Additives Market Report
This past year was difficult for the Latin American paint ad-
ditives market due to a flat to slight decline in paint volumes
versus the previous year. We expect the paint additives market to
be flat to slightly positive in 2014. The European paint additives
market was soft, largely due to poor economic conditions. We
expect it to recover very slowly into 2014 with slightly positive
growth. The Asian paint additives market continues to show
solid growth, but we expect it will grow slower than the double-
digit growth we have seen in recent years.”
Patricia van Ee, sales development specialist, Croda, said that
they have seen growth in the additives market in 2013, and this
is expected to continue into 2014.
Bob Ruckle, global marketing and sales manager, Siltech
Corp, said that there was a lot of activity around new formulations this year.
“This is how we typically get our products specified into
coatings,” Ruckle said. “This seems to fit with the economic
growth and recovery. We expect the same in 2014.”
Latest Technologies
Goodyear said that technology being developed for rheology
modifiers and dispersants have been focused on efficiency, assisting the market in transitioning to reduced VOC levels, and ensuring optimal dispersion of expensive fillers particularly TiO2.
“We are also seeing progress being made toward solving industry issues through the use of new rheology modifiers - such
as improving open time and hiding,” she said.
Joe McClung, global market manager, DuPont
Fluoropolymer Solutions, said that DuPont’s market surveys
indicated customers want their painted surface to stay ‘new’
for as long as possible.
“Based on this feedback, we’re developing solutions to pro-
vide durable and easy cleaning properties for both interior and
exterior applications,” McClung said. “Paint brands are impor-
tant drivers of consumer preference. Our new product devel-
opment efforts are focusing on providing high-performance
solutions to meet consumer demands.”
Troy’s development efforts continue to focus on green, multi-
functional additives with VOC- and APE-free chemistry.
“Troy performance additives will continue to enable manufacturers to achieve performance objectives while lowering cost-in-use and meeting or exceeding ‘green’ standards,” Colon said.
“Troy is continually developing new technologies that will help
our customers to lead in their respective markets.
Griffin Gappert, new product leader, coatings specialties,
Ashland Specialty Ingredients, explained that reducing VOC
and ‘greening’ of formulations has led to reformulations where
additives are playing an increasingly important role.
Bittle said that there is an increased emphasis on bio-based
and renewable building blocks.
“There is a renewed interest in fluorine - based materials,”
she said. “There is also continued interest in controlled poly-
mer architecture by controlled radical polymerization and other
techniques for dispersion and rheology modifications.”
Shailesh Shah, global strategic marketing-formulation
additives, BASF Corp., said that BASF is focusing on solutions
for sustainable development.
“These solutions include technologies that help reduce titanium dioxide usage, lead to reduction of critical labeling, help get
the most out of organic pigments, reduce foaming in production
and in application of low VOC systems and expand the usage of
renewables based raw materials,“ Shah said.
Avci said that customers are looking for ways to enhance
their low-to zero-VOC paints as the industry converts to environmentally friendly paints and coatings.
“Additives that deliver improved performance, efficiency
or functionality continue to be in high demand,” he said.
“Solvay Novecare has been working closely with its cus-
tomers to design performance additives such as APE- and
VOC-free emulsifiers, monomers, wetting agents, dispersants,
defoamers and new multi-functional additives such as freeze-
thaw and open-time extenders.”
Seeber said that in recent years, the desire for more envi-
ronmentally compatible and sustainably produced additives has
grown on an internationally significant scale.
“BYK is rising to these challenges with its greenability
concept and presenting, with CERAFLOUR 1000, an addi-
tive with wax-like properties that is suitable for all systems, be
they aqueous, radiation-curing, solvent-free or solvent-borne,”
he said. “CERAFLOUR 1000 provides efficient matting and
also involves a soft-touch effect. In addition, systems in which
CERAFLOUR 1000 is used exhibit a high degree of transpar-
ency and improved scratch resistance.”
Ruckle commented on the silicones piece of additives space.
“Here we are working on further changes in the fundamental base polymers and understanding how these impact performance,” he explained. “ We see some of our competition doing
the same, while others are not focused in the additives space.
We also see many additive formulators working with these new
building blocks to make more additives.”
New Products
Solvay has launched many new products this past year. One new
product is RHODOLINE OTE 500, a patented VOC-free and
APE-free additive for extending open time in waterborne coatings. Rhodoline OTE 500 provides a two- to four-fold increase
in open time and delivers additional benefits such as improved
gloss, scrub resistance and elimination of wetting agents in waterborne architectural paints, industrial coatings, inks and adhesives. RHODOLINE FT-100 is a freeze-thaw stability additive,
is a VOC-free, APE-free solution that stabilizes waterborne, soft
latex-based paints upon freezing during transportation, storage
or application. It addresses the latex coagulation issues of low-VOC paints based on soft binder polymers. Whether added to
the binder polymer or during paint formulation, Rhodoline FT-
100 provides a finished paint that passes five cycles of freeze-thaw stability. RHODOLINE ASP-100 is a new breakthough
anti-settling polymer specifically designed to control the settling of heavy pigments such as iron oxides, TiO2, clays or organic pigments in waterborne coatings systems. RHODOLINE
