Additives Industry Update

The global coatings additives market is expected to grow from an estimated $6 billion industry in 2013 to $8.7 billion by 2018,epoxy coating with a CAGR of 6.4% from 2013. This is according to a report by research firm Markets and Markets, which also found that environmental regulations have caused a major shift towards waterborne and powder coatings.

“The major function of a coating additive is to address problems hindering the performance of coatings; as the problem would include foaming, wetting & dispersing, inconsistent rheology, biocides, etc.,” the report states. “Thus, the industry players have begun focusing on developing and launching additives which would facilitate the formulators to achieve the right proportion along with high performance. With the tightening environmental regulations, formulators are forced to reduce the VOC content in their products. This has caused a shift towards the use of water-borne or powder coatings, wherever it is possible.

“Careful selection of the right additive plays an important role in the performance of coatings in its end-use application.”

According to Markets and Markets estimates, paint texture additive Asia-Pacific lead the market for coating additives with 40.8% share at global level in 2012, followed by North America (26.9%), Europe (20.2%), and South America (8.1%). Looking at additives type, acrylic-based coating additives leads demand with highest share, followed by urethane, metallic, and fluoropolymer-based additives, researchers found.

According to BASF, growth in the additives market is largely dependent on the regional growth of the overall paint market. In 2015, there were pockets of volume growth in additives globally depending on regional paint market activity.

Stephanie Lee, global marketing communications manager at Lonza, said that in terms of the company’s biocide additives, the market did experience growth in 2015.