which the end
products are used. Products commonly
used for printing, packaging, construction and general industrial applications were subject to the continued
weak market conditions in these segments. Some of these markets were
temporarily down as much as 40 percent or more in 2009 versus 2008.
Others such as the do-it-yourself
(DIY) market segment didn’t suffer
that much because customers changed
their consumption pattern. For example, instead of buying or building new
homes, money was spent on repairs
and renovations.
We definitely have seen the demand
side improving during the first months
of 2010 versus 2009. It seems as
though this improvement goes beyond
a simple refilling of the pipeline and
we are confident that it will continue
throughout 2010. However, different
market segments will recover at different paces. In some areas, such as the
publication sector, a significant upswing is aggravated by structural
issues in the industry. Whereas areas
like packaging might continue to benefit from an increase in online shopping.
Key trends in today’s coating resins market include regulatory and environmental conditions
along with the demand for improved performance and lower cost. Price fluctuations and the
availability of the raw materials used to make resins continues to have an impact as well.
Steve Wilson, coating resins marketing
manager, Eliokem: The resin market
began to rebound in 2009 likely to a
level of 85 to 90 percent of the previous year. Some of this was due to the
manufacturer’s low inventories at the
end of 2008. It is likely 2010 will
resemble performance of 2009
because customers are watching inventory levels and monitoring working capital. Also, the construction
industry is still lagging.
the overall economy. North American
GDP was down in 2009 over 2008. Our
customers in both the paint and adhesives segments saw reduced demand
year over year for their goods. Our customers are noting that the downward
trend seems to have leveled off and
they hope for a stable to slight increase
in 2010.
Jared Elliott, marketing manager,
paints and coatings, Celanese Emulsion
Polymers: The resins market mirrored
Dimitri de Vreeze, business unit director, DSM NeoResins+: In 2009 we saw
a decline in the lower end market
demand. The crisis forced many companies in the long supply chains of
resins to lower their stock levels,
