Coatings World - August 2014

Marine Coatings
August 2014 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 29

Key issues impacting the market include environmental regulations and oversupply of vessels, resulting in reduced newbuilds.

“The marine coatings marketplace is a sizeable and diverse
industry consisting primarily of large, ocean traveling commer-
cial vessels,” said Tom Molenda, global director of marine coat-
ings, PPG Industries. “2013 was a mixed year for this segment.
Conditions were difficult due to an oversupply of vessels and
not enough demand for cargo. However, freight rates stabilized
and even began to grow slightly. Demand for newly built ves-
sels was on the rise providing an increase in this area for the
first time in several years. While the marketplace will continue
to be a challenging one in 2014, there are some signs that the
bottom has been reached and forecasts indicate improvement in
the coming years.”
“The overall marine industry has been under a lot of pressure
due to oversupply of vessels, which has resulted in falling freight
rates,” said Dave Heflin, regional director marine coatings North
and Central America, AkzoNobel. “Marine coatings demand has
been affected by a reduction in the demand for new marine ves-
sels. The market has also been impacted by reduced maintenance
budgets for existing vessels resulting in lower freight costs.”
Heflin reported that the market did show some signs of im-
provement in 2013 as the market moved into a better supply-
demand balance. “We expect that trend to continue,” he added.
“There has been considerable growth in the oil and offshore
industry, which use many of the same coatings. Key areas of
growth have been with natural gas facilities and floating pro-
duction and storage and offloading (FPSO) units.”
There are several factors contributing to growth in the ma-
rine coatings market. One major factor is the recent growth of
the global fleet and the subsequent need for drydocking.

“The global marine fleet has been growing in terms of DWT (dead weight tonnage) during the last few years,” said Christian Ottosen, group marine marketing director, Hempel. “This is primarily due to the significant newbuilding inflow between 2009 and 2011, which is now coming into drydocking for the first time. The high activity in the newbuilding industry during 2009- 2011 has led to overcapacity in several shipping segments and “Despite signs of the newbuilding industry stabilizing towards the end of 2013 and in the first quarter of 2014, the newbuilding market is still very volatile, and industry focus remains clearly on decreasing the total cost of vessel operation and improving the fuel efficiency of existing and new vessels,” Ottosen added.

Despite these challenges, there are some bright spots in this marketplace.

“One thing contributing to growth is the expansion in the overall global shipping trade, which is having a positive effect on the coatings market,” said Heflin. “There is also growth in the offshore market, they use the same types of coatings as the marine coatings market. As well as growth coming from the overall expansion of the market, there is particularly strong growth for products with environmental advantages and proven performance.

“While there are many factors that drive the demand for ma-
rine coatings, one of the most significant contributions is over-
all world economic growth and world trade,” said Molenda.
“Other factors include improving freight rates.”
Geographic speaking the vast majority of demand for marine
coatings is in the Asia region, but there is sizable demand on a
global basis as well.