Resins Market Update
Bridget Klebaur, Associate Editor
The resins market for 2014 has continued to show signs of recovery from the economic downturn, and business is continuing to hold steady.
Sylvia Insogna, North American marketing director, Dow
Coating Materials, said that Dow is optimistic for the 2014 resins market. “As a whole, we are optimistic that the 2014 resins
market will continue to show recovery, especially as the global
architectural coatings market enters the growth mode, led by
the rebounding U.S. housing market and continued growth in
paint purchasing in emerging economies,” Insogna said.
John Hiel, North America marketing manager, Arkema
Resins explained that the market is still in recovery from the
past few years of economic turmoil. “The industrial resins mar-
ket is slowly recovering from the economic downturn, but the
results are mixed. Some segments, such as automotive and coil
coatings are recovering more rapidly than others,” Hiel said.
“The architectural coatings market showed mid- to high single-
digit growth in 2013 as both the DIY and PRO sectors ben-
efited from a rebound in the existing homes sales. Unit turnover
and property upkeep demands as a result of increased mobility
of renters and homeowners were the drivers of gallon growth.
Construction activity was strong too.”
Yasmin Sayed-Sweet, vice president of sales and marketing,
Alberdingk Boley Inc. explained that they have seen improve-
ments in the market over the past two years, although the growth
is regional and is strongly dependent on the end use market.
Julie A. Fuell, sales director, Reichhold, said that they saw
slight improvements this year.
“While we saw slight improvements in 2013 from the economic downturn, 2014 projections are more promising due to
improved housing starts and overall GDP growth projections
for the coatings sector.” Fuell said.
Steve Reiser, vice president of sales and marketing, Specialty
Polymers Inc., explained that in 2013 the polymer business continued to recover from the economic downturn.
BASF noted that the coatings market is continuing to show
slow growth that follows the GDP growth for 2014.
The Georgia-Pacific Chemicals coatings business held steady
during the recent economic downturn.
“The feeling from our customers is that, in general, it has
been a solid year, said Rod L. Smith, senior account manager
coatings, Georgia-Pacific Chemicals LLC. “There is an increased
focus on looking forward and on growth, rather than focusing
on the impact of the downturn. At Georgia-Pacific Chemicals
we are concentrating on meeting future customer needs. “
Emerald said that specialty resins segment has recovered to
pre-recession levels, and is continuing to grow.
“We have seen strong demand for our performance epoxy
resins and reactive liquid polymers,” said Charles Zarnitz, direc-
tor of sales and marketing for Emerald’s CVC thermoset spe-
cialties business group. “These materials are typically used in
demanding applications such as industrial maintenance, primers
in automotive and aerospace and concrete coatings. “
Celanese also found that there has been modest recovery in 2013.
“New construction and existing home sales were both up con-
siderably and helped to fuel some growth in 2013,” said Brad
Moncla, marketing manager, Celanese. “One challenge observed
though is the disconnect between the growth in existing home
sales and paint sales. Over the past few decades, there has been
a very close relationship between existing home sales and paint
demand. In 2013, existing home sales grew by about 10% over
2012. Paint sales grew by only half of that figure. In 2014 and
beyond, it will be instructive to see if this was an aberration and if
there are changing dynamics in what drives consumers to paint.”
Dow found that customers were working to enhance their
formulations to meet consumer demand for high-performing,
highly functional and sustainable paint.
“Our customers are working to enhance their formulations to
meet consumer demand for high-performing, highly functional,
more sustainable paint,” Insogna said. “Among these demands
are resins that help formulators develop paint using fewer raw
materials like titanium dioxide while increasing hiding and life
cycle to help boost a paint’s sustainability. Formulators are also
looking to develop high performance paint that is easy to use,
dries quickly, looks perfect and lasts long while looking fresh
and new every day. New resin technology can enhance resis-
tance to household stains and dirt pickup while blocking tannin
stains and resisting corrosion along with providing high hiding
properties. When it comes to functionality, consumers expect
their paint to have staying power, but also want easy applica-
tion, including formulations that combine primer and paint.
They are also expecting paint with less odor.”
Hiel said that end-use customers continually focus on reduc-
ing film weights and numbers of layers in multiple coat systems.
“These higher performance expectations demand higher perfor-
mance resins, especially in the areas of corrosion resistance,” he
said.
Fuell said that Reichhold sees many demands from customers
