by Sean Milmo
European Correspondent
milmocw@rodmanmedia.com
Costs – related to areas like more efficient manufacturing processes, applications, use of energy and logistics – were a major focus of attention at the European Coatings
Show (ECS) in Nuremberg, Germany, in April.
The three-day event strengthened its
position as the leading international coatings exhibition with a record attendance
of 28,500 visitors from 42 countries and
1,024 exhibitors.
In particular, a big topic of discussions at the
ECS was the way cheap oil had or had not led
to underlying decreases in raw material costs.
Oil prices reached rock bottom in January at
a level 50-60 percent below those in mid-2014,
but since then they have started to creep up
again, nullifying any downward trend in prices
of petrochemical-derived materials.
By April the price of the European benchmark Brent crude was almost a third higher
than it was at the beginning of the year, but
still around 40 percent lower than it was in the
summer of 2014.
“Prices of raw materials based on petro-
chemicals did go down but not by nearly as
much as the big reduction in oil prices,” said
a marketing executive of a coatings additives
producer at the exhibition. “Now we’re seeing
the oil prices going back up again and prices for
some of our raw materials as well. There’s a lot
of uncertainty about raw material costs.”
A key issue is how much the price differen-
tials between oil-based materials and those not
linked to oil will change because of the sharp
drop in costs of crude.
Suppliers of biomaterials already had
to sell their products at a premium to
In particular,
a big topic of
discussions at
the ECS was the
way cheap oil
had or had not
led to underlying
decreaes in raw
material costs.
Key Topic at European Coatings Show is Costs
