Russia
May 2017 www.coatingsworld.com Coatings World | 39
plants were loaded on average by only
40 percent. The commissioning of several
huge plants by international companies
last year promised to bring this figure
even lower in 2017, also taking down the
average profitability of the business. On
water-dispersible paints side the picture
also was not quite bright, as several large
manufacturers reported financial difficulties last year.
In particular in 2016 Rostov Coatings
Plant, which was one of the largest manufacturers on the Russian South, went
bankrupt. The facility had declared production capacity of 30,000 metric tons of
water-dispersible paints, but it seems that
plant never actually reached this figure
due to the low demand. In August 2016
Russia’s state-owned back Sberbank,
who was the main lender of the plant, put
its property for sale and the future of the
facility now remains unclear.
Vladimir Fatuvaev, the chief technology expert of coating manufacturer
Industry LKM, suggested that over the
past year the main challenge of the domestic plants was the high dependence
on imported acrylic and acrylic styrene
latex for production of water-dispersible
paints, but in past years the domestic demand on these products has been almost
fully met with the new chemical facilities
commissioned in St. Petersburg, Vladimir
and Moscow Oblasts.
It is believed that domestic plants
should now feel some relief from these
import-replacement initiatives. The
strong devaluation of the Russian Ruble
in 2014 provoked the hike in prices for
imported components, while the potential for the increase of wholesale prices
for water-dispersible paints at the domestic market was and in fact still is rather
limited. Fatuvaev pointed out that the
Russian coating industry in general managed to replace import of a significant
number of functional additives, including
antiseptics, defoamers and thickeners, as
well as TiO2.
The potential of export
growth
Centrlak Association doesn’t disclose
any forecast on possible export growth.
According to the data of the Russian
Federal Customs Service the country’s
plants were not exported large quantities
of water-dispersible paints in past years,
as in 2013-2016 the average volume was
amounted to nearly 25,000-30,000 met-
ric tons per year. Roughly 80 percent of
foreign sales still accounts for the coun-
tries of the post Soviet Union space and
in 2014 export supplies of Russian plants
were negatively affected by the trade con-
flict with Ukraine.
Still, several manufacturers have re-
cently revealed some export plans. In par-
ticular, Bitex-Siberia, one of the largest
producers of coatings in this part of the
country established some export supplies
of water-dispersible paints to Kazakhstan
and Mongolia and eyes further develop-
ment of export. Andrey Slisarenko, the
plant’s owner, explained that at the mo-
ment the competition at the domestic
market is growing, making export sup-
plies more attractive.
Slisarenko also suggested that at the
foreign market there is a steadily growing
demand for water-dispersible paints, be-
cause this type of coating is environmen-
tally-friendly and economical. In Russia
there is no such trend observed yet, but
Bitex-Siberia in general is ready to devel-
op in this direction, he said, not revealing
any certain targets on the increase of ex-
port supplies in coming years.
According to Sergey Petrov, the spokes-
person of Russia distributor Chemical
Goods, export of water-dispersible paints
from the most part of the country is not
actually feasible, because of the harsh
The demand for paint should be driven by the revival of the building industry in Russia.
LKM Group cited high dependence on imported acrylic and acrylic styrene latex for the production of
water-dispersible paints as a challenge for domestic plants.
