Mexico’s UV Stabilizer Demand Rises
by Charles W. Thurston
Latin America Correspondent
thurstoncw@rodmanmedia.com
Mexico’s demand for ultraviolet light stabilizers is increasing thanks largely to a growing
demand from the wood coatings industry, as well as from other industry uses.
“The UV market in Mexico has been
rising steadily for the past eight years,”
said Iván Pelayo, the manager of the industrial division of Valresa México S.A.
de C.V., in Tlaquepaque, in Jalisco state,
one of the top 10 paint manufacturers in
the county. Jalisco state hosts the largest
national association for wood furniture
manufacturers in Mexico, the Asociacion
de Fabricantes de Muebles de Jalisco.
A recent study by Transparency
Market Research, based in Albany, New
York, indicates that, “Mexico is...ex-
pected to be the fastest growing market
for UV light stabilizers in the (North
America) region and it is estimated to
grow at a compounded annual growth
rate of 6. 6 percent from 2012 to 2018.”
Presently, Mexico is relatively an un-
derdeveloped market for wood coatings,
the Transparency Market study indicates.
Mexico is one of the top five exporters of
furniture to the U.S., though it is losing
market share to China; the U.S. market
absorbs about 90 percent of Mexican
furniture exports, according to a 2009
study by Lidia Martínez Murillo, then
a PHD candidate at Leipzig University.
Overall, Mexico exports 42 percent of its
furniture, for revenues of approximately
$6 billion, with wood products repre-
senting approximately 70 percent of all
furniture produced, according to a 2009
study by Malaysia’s Mexico City trade
office. Malaysia supplies furniture to the
Mexican market.
Major players in Mexico’s wood coatings market include Comex, recently acquired by Sherwin-Williams. Comex and
Brazil-based Renner Sayerlack formed
a joint venture in 2009 in Mexico City
to serve the Mexican furniture coatings
industry, then estimated at $170 million.
Renner Sayerlack claims to be “the larg-
est and most specialized wood coatings
company in Latin America.”
Sherwin-Williams is now the larg-
est paint company in Mexico, including
Comex’ 3,000-plus points of sale across
the country. Such broad domestic distribu-
tion is key to serving the Mexican furni-
ture industry, which includes some 1,100
manufacturers, mostly small businesses.
The Malaysian study suggests that close
to 500 of these manufacturers are located
along the U.S.-Mexico border in the so-
called Maquiladora belt. Among its UV
wood coatings products, Sherwin Williams’
DeckScapes Advanced Waterborne
Transparent Stain claims to offer “three-
way UV protection for wood by absorbing,
blocking and stabilizing the wood fibers.”
Among other multinationals serv-
ing the Mexican market is BASF, which
produces UV stabilizers at McIntosh,
Alabama, a source point for Mexican
consumption as well as other global
points, said Beth Earnst, a company
spokesperson in Charlotte. BASF’s
main product families produced at
McIntosh are Tinuvins and hindered
amine light stabilizers, or HALS, used
in wood finishes and automotive ap-
plications. The company introduced
its Tinuvin 5333-DW at the European
Coatings Show; the product was hailed
as the first water-compatible blend of
high performance UV-absorber and
non-interacting HALS specifically de-
veloped for water-based coatings.
20 | Coatings World
www.coatingsworld.com
May 2013
