Coatings World - August 2015

Catherine Diamond, Associate Editor

The high performance and special effects pigments market is expected to continue steady growth over the next few years. Smithers Rapra, a global provider of consulting services, conferences, training and market reports, recently published a report titled The Future of High Performance Pigments to 2017. According to the report, developing markets are largely responsible for continued progress.

“Despite a global recession and sky rocketing raw material prices, the market for high-performance pigments (HPPs) continues to grow, particularly in emerging markets like China and India,” the report stated. “Increased demand for differentiation and appearance in the packaging sector is driving growth, and emerging print processes such as inkjet are also having a positive impact on this market.”

A Growing Market

Regionally there is a significant difference in outlook and per-
formance for high performance pigments. “China’s growth
rate has slowed, but it still is growing,” said Michael T.
Venturini, global marketing manager, Coatings, Sun Chemical
Performance Pigments. “We see the implementation of VOC
regulations driving changes in paint technology and subse-
quent modifications in pigments. Brazil’s economy has soft-
ened and has affected all segments of the coatings market. It
may be some time before we see Brazil’s markets return to
growth. Europe’s automotive sector is showing modest signs
of recovery, but the overall market remains very fluid because
of currency shifts. The U.S., however, is performing better than
other regions as a result of improved home sales and automo-
tive sales. The automotive sector is a particular bright spot be-
cause of the trend toward trucks and SUV’s and the increased
popularity of chromatic colors.”
William L. Baker, vice president of North American
Operations – Industrial at Sudarshan, said that the market has
shown continued demand and growth in both specialty organic
pigments and special effect pigments.

“This, of course, is region-dependent, and the currency
challenges have taken a toll over the past year,” he said. “In
particular, dollar based production is more adversely affected
than Euro based production, thereby making manufacturers in
Europe at a recent advantage.”
Baker said that China is a focus for Sudarshan because of its
growth potential.

“China is a large opportunity for Sudarshan, as we have a rela-
tively small market share in a country with strong growth and poten-
tial,” he said. “With our existing channels to market, we are finding
this region to have particularly strong growth for Sudarshan.”
“Most customers work on raw material cost reduction pro-
grams, and that is where pigment manufacturers can find op-
portunities. On the high performance side, Trust Chem has seen
growth with new products such as PR202, PV19, PBr25, PY185
and PY155,” Orlowski said.

In terms of its focus on emerging markets, Trust Chem has a global sales network that is headquartered in Hangzhou, China. “We are greatly imbedded into the Chinese market with four production facilities there,” he said.

Orlowski added, “The U.S. automotive market is still one
of the largest users for high performance pigments. With the
largest independent pigment lab in China equipped with an
automated spray booth, Trust Chem is increasing focus in
this area.”
“Our sales grow with double digit increases year over year
due to our success at bringing customers high performance pig-
ments at fair prices,” said Frank Lavieri, executive vice presi-
dent and general manager at Lansco Colors. “Lansco Colors
was the leader in bringing alternatives to previously patent
protected products and has grown to a market leading supplier
for high performance pigments. 20 years ago Clariant, Ciba
and BASF enjoyed patent protected monopolies for high per-
formance pigments which are now gone. Not coincidently all
of these company names either are already out of the pigment
business or have announced they will jettison their pigment
businesses by 2016.”