Coatings World - June 2017

Industrial Coatings Market
June 2017 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 39

“Environmental regulations will continue to tighten in the
years ahead as governments around the world seek to reduce
resource consumption, emissions, and exposure to chemicals
of concern,” said Shelley Bausch, PPG vice president, Global
Industrial Coatings. “While the VOC tax in China and REACH
regulations in Europe receive significant attention, all layers of
government, including local communities, are getting involved.”
“For many of our customers, though, regulatory compli-
ance is only part of the equation,” Bausch continued. “They
view themselves as good stewards of the environment and take
a more holistic approach to sustainability that includes is-
sues like eliminating heavy metals, reducing energy usage and
extending the lifespan of their products. Every day, we help
customers shift from legacy solventborne coatings to a range
of more environmentally-friendly solutions. Depending on
the application, the best solution could be a high-solid, low-
VOC solvent-based coating, a waterborne coating, a powder
coating or electrocwoat. Often, a system approach across
layers yields the best outcome. We expect these conversions
to continue, if not accelerate, in the year ahead. Legislation
around the globe will support this trend, as will increasing
focus from investors, NGOs, local communities, end consum-
ers, and our customers themselves.”
“We continue to see environmental legislation affecting the
technologies we offer. VOC-driven legislation globally and more
chemical restrictions affect how we can formulate industrial
coatings,” said David Calabra, General Industrial global prod-
uct director, Sherwin-Williams Product Finishes. “Clearly VOC
reduction has led to powder technology replacing much of the
liquid baking enamel coatings. Water-based coatings continue
to grow with legislation in China encouraging these products.
Water-based acrylics and alkyds are needed, as are water-based
urethanes supported by robust water-based epoxy primers. In
the end it is important to offer a full line of water-based prod-
ucts as alternatives to solventborne platforms.”
Europe has been a leader in adopting environmental regula-
tions. “There is a trend for many years in Europe to move away
from low volume solids products and introducing higher vol-
ume solids products as well as waterborne systems,” said Gerard
de Vries, business director Protective Coatings North Europe,
AkzoNobel. “Depending on the kind of application both tech-
nologies can be considered. Alkyds are losing some share in the
total product mix although there are still applications where
they can and will be used.”
“At Axalta, we don’t wait for regulators to initiate environ-
mentally sustainable coating developments – we’re inspired by
our wide range of customers who want to help preserve and
enhance the environment for future generations,” said Michael
Cash, SVP and president, Industrial Coatings of Axalta. “Our
customers help guide us toward innovations like Alesta pow-
der coatings collection for aluminum extrusions, Hydropon,
our innovative waterborne coatings for coil and extrusion ap-
plications, and Nap-Gard high temp exterior pipeline coatings,
which replace solvent borne liquid products. We usually find
that our industrial customers are extremely conscious of the
environment, and we work closely with our customers to match
our product development strategy with their business needs, as
well as our joint obligation to sustainability.”

Environmental legislation has been a key driver in different parts of the world in reducing the usage of solvent-based coatings. “The two most common ways to limit impact is via water-based coatings or the increasing use of higher solids coatings with less solvents,” said Klaus Moeller, group vice president, Group Protective Marketing, Hempel A/S. “The coatings industry is, and has been for a while, heavily investing in R&D to develop new and innovative products with less environmental impact.”

State of the market

According to PPG’s Bausch, global industrial coatings contin-
ued a low-single-digit growth trajectory last year, in line with
macroeconomic trends. “As you would expect, there was wide
variation in performance across segments and geographies. In
Asia-Pacific, the automotive, transportation and electronic ma-
terials sectors experienced high levels of growth. China’s devel-
opment continued to drive industrial production in the region
while growth rates in India and Southeast Asia were among the
fastest in the world.”
“The U.S. and Canadian economies experienced slower con-
struction growth and an overall decline in industrial production.
Coatings for building products, as well as automotive builds,
were central to regional performance,” Bausch continued. Most
segments in Latin America continued to be negatively impacted
by Brazil’s economy-wide challenges. A bright spot in the region
was the continued growth of automotive production in Mexico.
EMEA’s industrial activity showed a modest recovery from re-
cent challenges with particular strength in central and eastern
Europe; infrastructure spend in the Middle East remained solid
throughout the year.”
The last 12 months have been characterized by challenging
market conditions, linked to the price of crude oil. “Although
we’ve recently seen prices edge upwards, the industry still
faces headwinds and the recovery of the market is still very