Sponsored by
International Companies Seek New Partnerships
at the East Africa Coatings Congress 2017
by Shem Oirere
Africa Correspondent
The second East African Coatings Congress (EACC) 2017 conclud- ed in Kenya’s capital Nairobi on
June 14 with participating companies
expressing optimism the event would
enable them to penetrate the region’s
paints and coatings market while some,
especially the Africa-based, calling for a
new taxation structure across the continent’s regional trading blocs to promote
fair competition.
More than 20 companies participated
in the exhibition, which was held alongside the regional Congress that brought
together coatings professionals who also
heard key presentations from specialists
of various companies and organizations in
the global chemicals and minerals sector.
“With the region thriving as the
sub-Saharan middle class grows, there
has never been a better opportunity
for this market sector to invest in the
future of this area with the paints and
coatings market expected to increase to
around 1.7Mt by 2018,” said Ian Faux,
vice president the London-based dmg
events (MEA) Ltd, the organizer of the
Congress held at the expansive Safari
Park Hotel, the same venue for the inaugural EACC in 2016.
Foreign companies with no existing
distributor or agent network in East Africa
were optimistic of striking new ties with local firms that have the potential to increase
their product volumes in the market.
“Although we do not have a distributor
in the Eastern Africa region, the Congress
provides an opportunity for us to demonstrate to customers and potential partners
what we are doing and what range of
products we are offering in the market,”
said Ursula Golling, marketing manager of
Germany-based Hoffmann Minerals.
She said Hoffmann currently does di-
rect sales to consumers in East Africa but
added “we hope we can be successful in
getting useful contacts as it happened in
2008 when we got our current Middle
East distributor at a similar event.”
Hoffmann Minerals is the manufac-
turer of neuburg siliceous earth, which
it says is a mineral functional filler that
is a combination of kaolinite and silica
used for various coating applications. The
product goes under different trade names
such as Sillitin, Sillikollod, Aktisil, Silfit
and Aktifit.
For Dubai-based Horizon Chemicals
Trading LLC, the EACC was an opportunity to meet and discuss business with
East Africa paint and coatings companies which have been key consumers of
its chemicals.
“We supply almost all paint and coatings companies in East Africa and hence
our participation in the Congress creates
an opportunity for us to not only interact
with them but also hear from potential
buyers of our products in this market,”
said Michael Nashed, the company’s export manager.
He said Horizon Chemicals, which is
currently striving to be a one-stop-shop
for all high quality industrial chemical
products, expects that after the EACC the
company “would have met its customers
in East Africa and also use the event for
its own business development.”
Although the company is currently
selling directly to paints and coatings
companies in East Africa, its products
have gained traction in Tanzania, Kenya,
Sudan, Uganda and Madagascar.
The EACC event according to Robert
Gardien, key account manager Europe
West for Mondo Minerals B.V. is “an
open game for international companies
“We should get a better understanding
of the African market after the two-day
event,” said Gardien, whose company is
more active in the Moroccan market but
which he said, is open to the embracing
of business opportunities emerging in sub
Saharan Africa.
East and Central Africa’s biggest manufacturer of synthetic resins, Synresins
Ltd., was one of the regional market players at the exhibition and took the opportunity to demonstrate how the company
is diversifying its range of products to
mitigate the effects of increasing competition that has intensified particularly from
cheap products from Egypt.
“The Egyptian market is highly subsidized and when the products are exported
to East Africa, the exporters benefit from
the existing Common Market for Eastern
and Southern Africa (Comesa) tariff policy that makes the exports cheaper than
those produced locally,” said Leonard
Sang, Synresins Ltd.’s Research and
Development Manager.
Egypt is one of the 20 Comesa member countries that have formed a free
trade area that exempt exports and imports from partner States from any custom duty levy at entry points.
“Being a Kenyan-based company with
operations in East and Central Africa, we
pay taxes for our local production and
there are no manufacturing subsidies as is
the case in Egypt which makes the competition a bit skewed,” he said.
He said Synresins, which produces
both water- and solvent-based and also
specialized resins for use in the paint,
coatings, ink, textile, automotive and
adhesive industries, gets its raw materials from global majors such as Dow
and BASF.
“But we still have unknown suppliers
that are active in the market which affects
the pricing of the products,” he said.
“Synresins is putting emphasis on research and development as we diversify
into additional value chains as a strategy
to address the competition,” said Sang.
Pricing is a factor in the performance
of many coatings industry related companies that participated in the EACC such
as the London-based Elementis which
