Coatings World - January 2013

Sun Chemical reported that one major trend continues to be the
strong positive usage of high performance and effect pigments in vir-
tually every market. “Another key trend and challenge we saw in
2012 was the sustained high costs of raw materials. Sun Chemical
anticipates that the raw material prices will remain at their current
high levels. However, we are certainly aware of the high degree of
volatility in the global economy. Therefore, we will continue to mon-
itor the key raw material indexes and focus our manufacturing team
on process and raw material productivity. In addition, we continue
to see increases in regulatory compliance costs.”
One way pigments makers can stand apart from the
pack, is by offering consistent, reliable products and services.
“Customers today have a great choice of pigment suppliers but
have learned in the last few years that there is a wide gap be-
tween the reliability of these suppliers,” said Lavieri. “There is
a greater recognition that an unreliable pigment supplier is a
poor business partner and this is driving a shake out of weaker
companies who in the past have had patent protected monopo-
lies. Today, buyers are more savvy and make decisions based on
the entire value proposition including price, reliability and long
term sustainability. Lansco Colors has a strong value proposi-
tion and is thriving in these new market dynamics.”
“Traditionally the classical pigment market has been highly
competitive,” said Wu. “This trend continues. However, we are
now seeing intense competition in many of the specialty, higher

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performance pigments. Prices have already been driven down on all pigments, which may lead to some increase in prices as any increase in cost will need to be passed through. However, we fear short-term intense competition will further reduce margins. Trust Chem is putting more emphasis in 2013 to optimize the production process, lower production cost and improve the product design to help reduce cost. Trust Chem has had some success here in 2012 and is looking at more breakthroughs leading to reduced cost on selected pigments in 2013.

New Developments

Sun Chemical Performance Pigments has invested and will continue to invest heavily on high performance and special effect pigments. “An investment in high performance pigments can yield more in return for our customers than standard pigments,” said Yazdani. “High performance pigments make products that are more appealing to consumers, help businesses become more competitive, grow sales and improve margins. The high performance and special effect pigments market is important for Sun Chemical Performance Pigments and that’s why we recently acquired Benda-Lutz. The acquisition of Benda-Lutz allows Sun Chemical to expand its product portfolio in metallic effects to our core coatings markets and increase our global footprint in pigments and effects.