Coatings World - July 2011

ually moving towards high quality products in the medium-to-long term due to increasing quality expectation,” said Paju.

With its global Dulux and Sadolin brands, AkzoNobel also has a big presence in the Russian premium decorative paints sector while Germany’s Caparol is another player in the sector in which Russian producers have made virtually no inroads.

AkzoNobel has also been expanding sales in a range of other sectors in Russia, such as marine, protective, powder, wood and automotive coatings. “(We) plan substantial growth of our activities there in the years to come,” said a company official.

Hempel, the Danish-based industrial and decorative paints producer, is the latest EU company to invest in its first manufacturing facility in Russia where it has been building up a distribution and marketing infrastructure.

“We’ve had a very good experience
with our organization in Russia and (we)
have become well established in the mar-
ket,” said Kim Junge Andersen, Hempel’s
chief financial officer. “This plant will sig-
nificantly increase our ability to service
our customers in the region.”
In most coatings segments Russian
producers have tended to concentrate on
the low and medium priced categories.
They have also taken advantage of their
relatively large-scale production plants to
export coatings and raw materials to
neighbouring central Asian countries.

When domestic demand slows down, exports tend to go up as a proportion of output. In 2009 they accounted for around 12 percent of production, while during last year’s rapid growth in consumption they fell to 7. 5 percent.

However Russian coating companies are gradually becoming more competitive in their own market as they invest in new process and product technologies.

Empils based at Rostov-on-Don has been modernizing its production plants and upgrading its coatings in the decorative, wood and pipe coatings sectors. In particular it has been increasing its capacity for waterborne coatings for which there has been strong demand in Russia.

Last year its coatings sales went up by
six percent while those for water-disper-
sion paints rose by 30 percent. The com-
pany is expecting paints and varnish sales
to rise by around 15 percent in 2011.

Use grind gages more consistently.

Little Joe Industries offers the ADM Automatic Draw-Down Machine for use with grind gages. The ADM automates the draw down process controlling scraper angle, speed, and force. Since these aspects are no longer operator dependent your grind gage draw-downs will be more consistent while requiring less operator training and supervision.