Coatings World - March 2017

Automotive OEM Coatings

Growing market, growing regions

Automotive coatings manufacturers are seeing increased growth across multiple regions, specifically Asia-Pacific and South America. According to Tim Knavish senior vice president, Automotive Coatings, PPG, the automotive OEM industry growth rate improved sequentially year-over-year and PPG’s automotive OEM coatings business continues to grow at a rate at or above the industry average. “We expect to see steady growth in EMEA and Asia with modest growth in North America,” he said. “PPG has invested in high growth countries like China and other emerging regions with new production facilities, increased human capital, application facilities to mirror customer lines and localized new paint shop technologies. These investments have allowed PPG to grow with our customers wherever they are located around the globe.

“For example,” he continued, “last year PPG completed an
electrocoat blending facility in Zhangjiagang, China and a plas-
tics coatings (bumper coatings) dispense operation in Tianjin,
China. The year before that we completed investments in Sumare,
Sao Paulo, Brazil and San Juan del Rio, Mexico that allow us to
meet increased demand for automotive coatings in those growing
regions. Already in 2017, we have opened a new waterborne and
high solids solventborne expansion in Wuhu, China. For the fu-
ture, we will be building a new automotive resin facility in India.”
Increased activity in both China and India were widely re-
ported by coatings manufacturers. David Fischer, vice presi-
dent, Marketing and Strategy, Transportation Coatings, Axalta
Coating Systems, said that “increasing global production con-
tinues to provide growth opportunities for Axalta in particular
in China and India. We’re installing additional capacity in India
to supply OEMs. In China, our latest waterborne facility expan-
sion is helping to meet customers’ requirements to reduce VOC
emissions. But in the U.S. and other emerging markets, as well,
there are also growth opportunities. For example, in the U.S.
we’re developing coatings formulated to perform well on latest
lightweight substrates such as aluminum and carbon fiber. Our
recent acquisition of the rigid thermoplastics division of United
Paint now gives us entre into the vehicle interiors business.”
Fischer added that Axalta has recently opened a world class
plant to produce waterborne products in Jiading, near Shanghai,
and its new Asia-Pacific Technology Center, a state of the art
coatings R&D facility in Shanghai, China.

“We launched a coatings production facility in Buenos Aires,
a new resin facility in Mexico City and are constructing new
laboratories and production facilities in Savli, India,” he said.
“These assets help Axalta provide our customers with the global
products and service excellence they have come to expect in the
more mature markets.”
As a supplier of high-quality coatings for the automotive in-
dustry, Sean McKeon, vice president, Global Accounts, said that
BASF Coatings benefits from the increasing automobile produc-
tion. McKeon said he expects overall positive development in
OEM coatings based on BASF’s “strong innovation agenda and
new products.”
He added, “The market size for automotive coatings is
reflected in the development of the automotive industry –
therefore, China is of great importance for us. We plan our
investments according to the anticipated market development
and customer demands for high quality automotive coatings.
We have made significant progress in strengthening our posi-
tion in emerging markets. The groundbreaking for our newest
automotive coatings plant in Shanghai, China, the acquisition
of Guangdong Yinfan Chemistry for automotive refinish paints,
and the expansion of production capacity in Thailand are only
three examples.”

Trends and technologies

In addition to the trends that currently drive the automotive market, which include a preference for high-performance metallic color, coatings manufacturers must consider emerging trends and technological expectations. One highly anticipated trend is self-driven cars. PPG’s Knavish said that in order for autonomous vehicles to become a reality, a robust and complimentary automotive and civic infrastructure needs to be developed.

“PPG is at the forefront of developing this infrastructure and is working on improving sensing/intelligent coating sensors, road paint/reflective paints, coatings that allow for clearer, cleaner and more robust camera lenses and even sensors and antennas embedded on the body of a car,” he said.

Examples of this include: the development of infrastructure coatings that are designed to enhance the ability of autonomous vehicle sensors to detect the structure; the development of easy to clean clear coats for sensor and camera lenses that provide improved ability to keep lenses/sensors clean in adverse weather conditions; and the development of vehicle coatings improvements that enhance dark color vehicle detection by LIDAR systems. In addition, he added, the vehicle lightweighting trend means more plastic and composite substrates on the exterior of the vehicle. PPG is developing coating improvements that enhance the radar reflection/transmission properties of plastic and composite substrates.