Foreign paint
and coatings
manufacturers
operating in
Russia move
to localize
production and
raw material
purchases.
Foreign Producers Adapted to
New Conditions in the Russian Market
by Vladislav Vorotnikov
Russia Correspondent
Representatives of the Russian Association of Coating Manufacturers (Tsentrlak) believe that over the past two years foreign producers in the country’s market have been
negatively affected with the devaluation of the
ruble as well as the overall economy crisis in
the country, whilst domestic manufacturers may
benefit from this situation and take advantage of
current import-replacement initiatives.
However, the largest market players managed to keep strong positions over the recent
two years and target to further improvement of
their business operation in the country. Some of
them have applied to localization initiatives in
order to cut currency risks in cooperation with
its main customers and to be able to participate
in government import substitution programs.
Hempel gets residence
registration
The Russian division of Hempel Group has
recently finalized construction of the plant in
Ulyanovsk, obtaining operational license, thus
official becoming a Russian resident. According
to Peter de Groot, general director at Hempel
A/S for Russia, Ukraine and CIS Region, this is
an important factor of the company’s strategy
giving the import replacement initiatives at the
local market.
“Hempel took the decision to invest in
Russia quite a few years ago. When the government passed a decree prioritizing state procurement of locally produced goods over imports it
gave us a strong additional reason to accelerate
our € 30 million investment in Russia, since we
had substantial imports at that time,” de Groot
noted. “Our new factory in Ulyanovsk is a fully
integrated state-of-the-art facility capable of
producing Hempel’s full global product range.
