Catching up with Kansai
Kansai Paint Expands in Middle East
As part of its expansion plans in the Middle East region, Japan’s leading
coatings manufacturer recently inaugurated a new plant in Iran.
BY TIM WRIGHT
EDITOR
Kansai Paint, Japan's leading paint manufacturer, with operations in more than 40
countries spanning the globe from
Asia to Europe and North America,
recently expanded its operations in
the Middle East, Central Asian and
North African regions as well as
India and China.
Formed in 1918, Kansai Paint has
since grown to become the 7th
largest paint manufacturer in the
world and with the establishment of
Kansai Paint Middle East (KPME) in
Dubai, UAE, as its window company
for the Middle East, Central Asian
and North African regions including
Iran and Pakistan, Kansai is poised
to serve these markets with its cutting edge technology.
KPME through its wholly owned
subsidiaries has been manufacturing
and selling a complete range of products in Pakistan since 2009 while its
Iran plant was inaugurated on July
11, 2010 by Mr. Shoju Kobayashi,
chairman of Kansai Paint.
According to Mr. Kobayashi,
Kansai Paint is a technology driven
company as opposed to being brand
driven. As such it operates one of the
largest research and development
centers for paint and coating solutions in the world. The firm is
focused on developing leading technology in coatings, spending more
than $50 million annually on
Kansai’s new Iran plant was inaugurated in July 2010.
research and development alone.
With more than $2.7 billion annual
sales and an asset base of approximately $2.6 billion, Kansai Paint operates three state-of-the-art automotive
paint plants from its headquarters in
Osaka, Japan and is the leading supplier of automotive coatings to Toyota,
Suzuki, Nissan, Honda, Peugeot and
Renault worldwide.
Coatings World had the chance to
discuss Kansai’s recent investments
in the Middle East region, as well as
the firm’s broader strategy, with the
chairman, Mr. Kobayashi.
What coatings markets will the new plant in
Iran serve and what is the strategy behind
this capital investment?
The manufacturing plant in Iran will
serve the automotive and industrial
coatings markets within Iran and
some countries in Central Asia. As far
as the reasons for this investment are
concerned, Kansai has been supplying paint to automotive customers in
Iran—alongside Dupont, PPG, BASF,
Henkel and other global players—
since 2005. Kansai’s supply to the
region operated under an import
model. However, this model continued
to become more and more impractical
due to increases in demand and overall volumes. Therefore Kansai established a production base to serve the
Iran market more efficiently.
What is the initial production capacity?
