Coatings World - March 2015

Coatings World: How did the market for
paints and coatings fare overall in 2014?

Ton Büchner: 2014 was challenging, evidenced by negative currency effects for companies consolidating in Euros, a continued lack of growth in Europe and a slowdown in some of the Asian and Latin American economies. Despite this, volumes were up one percent for all business areas. Within our Decorative Paints business we successfully implemented a new operating model in Europe, while our Performance Coatings business introduced a new organizational structure with fewer management layers. During 2014, we built a solid foundation for further growth in 2015.

Charles Bunch: This past year (2014) was another excellent year for the coatings industry. The industry continued to grow, and our customers have placed continuing emphasis on the true value that coatings bring to them and their products in the form of asset protection and decoration.

Shuchao Cao: For a couple of years people have been talking about turning point, meaning that the market would slow down or stop growing. In 2014, we were probably very close to such a point. Natural organic growth with traditional coating businesses was much more challenging than new innovative businesses. High growth time may have gone. We probably entered into a so called “new normal” time.

Pierre-Yves Jullien: 2014 saw a low growth at the beginning
of the year, while in general the market showed sound growth
in the second half of the year. The global coatings industry is
expected to grow twice as much as GDP, primarily driven by
the protective and decorative coatings industries. Both these in-
dustries were boosted by high government investment in infra-
structure and housing projects, especially in the Middle East and
Asia where government investment compensated for a drop in
investment in the oil & gas industry towards the end of the year.
The marine market is coming through a poor period, al-
though this did not have a dramatic impact on global business
in 2014.

Due to the continued squeeze on freight rates, marine customers have focused on investments that deliver fuel savings or drive overall fleet efficiency – hence the excellent performance of our ground-breaking fouling defence coating HEMPAGUARDin 2014– and marine maintenance grew in Europe.

Abhijit Roy: The market for paints and coatings did reasonably well in 2014 though the growth rate slowed down a bit in India due to the slowing economy.

This year Coatings World’s CEO Forum features executives from five major coatings companies offering their insights on the industry. This year’s forum participants are Ton Büchner, CEO and chairman of the board of management and the executive committee of AkzoNobel; Charles Bunch, chairman and CEO, PPG Industries; Shuchao Cao, vice chairman, Carpoly Chemical Group; Pierre-Yves Jullien, group president & CEO, Hempel; Abhijit Roy, managing director and CEO, Berger Paints India Ltd.; and Charles W. Shaver, chairman and CEO of Axalta Coating Systems.