Rapid industrial growth in the Asian countries will propel the liquid industrial coatings market growth in coming years, driven by the extensive usage of the product in various industries, including food & beverage, oil & gas, energy, electronics, manufacturing, etc.

The Market

The Asia Pacific region has been witnessing robust industrial development in the last two decades with the region now accounting for almost 40% of the world output. Automotive, electronics, general manufacturing, and mining activities have witnessed a sharp growth over the last decade. Lower labor prices, easy raw material availability and rising commodities’ demand have transformed the Asia Pacific region into a manufacturing hub for the entire world.

The APAC industrial coatings market size is expected to reach over 14 billion litres by 2026. China is the largest market and one of the most significant coating producers and consumers, accounting for around 60% of the total by volume and revenue. In Asia, India and South Asia are the fastest growing coatings markets. Japan and South Korea are also substantial markets in the region with a large production base in automotive, appliance, chemicals and electronic products.

Historically, Asia Pacific has been a low-cost, low-performance expectation market, mostly served by solvent-based systems (Japan, Australia and New Zealand being the exception).

Environmental Regulations & Their Impact

Due to environmental regulations, the demand for eco-friendly products “green coatings” is expected to grow in the APAC region. They are environmentally friendly due to their low content of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and other features, such as durability, low odor, and block resistance, the increasing preference among consumers.  The green coatings manufacturing companies and research institutions are infusing high investment for the future advancements and technology of environment-friendly and nonhazardous coatings. These investments are to create coatings with similar performance as compared to conventional VOC-containing coatings. Countries such as China, India, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and others are growing markets for green coatings. Water-borne solutions are rapidly growing in the market.  Today about 10 percent of the industrial segment is water-based while 14 percent is powder.  Clearly, solvent-based coatings are the largest group of products in the industrial market, but that is changing driven by increasing environmental concerns. Major players in the green coatings industry include the same players that participate in conventional systems (i.e. AkzoNobel, PPG Industries, Henkel, Sherwin-Williams, Axalta, Valspar, BASF, Kansai and others).

Expanding Environmentally-Friendly Colorant Options

In 2018 Chromaflo made a strategic investment decision to build a manufacturing plant in the ASEAN region. A key part of the decision to build the plant was to leverage the geographical location to reduce lead times to our APAC customers and be more responsive to their requirements. Another key factor was the ability to transfer additional technologies to the region to provide more product options for our customers, particularly in the Industrial segment. The plant was designed with the capability to manufacture the majority of Chromaflo’s Industrial products.

Chromaflo’s main Industrial product offering in the region has been solvent-based universal Industrial Point of Sale ranges such as our 844 and 942D lines. But with the emerging trends to “greener” products, Chromaflo APAC will expand its offer with two environmentally friendly CHROMA-CHEM® Industrial ranges to be made locally in our Malaysian plant.

CHROMA-CHEM® 895 colorants are part of our series of environment-friendly coatings. The CHROMA-CHEM® 895 line is formulated for use in most waterbased industrial coatings including, but not limited to, concrete protection, general industrial finishes, general OEM, industrial maintenance, marine, protective and wood coatings. The CHROMA-CHEM® 895 colorants have been formulated with a very low VOC content (less than 10 grams/liter). Rheological properties are closely controlled to allow for use in volumetric dispensing equipment.

CHROMA-CHEM® UCD HS high-solids colorants are high-performance colorants for polyurethanes with lower Volatile Organic Compound (VOC) levels compared to low-solids thermosetting acrylics. The UCD® HS Line is formulated for use in high-end, solvent-based industrial coatings including, but not limited to, automotive OEM, automotive refinish, industrial maintenance, marine and protective coatings.

These colorants are well-suited for applications where exterior durability or chemical resistance requirements limit the use of universal colorants. The pigments used in this line provide excellent lightfastness for exterior applications and mid-range pigments for use in durable coatings of interior applications.

Currently in scale-up phase, these two ranges will be offered from local ASEAN production later in 2021.