Coatings World - January 2014

Kerry Pianoforte, Editor

Pigments suppliers to the paint and coatings industry are re- porting that 2013 was overall an improvement over the past few years. Increased auto sales and a more robust housing market are just two of the reasons given for the improvement.

2013 was a very positive year for Nubiola. The company
reported steady demand for its inorganic pigment products
through the first three quarters followed by some softening in
the fourth quarter. “Nubiola is growing on a year over year ba-
sis due to the global reach of our business and our disciplined
focus in specific markets,” said Craig Utesch, national ales man-
ager – coatings at Nubiola. “Our pigment chemistries are used
in durable goods and consumer products with fairly steady
consumption patterns, and we pursue a niche strategy in con-
struction markets to lessen our dependence on new construc-
tion trends. For 2014 we expect a reasonable growth patterns to
continue into mid-summer.”
“We saw the pigment market grow in 2013 especially in the
last third of the year and particularly in industries serving con-
struction and housing,” said Frank Lavieri, executive vice presi-
dent and general manager, Lansco Colors. “Since 2009 we have
seen the consumption of pigment increase steadily and at double
digit rates at times. We expect 2014 to be another strong year.”
“The pigments market for the coatings industry grew only in
the one to two percent range for 2013 versus 2012,” said Robert
Poemer of Heubach. “There were several periods during 2013
where it appeared the recovery was finally taking hold and there
would be more significant overall growth. Unfortunately, these
were not sustained throughout the entire year.”
“The performance again varied significantly by the sector
of the coatings business,” added Poemer. “Once again leading
the way with the most improved performance was automo-
tive where we have seen positive growth for the last four years.
Although there are signs that the recovery is starting to impact
the building sector, it still appears to be quite listless. As stated
in previous years, the major questions for the building sector are
when will we some return to normalcy and what will the defini-
tion of the new normalcy be?”
Overall, Poemer said 2013 was an okay year for coatings
industry sales. “While it was certainly an improvement over the
recession years, it still has not recovered to pre-recession levels,”
he added. “Heubach’s sales for our line of high performance
pigments was up slightly in 2013 with again the positive driver
being the automotive OEM market and soft sales to the archi-
tectural/building market. For 2014, we do anticipate four to
five percent growth and a good percentage of our growth will
be fueled by the introduction of new products into our high
performance line of pigments.”
2013 presented some unique challenges. “Traditional supply
channels have been disrupted by unusual regional issues and se-
lective plant closures,” said Bill Gray, business manager at Sincol
USA Corp. “There continue to be ‘environmental headwinds’ in
many part of the world, especially Asia. Sincol Corp. has been
well prepared for these events with strategic investments in ev-
ergreen water treatment facilities and continuing expansion of
our pigment chemistry designed for coatings. In the end, 2013
is another difficult year for the pigment supplier. Global pro-
duction capacity still exceeds the global demand and short-term
competition for key pigment standards remains heavy.”
Sun Chemical Performance Pigments continued to see an up-
swing in the global pigments market in 2013, especially in the
high performance and special effect markets. “Global demand for
dyes and pigments is estimated to grow annually at a four per-
cent rate,” said Michael T. Venturini, global marketing manager
coatings, performance pigments at Sun Chemical. “The demand
in the U.S. is stronger due to the rebound in the housing market.

“Asian demand has been growing in general especially in China and Thailand, but a slowdown was seen in Thailand in the later part of the year,” said Makoto Furukawa, sales and marketing manager – pigments for coatings and plastics, DIC Corp. “Stronger demand has been seen in Japanese automotive coatings from later in the years and in architectural coatings from the second half of the year due to an expected increase in the demand before implementing VAT percent increase scheduled in April 2014.”