Pigments Report
“Growth of demand for pigments in Asia is expected especially in India and Indonesia, but slowed down in Japan after
VAT percent increase,” Furukawa added.
Trends/Challenges
Environmental issues continue to be a hot button issue for pig-
ment suppliers. “Without question the biggest challenge to the
global pigment market will be more strict enforcement of envi-
ronmental regulation, especially related to water and industrial
waste treatment,” said Gray. “This will continue the trend to-
ward developing less environmentally challenging organic pig-
ments. Another consequence of this trend will be a reduction in
number of pigment producers worldwide. Sincol Corp is well
positioned to meet these challenges and remain focused and
committed to meeting the changing marketplace needs.”
“There is a real value in product and process stewardship and
this trend will continue,” said Utesch. “Customers still want for-
mulation tools with the lowest environmental impact and highest
value from suppliers. With 100 years of manufacturing history
and our leadership team in Spain, we continue to use REACH
compliance as a strong influence for product development.”
Sun Chemical reported that it continues to see demand for
pigments with unique performance properties that are tailored
specially for the end user’s application, such as: stability/floc-
culation resistance in zero VOC systems, enhanced chemical
and bleach resistance, increased strength allowing reduced us-
age and more value, and improved dispersability to reduce pro-
cessing time. “Environmental regulations and social change for
sustainable raw materials with less environmental impact are
driving rapid change and innovation in all segments of the coat-
ings market,” Venturini added. The trend is well established in
Europe and the U.S., but is quickly growing in other regions.”
Another important trend affecting the pigments market is the
consolidation of paint companies. “One of the major trends on a
global basis in the coatings industry continues to be the consolida-
tion of paint companies particularly in the NAFTA market,” said
Poemer. “This obviously leads to larger customers with increased
buying power and overall lower pricing. Unfortunately there also
appears to be an overcapacity for the production of pigments and
there is the potential for some restructuring within the market.”
“Consolidation is a major trend being driven by tighter regu-
latory and customer requirements coupled with the highly com-
petitive nature of the global pigment market,” stated Lavieri.
“Pigment buyers who have experienced past supply disruptions
are more discerning than in years past and are doing more due
diligence. Lansco Colors welcomes this scrutiny and is a major
beneficiary as the legacy pigment manufacturers which once had
patent protected monopolies become less important.”
Meeting Customer Demands
Remaining profitable under these circumstances requires that
pigments suppliers are on the top of their game, delivering exactly what the customer wants.
“Generally speaking, all pigment customers are looking for
acceptable and stable rheology, lot to lot consistency, a wide
selection of Color Index choices to achieve specific perfor-
mance attributes and, of course, competitive money value,”
said Gray.
Nubiola said that its customers are looking for products
that incorporate easily into a broad range of resins. “We have
achieved this due to unique morphology that we have applied to
both our colored pigments anticorrosive additives,” said Utesch.
“We are also stretching color space and extending heat stabil-
ity with our new product introductions. For the customer this
translates into less dependence on costly organic pigments, low-
er loading rates for anticorrosives in DTM coatings and greater
value in their formulations.”
“Our plant improvements are allowing Nubiola to create
optimized intermediates that translate to refined products with
a lower environmental impact,” added Utesch. “Our encapsu-
lated pigments provide performance benefits to the coatings
market while maintaining the excellent value offered by inor-
ganic chemistries.”
Heubach participates in several R&D projects together
with leading institutes and raw material manufacturers in
order to develop novel corrosion protection technologies.
Heubach’s latest research activities in the field of environmen-
tal-friendly anticorrosives have resulted in the development
of a novel zinc-free product that exhibits high-performance
and broad applicability.
DIC reports that its customers are looking for effect pigments
more than conventional organic pigments. The company is fo-
cusing its R&D on the specialty market using aluminum prod-
ucts, which it obtained by the recent acquisition of Benda-Lutz.
Heubach’s continued focus is on high performance pigments
that can offer customers a competitive advantage in their mar-
ket. “Our R&D efforts in India and Europe have been focused
on this important segment of high performance pigments which
provide superior lightfastness, heat stability and chemical resis-
tance,” said Poemer. “These important factors can be achieved
in a number of ways including increased strength, ease of dis-
persion and viscosity stability. Pricing differentials high perfor-
mance pigments versus conventional ones continue to shrink
due to the overcapacity in the pigment areas.”
“In the coatings market, our customers are looking for us
to deliver high quality products, top-notch service and value
in terms of performance including: light fastness, durability,
weather fastness, and ease of use,” Venturini said. “Additionally,
the market is always looking for innovations – new materials
that can help them differentiate their products and their cus-
tomer’s products.”
Sun Chemical invests heavily in high performance and special
effect pigment research. “It is a long tradition we will continue
by focusing on areas that are important to our customers,” said
Venturini. “Our Quindo, Palomar and Fanchon high performance pigment lines are continually being improved for value
in delivering lightfastness, chemical resistance and heat stability.
Our research efforts for Benda-Lutz metallic pigments not only
include performance and anti-corrosive properties, but focus
heavily on visual aesthetics of brightness and reflectivity.” CW
