Coatings World - September 2013

BASF plans to invest approximately €90-million to build a world-scale plant for the production of high performance resins and electrocoat ( e-coat) in Shanghai, China, to support growing demand for automotive coatings in Asia Pacific.

“The continued investment in our infrastructure and capacity demonstrates our strong commitment to supporting our customers’ growing business in the automotive market in Asia Pacific, particularly in China,” said Peter Fischer, senior vice president for coatings solutions in Asia Pacific.

The new resin and e-coat plant, scheduled to begin production in the second half of 2015, will be located adjacent to another automotive coatings plant on which BASF started work earlier this year. The close proximity of the two plants will allow for more synergies and efficiency, the company noted.

BASF described e-coat as “a critical coating layer in automotive production, protecting a car’s surfaces, edges and cavities from corrosion, as well as being the base for applying subsequent paint layers.”

Frost & Sullivan Recognizes
Hempel’s Growth in
Protective & Marine
Coatings Market

Based on its recent analysis of the North American protective and marine coatings market, Frost & Sullivan recognized Hempel with the 2013 Growth Excellence Leadership Award. In 2012, Hempel exhibited double-digit revenue growth well in excess of 20 percent and increased its overall market share in North America to 9. 5 percent. This is all the more impressive when highlighted against its competitors’ revenue growth rates, which are more closely aligned with the base year total market growth rate of 2.1 percent.

Hempel’s successful acquisition of
Blome International in 2012 complement-
ed its existing product lines, especially for
the oil and gas industry. Whereas smaller
companies would have expanded their
industry focus or become acquisition
targets in a struggling economy, Hempel
resisted the trend and became more ag-
gressive to grow its market share. Its suc-
cess stems from getting the sales force of
both companies to sell the newly com-
bined offering. The company also focused
on fine-tuning operational synergies to
promote faster delivery, improve research
and development, and reinvent the com-
pany to overcome new market challenges.
“The acquisition has been largely suc-
cessful because of Hempel’s ability to
increase its sales volume in a number of
other industries that Blome International
served and in which Hempel lacked a fo-
cus, such as pulp and paper, mining, wa-
ter treatment, and food and beverage,”
said Frost & Sullivan industry analyst
Roland Heinze. “In order to promote
the strengths of its acquisition, Hempel
launched its ‘Unbeatable Match’ mar-
keting campaign, which has been well-
received by new and existing customers.”
Instead of expanding into other coat-
ing segments that are not the company’s
main focus, Hempel chooses to strength-
en its existing product lines with cus-
tomized brands such as Hempasil and
Hempaxane. The company is already a
leading participant in the marine market,
and one of its main goals is to double the
protective business globally, with an em-
phasis on North America.
Hempel prides itself on offering the
best technical service in the industry and
has established a team of highly trained
field-service representatives. These rep-
resentatives leverage the company’s his-
torical expertise to develop customized
solutions for customers around the globe,
allowing end users to directly observe the
high-performance benefits of Hempel’s
newest technologies in some of the indus-
try’s harshest environments.

“Externally, the company has built brand recognition by working on high-profile projects and improving product breadth, application expertise, and customer satisfaction,” noted Heinze. “Internally, the company has structured itself to increase research and development, supply-chain efficiency, and sales opportunities in order to align its current strategy with future goals.”

Each year, Frost & Sullivan presents this award to the company that has demonstrated excellence in capturing the highest compound annual growth rate for the past three years.

Frost & Sullivan Best Practices Awards recognize companies in a variety of regional and global markets for demonstrating outstanding achievement and superior performance in areas such as leadership, technological innovation, customer service, and strategic product development. Industry analysts compare market participants and measure performance through in-depth interviews, analysis, and extensive secondary research in order to identify best practices in the industry.