Russia
July 2017 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 37
in the industry at the moment involves 12
plants to be built in the country by 2020.
These facilities will produce organic and
inorganic pigments, including titanium dioxide pigment, as well as powder paints,
emulsions of acrylic, non-aqueous paints
and varnish materials for industrial use.
At least two plants are already slated
to be commissioned this year, including one facility of the San Marco Group
in Kaluga Oblast and Nor-Maali Оу in
Pskov Oblast. The Ministry lists only import-replacement projects, which means
that this is not the exact figure, and it
does not include various projects of the
smaller scale and those that do not involve import replacement.
The absence of legislative
base is a challenge
However, it would be wrong to say that
the development of the coating industry in
Russia is passing without a hitch. According
to the industry associations, the manufacturers are suffering certain problems due to
the absence of technical regulations within
the Eurasia Economy Union, that in additional to Russia includes Kazakhstan,
Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
As explained Viktor Ivanov, president
of the Union of Chemists of Russia, the
absence of technical regulation on the
safety of coatings, as well as the technical regulation on the safety of chemical
products, which in theory should be adopted first, makes the situation in both
industries rather unclear and vague for
the market players. He explained that the
discussion of both regulations in Russia
has been taking place for 12 years, but
things haven’t gone forward an inch.
His opinion was supported by Gennady
Averyanov, president of the Russian
Association of coating manufacturers, also
known as Tsentrlak, who has pointed out
that the technical regulation on coatings
should manage the demands to the receipts
of painting and set requirements to the products safety both for human and environment.
Averyanov also indicated that the last
version of the technical regulation has
been developed by the Russia’s Ministry of
Industry and Trade and submitted to mar-
ket players back in December 2016, but that
version had quite a few errors and gaps, so
it was heavily criticized by the manufactur-
ers and it was easier to write an entirely new
document, instead of amending that one.
The technical regulation on coat-
ings is very important for manufactur-
ers in Russia due to two main things,
Averyanov explained. Firstly, it will give
Russia’s sanitary body, Rospotrebnadzor,
the legal framework to eventually take
down the manufacturers of faked and
counterfeit production, which is on the
rise since the beginning of the economy
recession in Russia and may occupy 5-15
precent of the country’s market, accord-
ing to various estimations.
Secondly, it is believed that the adop-
tion of the technical regulation can help
the industry to promote export, especially
in case it would be harmonized with the
regulation of the European Union, in-
cluding RACH and regulation on volatile
organic compounds.
So, in general technical regulation is
called to set some clear and transparent
game rules at the regional market, but
when it will be adopted yet remains un-
known. Tsib said that the Ministry has
recently proposed some amendments to
the draft technical regulation submitted
in December 2016 in order to wind down
the concerns of the coating producers.
At the same time, he did not specify
when the document will be adopted,
only saying that at the moment that still
Imported coatings are gradually pushed out from the domestic market (In the photo: grocery shelf in
Moscow Oblast).
Russia’s plants conducted re-equipment and mastering new types of coatings (In the photo: Novax plant
in Moscow Oblast).
