by Sean Milmo
European Correspondent
milmocw@rodmanmedia.com
The European sector for coil coatings and other prepainted metals is battling against a new surge in imports, triggered by overcapacity in China’s steel and aluminium industries.
So far, however, the European coil coatings segment has been doing well in resisting
an overall steep rise in imports into Europe of
steel and aluminium. Last year steel imports
into the European Union went up by 22 percent, while in the fourth quarter they soared by
nearly 50 percent.
Rising imports has driven down prices with
the global price of Chinese steel almost two
thirds lower than it was four years ago. World
prices of aluminium plummeted by 30 percent
last year.
Prepainted metals suppliers in Europe have
been helped by the EU’s imposition of anti-dumping duties on Chinese coated exports but
exporters elsewhere in Asia, as well as in Latin
America and Russia and Ukraine, have also
been targeting the EU market.
Traditionally Europe has lead the world in
coil coatings in terms of consumption and development of technologies. It continues to grow
despite the EU’s stagnant economy so it has
been an attractive market for the world’s leading coil coatings producers like AkzoNobel,
BASF, Valspar, PPG and Beckers.
It is also benefitting from a long-term strategy
in the steel and aluminium to move away from
commodity-grade products into added-value ones.
European shipments of organic coatings,
mainly coil coatings, have doubled since the
The European
sector for coil
coatings and
other prepainted
metals is battling
against a new
surge in imports,
triggered by
overcapacity
in China’s steel
and aluminum
industries.
European Coil Coatings Market
