Metallic Pigments
MARKET
Metallic pigment manufacturers are
optimistic for 2013, which has been slow but
has shown some signs of picking up.
While expectations for the metallic pigments market were positive for 2013, especially for the U.S. mar- ket, companies Coatings World spoke with reported it has been somewhat of a slow start.
“Frankly speaking, we expected a much better start in North
America,” said Joerg Krames, global business line manager coat-
ings and plastics, Eckart GmbH. “However, especially for the
U.S. market, we remain positive, for the rest of the year as well
as for 2014.”
Krames also said that while South America will experience
a positive stimulation of the economy due to global sports
events, and Germany has recovered a bit and will experience
some upsides for 2014, the outlook for Europe is very poor
due to the weakness in France, Italy and Spain, particularly
in automotive.
Aaron Hollman, global product manager effect pigments,
performance pigments, Sun Chemical, echoed this sentiment
saying that although Sun Chemical has seen positive growth in
the first quarter of 2013, they are facing lower metallic pigment
demand in Europe due to the economic downturn. Likewise they
are seeing stronger demand in the U.S, Latin America and Asia.
“Last year, we acquired Benda-Lutz Werke GmbH, a leading
manufacturer of metallic effect pigments,” said Hollman. ” This
acquisition has greatly expanded our metallic effect offerings
designed for coatings, plastics, inks and specialties markets.
With the acquisition, Sun Chemical has added production fa-
cilities in Austria, Poland, Russia and the U.S. to accompany its
aluminum manufacturing sites in China.”
Sun Chemical remains confident and optimistic that they will
overcome any global economic challenges and continue to see
growth in the market. A particular challenge that they have no-
ticed in the market is the high costs of raw materials.
“Sun Chemical anticipates that raw material prices will re-
main at their current high levels,” said Hollman. “However, we
are certainly aware of the high degree of volatility in the global
economy. Therefore, we will continue to monitor the key raw
material indexes and focus our manufacturing team on process
and raw material productivity.”
Frank J. Maile, director BU Coatings & Colorants, Schlenk,
agreed that raw materials remain a challenge for the market.
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