Tinting Systems Among
Fastest Growing Segments in Europe
by Sean Milmo
European Correspondent
milmocw@rodmanmedia.com
One of the fastest growing segments in the European coatings sector at the moment is tinting systems.
The main players behind the growth are specialists in pigments and colorants, dispersions,
color management and the manufacture of tinting machinery.
Not much of the momentum, in terms of
providing the tinting hard and software and
their accessories, is coming from the coatings
producers themselves, who historically have
been the ones responsible for establishing tinting in the marketplace.
The current strong demand for anything
to do with tinting was evident at the recent
European Coatings Show (ECS) at Nuremberg,
Germany, where many exhibitors outside the
segment were offering technologies or products
related to color shading in the final stages of the
coatings supply chain.
A major driving force has been the need
among coatings producers and distributors to
cut costs by streamlining their processes.
With some smaller coatings producers cost-savings pressures are forcing them to abandon
colorants manufacture altogether.
Chromaflo Technologies, Ashtabula,
Ohio, a leading operator in the European
colorants and tinting systems market, distributed at the ECS its own study on profitability of in-house colorants production.
This showed that a big financial burden was
not just production costs but the expense of
the chemical expertise and extensive laboratory testing needed to deal with a burgeoning variety of color nuances and more
intricate formulations.
The current
strong demand
for anything to
do with tinting
was evident at the
recent European
Coatings Show.
