Coatings World - June 2016

2015

“Global performance for the industrial coatings market was mixed last year,” said Shelley Bausch, PPG vice president, Global Industrial Coatings. “Results varied significantly geographically and across segments. We saw steady growth in the U.S. and Europe, but Brazil, the largest market in South America, was down significantly due to the continued economic and political challenges.

“China’s economic performance was affected by a slow-
down in their construction market and a slowdown in exports,”
Bausch added. “From a segment perspective, the oil and gas
sectors were down globally, of course, and we saw continued
challenges in the agricultural segment. Agricultural equip-
ment production was down more than 20 percent globally and
this downturn has continued into 2016 market performance.
Slowdowns in these segments affect industrial coatings activities
in heavy-duty equipment, transportation, and pipe and tubing.
Fortunately, the diversity and global nature of our business en-
abled us to have a good year despite some of these headwinds.
Automotive builds continued strong their strong performance in
all geographies, and globally, coil and extrusion benefitted from
low steel prices and increasing new builds.”
AkzoNobel’s Protective Coatings business, which supplies
anticorrosive and fire production coatings and services to indus-
trial steel structures, including oil and gas, power generation,
other industrial installations, and commercial buildings, report-
ed that volume development has been positive overall, reflect-
ing strength in several key markets, such as power. “However,
that has been offset by lower capital spending in the global oil
and gas industries,” said Kerstin Stranimaier, marketing direc-
tor, Protective Coatings at AkzoNobel. “Power generation and
downstream oil and gas markets are still growing, and there is
particularly strong growth in the offshore wind power market,
where AkzoNobel is the clear market leader. There is also strong
demand for differentiated product and service offerings; in the
oil and gas sector; we are helping our customers further extend
asset life via proactive maintenance programs, including our
Interplan tool.”
Axalta considers industrial coatings a thriving market. “We
made it our priority to launch a significant number of new prod-
ucts and customers programs in the segments we focused on
over the past year,” said Michael Cash, senior vice president and
president industrial coatings, Axalta Coating Systems. “This ef-
fort opened up a large amount of opportunity to increase our
customer base.”
According to Dave T. Zelch, global business director, metal
and plastics, Product Finishes Division, The Sherwin-Williams
Company, it was not a bullish year in terms of overall growth
but he did see significant opportunities ahead, especially as cus-
tomer footprint and their markets continue to expand globally.

The industrial coatings market has opportunities for growth in a number of segments including architectural, transportation, oil and gas and construction.

According to Bausch, although the automotive sector is cy-
clical, PPG sees continued strength and growth in that segment
as builds continue to increase, particularly in parts of Europe,
China, and India. Over the next two years, PPG expects sig-
nificant growth to come from segments that have been trend-
ing downward.
“We’re already seeing signs of recovery in the agricultural
sector,” Bausch noted. “End equipment sales are starting to turn
positive which is a leading indicator for the coatings industry.
Much like the oil situation, there is a large amount of inven-
tory to work through before we will see a resulting uptick in
production, but it will come, likely in late 2017, and the macro
trends for the sector are positive. There’s also good news in the
construction segment. China reported its first uptick in com-
mercial new construction last month (April), and we’re seeing
moderate growth continue in the U.S. and Europe. Those are all
positive indicators for coatings segments such as coil, extrusion,
appliances, and heavy duty equipment.”
“The outlook for the energy, construction and transporta-
tion segments is very favorable,” said Zelch. “Accelerating de-
mand for traditional and renewable energy infrastructure in the
developing world, combined with an aging infrastructure in the
developed world, makes that a stable and continuous growth
market for us. While economic indicators for agriculture and
construction equipment (ACE) remain soft, this customer base
looks for an extended product lifecycle, giving us the oppor-
tunity to innovate and grow that base. Our strategic focus on
underbody/underhood in the truck and bus segment also has a
very positive outlook due to the need for longer lifecycles and
higher performance coatings.”
“With construction on the upswing, there is noticeable op-
portunity in the architectural segment,” noted Cash. “In line
with this, we’ve had success in this segment with our global ap-
proach, new products and new warranties. Our extensive Alesta,
Abcite and Nap-Gard powder products along with AquaEC
electrocoats, Ganicin primers and Voltatex Energy Solutions liq-
uid coatings meet different niches around the world. At Axalta,
we feel that all of the segments are positioned well for growth
due to the global need and prioritization of new technology and
innovation. There is global demand for more efficiency, corro-
sion protection, durability and overall support in helping our
customers meet the specific needs of their customers. We see this
as opportunity across all of our Industrial end user segments.”

According to Klaus Møller, group vice president, Group Protective Marketing at Hempel, globally, the market for Protective coatings has been impacted significantly by the slowdown in the oil industry, where a significant number of projects requiring protective coatings have been cancelled and very limited new projects are put on stream. “Most other key segments within civil construction, power generation and industrial manufacturing remain more or less in the same shape as in previous years. Civil construction and infrastructure probably represent the biggest market potential within the protective segment.”