Additives Market Report
Coatings World discussed conditions in the paint and coatings industry with a select group
of key additives suppliers to the market.
by Tim Wright, Editor
Like most markets, the global recession has presented some unique challenges to the coatings industry. “Raw material availability and pricing have been brought to the forefront
because of supply and demand issues,” said Ron Levitt, regional
sales leader, North America, Shamrock Technologies. “Shamrock
is working closely with our customers to help reduce the impact
of these shortage situations. 2010 was a nice rebound year for us
worldwide, which began toward the end of 2009. We saw strong
growth and are anticipating much of the same for 2011 due to
our focus on customer needs, the improving economy as well as
capitalizing on new opportunities. Customers have been cau-
tiously optimistic about 2011. There is a real ‘we are all in this
together’ attitude out there.”
For Dow Coating Materials, 2010 finished strong compared
with 2009, primarily due to inventory restocking in the value
chain. “Expectations for 2011 are flat compared with 2010, but
we are cautiously optimistic for an economic recovery,” said
Kendall Justiniano, strategic marketing and product line man-
ager, additives, Dow Coating Materials.
“Additives volume follows formulated paint volume, so we’re
generally impacted commensurately from that standpoint,” said
Justiniano. “However, customers are looking for both cost re-
duction and performance differentiation opportunities from their
additive suppliers.”
Pricing and Supply Issues
In terms of current challenges in the market, Justiniano said tight
supplies of TiO2 continue to be a foremost concern among formulators, so the pressure is on suppliers to find additional supply sources or alternate solutions for hiding.
“Dow’s Ropaque polymers are in high demand as a good op-
tion for optimizing and extending the hiding performance of
TiO2,” said Justiniano. “In Europe, Dow has launched a series of
products designed to reduce TiO2 content in solventborne alkyd
gloss and semi-gloss paints by 15 to 30 percent while maintain-
ing or improving gloss and hiding properties and reducing VOC
content. This innovative new product line will soon be expanded
to other regions worldwide.”
For road applications, Dow is also close to launching a high
efficiency, next-generation acrylic binder technology that allows
customers to significantly reduce TiO2 content in waterborne
traffic paint while offering the same quick-drying, high durabil-
34 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
January 2011
