Coatings World - August 2013

earlier this year would appear to have successfully defused two of the biggest short-term risks to global activity—the threat of a euro area breakup and a sharp fiscal contraction in the United States.

Financial markets saw a strong rally throughout most of the first half of 2013 in response to a variety of factors, most of which are still somewhat baffling to the “market experts.” According to the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF’s) latest World Economic Outlook (WEO) report, financial stability has improved throughout much of the world and the developing economies continue to lead the way on global growth. The IMF has, however, lowered its outlook for the world economy this year, predicting that government spending is stifling U.S. growth somewhat and keeping the euro currency alliance in recession. The IMF recently cut its forecast for global growth from 3. 5 to 3. 3 percent for 2013. Interestingly, the IMF has not adjusted its forecast of 4 percent global growth for 2014 and its higher growth forecasts for the following couple of years.

Taking into account all of the views presented above and balancing them accordingly, it is probably correct to say that the global economy is transitioning into a period of greater stability, although growth will almost certainly be uneven from region to region. The advanced economies will likely continue to experience a bumpy recovery while the developing economies, including many within Asia Pacific, will hopefully continue with their enviable growth rate of recent years.

Overview of the Asian Paint & Coatings
Industry

Throughout 2012, under contract to the International Paint & Printing Ink Council (IPPIC), Orr & Boss, Inc., a leading management consulting firm to the chemicals industry, researched and produced a comprehensive report entitled, Global Paint & Coatings Industry Market Analysis (2011 – 2016). The report was published in December 2012. An important chapter of this global coatings report is the one dedicated to the Asia Pacific region. IPPIC has kindly agreed to let Orr & Boss share some of the important findings of the report in this article.

Asia Pacific is an important
and fast growing region within
the global coatings industry.
While Asia Pacific is generally
viewed as one combined region,
it is not a homogeneous group
of countries in terms of coat-
ings consumption. There are
significant differences in the importance of end use segments
and in the overall size and growth rates of the various countries.