Coatings World - October 2013

The auto refinish market continues to struggle although it is slowly growing despite the many challenges, and many are hoping that economic improvements will help the market to grow further.

“We continue to find the market challenging, but ‘challeng-
ing’ is getting to be the norm,” said Kerstin Stranimaier, mar-
keting director, AkzoNobel automotive and aerospace coatings.
“We’re optimistic that improvements overall in the U.S. econ-
omy will help us in one of our most important markets, but I
think people there are still being pretty cautious about how they
spend their money. In any case, new car sales in North America
are doing quite well, and that should be an indicator of more
disposable income, including, we hope, that people are more
willing to spend money on collision repairs as well. But Western
Europe is still very difficult, and now we also have our concerns
about some of the growth markets over the past few years – es-
pecially Indonesia, Brazil, and India.”
PPG found that they were experiencing growth in value on a
global level, due to positive dynamics in countries such as India
and Eastern Europe.

“The mature NAFTA markets and Western Europe are more
challenging due to trends such as lower miles driven and a de-
crease in leased vehicle volume,” explained John Outcalt, vice
president, PPG global refinish. “Increased use of higher solids
coatings and more accurate color mixing systems, which reduce
waste, are also contributing factors. On the positive side, PPG
is benefiting from a significant increase in waterborne basecoat
volume as collision centers respond to stiffer VOC regulations
and the benefits of transitioning to this advanced technology
become more realized.”

Trends and Challenges

The industry continues to focus on VOC legislation, causing changes within the market.

“VOC legislation will continue to be an industry focus,” said
Paul Whittleston, vice president business management, BASF
automotive refinish business North America. “Legislative activi-
ties have slowed recently but collision repair centers will need to
be prepared to make changes to how they do business and they
will be looking to their suppliers for answers.”
Strict VOC legislation governing refinish products impact
collision centers and products in compliance with regulations.

“As a result, collision shops in Western Europe, Canada, California and, most recently, Delaware and Maryland have made the technological shift to waterborne basecoat systems,” said Outcalt. “Worldwide, there are now some 28,000-plus collision centers using a PPG waterborne basecoat system, including more than 9,000 in North America. Typically in the past, a move to products with lower VOC content did not quite match the level of performance of the products they replaced. From PPG’s experience, this doesn’t hold true with our waterborne basecoat technology.”