High Performance Pigments Market

The Asia region – particularly China and India – continues
to drive growth for the HPP industry. “Growth of high perfor-
mance pigments is over-proportionally coming from countries
within the Asia region,” said Dr. Stefan Ohren, head of product
management High Performance Polycyclic Pigments, Clariant
Plastics & Coatings. “India is, for example, growing much
faster than other markets. Clariant Plastics & Coatings has
long had a well-established position in India. Our Marketing
& Sales Organization, as well as the location of pigment prod-
uct plants in both Roha and Cuddalore and dispersion plants
in Roha and Nagda, are well-positioned to serve many coun-
tries in the Asia region.”
“The manufacturing of HPPs has been concentrated in ei-
ther India or China for a considerable number of years,“ noted
Robert Poemer, business unit leader, Heucotech Ltd. “In these
countries there are both world-class suppliers as well as second
tier suppliers. The second tier suppliers produce products that
can be used in some marginal applications and also to drive the
pricing down on the world-class suppliers.“
Heubach Colour has been in operation in the Gujarat prov-
ince of India. “We produce a wide variety of organic piments in
our facilities including phthalos, indanthrones, quinacridones,
DPP and benzimidazolens,“ Poemer added. “Our facilities
are 100 percent owned and operated by the Heubach Group.
Overall we are seeing an increasing demand of higher quality
products also in the emerging markets.“
India is increasing its production capacities for HPPs, but not
at the same rate as China, according to Orlowski. “As a Chinese
based manufacturer, Trust Chem has a solid footprint in manu-
facturing and sales in the Asian Pacific region, while also hav-
ing significant sales in the Indian market. The North American
and European markets are still the most significant markets for
HPP’s globally.”
HPP manufacturers are constantly being challenged by their
customers to develop products that meet increasingly demanding
performance requirements. As a result HPP producer are launch-
ing products featuring excellent durability, color strength, dispers-
ibility in a range of resin systems and environmental compliance.

Clariant offers quinacridone pigments based on renewable
raw materials as part of its commitment to sustainability. “As
an example we promote our ‘Pink going Green’ as Clariant uses
renewable raw materials to create bio-based high performance
quinacridone pigments for automotive, industrial and decorative
coatings applications,” said Dr. Stefan Ohren, head of Product
Management High Performance Polycyclic Pigments, Clariant
Plastics & Coatings. “Hostaperm Pink E (Pigment Red 122),
one of Clariant’s most important polycyclic pigments based on
renewable bio-succinic acid, represents Clariant’s switch to re-
newable raw material without changes in the product quality
and the guaranteed specification.”
Heubach Colour in India has recently commissioned a fa-
cility for the manufacture of Indanthrone Blue Crude (PB60).
“Heubach is the only company that controls the manufac-
ture of Indanthrone Blue from the manufacture of the crude
through the final manufacture of a product that is widely used
in the automotive OEM and refinish areas,“ said Poemer.
“As a result of this investment, we are introducing three new
shades: MLB3RHN, MLB3RH and MLB3RXH. Furthermore,
Benzimidazolone Pigments Yellow 151 and 154 has been intro-
duced as high quality Yellows for the demanding industrial coat-
ings application and the automotive segment. We launched the
VD 2108, a PY.184 with high color strength for the coatings in-
dustry (decorative, industrial, automotive) and Heucodur 2550,
a high strength Chrome Rutile Yellow. We also have introduced
a zinc-free anticorrosive pigment providing a not yet seen cor-
rosion protection performance in a broad range of application.”
Cabot offers three families of products – carbon blacks,
primarily used for their color, fumed silica, used for rheology
control, free flow and mechanical properties, and fumed silica
dispersions for transparency. “The market for Cabot’s premium
EMPEROR high color carbon black continues to be robust and
growing as a result of strong demand from the automotive in-
dustry,” said Adam B. King, global marketing communications
manager, Performance Chemicals, Cabot Corp.
With the opening of its new Quinacridone plant, Trust Chem
is working on a new range of PR202 products and improved
PV19 and PR122 versions. “We further continue to focus on
cost reduction through technical improvement and production
streamlining,” said Li Wu, global technical director, Trust Chem.
“Trust Chem is pushing more and more HPPs into the food
packaging market.”
Lansco Colors has brought several new high performance
pigments to market recently. “Lansco 1667 Opaque Orange 67
is one of the most opaque organic pigments on the market and is
finding wide acceptance in the industrial coatings market where
its properties are valued,” said Lavieri. “It is a bright clean or-
ange with excellent value in use.”
Bruchsaler Farbenfabrik continues to focus on bismuth van-
adates and environmentally friendly pigment blends based on
this chemistry.

“Easy dispersing and zinc free versions of our pigments are just two of the technologies we recently introduced,” said Levi. “These pigments find their use in high performance coatings, plastics, building materials and specialty inks.” CW