Surface & Coating industry challenged by buyer's choices

In an interview, M K Ganesan, Managing Director, Prism Surface Coatings (P) Ltd with Chemical Today magazine, discusses the trends and challenges in the surface & coating industry.

Global industry statistics.

As per 2014 estimate, the global paint consumption market is $137 billion. Out of this 57 percent is industrial paints and balance decorative paints. In the year 2008, Asia Pacific region consumed approx 40 percent of global paint consumption. Since then this region recorded a growth of approx over 60 percent till date.

During the same period, EU recorded a marginal negative growth. North America, Latin America and MEA region recorded a marginal positive growth. Asia Pacific region is forecasted to be the fastest-growing market globally for paint consumption for the next five years. By the year 2020, 60 percent of global paint consumption is expected to be from Asia-Pacific region.

Trends in the industry.

Over the last several years’ automotive industry worldwide appear to be adapting new technologies. But most of the major developments in surface coating field over the last 40 years seem to be towards complying with stringent environment legislations. We have seen a few changes and improvements in Paint chemistry, like 2-k, water based, rad-cure paints.

Plant automation and a robotic coating is another area where a lot of success has been achieved in recent years. But we have not seen any disruptive innovation in this industry for a very longtime. Over the years the industry continues to adapt and use traditional paint raw materials, paint application methods,  paint drying methods, plant designs etc.

Potential in the market, especially in India.

The per capita paint consumption in Asia Pacific region is far below the global average. The per capita paint consumption in India is far lower (1.25 kg vs 26 kg in the US) compared to all major countries in Asia Pacific region. This obviously offers huge potential for growth in India in the next 10 years. In the next five years, India is considered to be the fastest growing market ahead of China in the Asia-Pacific region. The anticipated GDP growth of over 7 percent in India further reconfirms this forecast.

Challenges in the market.

The end users depend on different suppliers to get their final result. For example, there are suppliers of Steel, Paint, Paint application equipment, Painting plant, Surface preparation consumable etc. All of them are expected to combine their expertise together to deliver the final coating quality for the end user. Further, the coating quality expected for different products vary considerably depending on the end usage of the product.

Further, even the substrates are different for various products. Different types of plastics, composite materials, castings, quality of steel etc further complicate the choices and options. Hence most of the customers traditionally were depending on overseas technologies for almost every aspect of the coating industry.

It has certain advantages and more disadvantages for Indian industries. Further lack of complete knowledge in application engineering is another challenge. With future potential and focus of this industry shifting towards Asia-Pacific region, it is recommended to create new homegrown technologies that can disrupt the outdated, existing practices.

It should be relevant and useful to the future of Indian industries. We strongly feel Indians can do this, as we are in the most advantageous position compared to all other countries in the world. Then we can hope for global brands emerging out of India in the manufacturing sector.

Company product showcase at the Surface & Coating 2016 event.

Two years back we acquired a German company OMT in Stuttgart. They have more than 50 years’ experience and worldwide references. We will showcase our overall expertise and details of our two manufacturing facilities. Further, we will exhibit and explain disruptive innovations we have launched recently, to save paint cost in painting lines.

Our Magic Painter is a product in that category which totally eliminates the usage of compressed air for spraying the paint saving a huge quantity of paint. Further our unique and proven automatic paint sludge management and disposal system, energy saving design options, a new choice of paint process for certain applications, unique low-cost painting automation etc, will be exhibited. We also will be able to showcase our experience in exporting painting and powder coating plants for the last 15 years to over 20 countries.

Focus of Surface & Coating Expo.

Depositing a thin layer on a substrate to improve the corrosion resistance properties of the substrate is called coating. The deposition could be in the form of gas or solid or liquid. Hence coating is a generic word and it includes painting. However, painting is also associated with changing the colour of the substrate.

The purpose of this expo is to provide a platform to the industry to showcase their capabilities and also bring the user industry to interact with the technology and service providers under one roof. This CII -Expo-2016 mainly focuses on painting. Also, please note that approx 55 percent of world's paint consumption by quantity – volume - is decorative paints and 45 percent is industrial painting. This conference focuses mainly on industrial paints and its application.

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