2023 CEO Forum

This year’s forum includes CEOs  from leading coatings companies from the U.S., Europe and Asia Pacific. The participants are Gregoire Poux-Guillaume, CEO, AkzoNobel; Uta Holzenkamp, President, BASF’s Coatings Division; Christophe Sabas, CEO, Beckers; Abhijit Roy, CEO, Berger Paints; João Serrenho,  CEO, CIN; Michael Hansen, CEO, Hempel: Steve Crossman, COO, HMG Paints; Tim Knavish, CEO, PPG Industries; Chase Bean, CEO, Tnemec; Armodios  Yannidis, CEO, Vitex.

CW: How did the market for paints and coatings fare overall in 2022?

AkzoNobel:

Looking back on 2022, it was a year of persistent worldwide uncertainty as global events caused significant cost inflation, disrupted supply chains, led to destocking in distribution channels and prompted declining consumer confidence. The market experienced disruptions in China, mainly due to uncertainties created by COVID-19, softer demand and destocking in DIY Europe but also strong volumes in Asia, a robust North American environment and sequential recovery in Aerospace Coatings, Vehicle Refinishes and Marine and Protective Coatings.

BASF:

Last year was a major challenge for the entire global economy, and in the automotive industry factors such as the semiconductor crisis or the ongoing COVID-19 situation led to a decline in production figures. Together with significantly rising raw material prices, this had a strong impact on our automotive OEM coatings business.

Beckers:

The global paints and coatings market was turbulent during 2022. Major disruptions have had a severe impact on the industry overall and on Beckers’ global business, including knock-on effects from the Russia crisis and war in Ukraine, the slowing economy in China due to the zero-COVID policy, and a global inflation on operating expenses. We have seen a slowdown in Europe and Asia with a significant drop in sales, especially towards the end of 2022. Energy is a major cost for our customers who prefer to slow down their operations, waiting for better market conditions.

Berger:

All segments of the Indian paint market have seen a complete revival from the temporary, pandemic-induced slowdown in demand. While 2021 largely saw a return of demand for architectural decorative products, 2022 saw the wheel turn full-circle and a revival of demand from the industrial and automotive segments as well. Like the rest of the industry worldwide, we too saw an unprecedented and continued pressure on raw material prices and consequent pressure on the bottom-line. Throughout the year, our push for revenue growth was balanced with actions taken to maintain our margins. Berger has been driving a cost-awareness program, while working on improving productivity and realizations from some consumer segments.

We have had three good quarters of revenue growth and expect a strong fourth quarter as well, with some recovery of EBITDA margins.

CIN:

CIN coatings continue on a growth path, reaching a turnover of €400 million in 2022, a growth of 10% compared to 2021. This growth encompassed all the BUs, particularly the Protective Coatings BU, which achieved growth of 30%.

Hempel:

2022 was a year with unusual instability and with a sequence of unpredictable events. Steeply climbing energy costs, high raw material prices combined with raw material shortages, and rising inflation affected all industries in 2022 – the coatings industry included. In these challenging times, we showed that we are robust and stand together in Hempel to do our utmost for our customers, colleagues and our owner. We continued to deliver a positive impact in line with our strategic intent. We launched important new coating solutions, took necessary steps to further deliver on our Double Impact strategy and made significant progress on our sustainability journey.

HMG:

For HMG Paints the performance of the year was once again a positive one, despite the year being once again full of unprecedented events. 2022 started very optimistically but the war in Ukraine brought more instability to supply chains and raw materials and problems for the industry. Added on to that the instability of the UK government and the energy crisis, and it has been one that has kept us all on our toes. These external factors have had a huge impact on our suppliers and more recently customers. However, these events were beyond our control and all the HMG team have performed admirably to ensure that had a positive outcome for the financial year ending in September, which gave us the ability to advance the infrastructure across the business allowing us to invest in new equipment and departments that will allow us further opportunities for growth. 2022 also saw a number of the markets we operate in return to pre-pandemic levels, such as the decorative coatings markets, which saw huge spikes during the pandemic return to a more normal level of demand.

PPG:

While demand still lags pre-pandemic levels, we saw improvement in numerous areas. For example, we saw demand increase in our automotive refinish and OEM businesses, as supply chain issues moderated throughout the year. Refinish delivered record net sales, which reflects the strength of both our leading products and our customer relationships. In architectural, DIY demand remained low due to pandemic-related issues and reduced consumer confidence. Rising interest rates also affected new housing construction, but several new customer wins will help drive sales for PPG in 2023 and beyond. In the commercial and maintenance segments, we are still managing backlogs with our professional customers, along with solid demand and opportunities for growth in 2023.

The aerospace business demand also continued to recover, and we posted strong year-over-year organic growth despite ongoing supply chain challenges.

With the January reopening in China, a strong global order book and PPG’s technologically advantaged products, we expect the business to continue to grow in 2023 and beyond.

Tnemec:

It is widely agreed that 2022 represented highly unusual challenges for the coatings industry. Scarcity of supply forced manufacturers to search for new suppliers and reformulate with available raw material ingredients. Many staple products disappeared from inventories, orders were delayed, and some orders were never fulfilled. The year saw continued inflationary pressures that were difficult for manufacturers to fully implement in some markets due to the nature of project bidding cycles. Those companies that were nimble and able to communicate accurately with customers
did well.

Vitex:

Under the circumstances that we faced since we operate in South East Europe, the market was relatively good. Architectural paint demand has been slightly reduced in terms of volume, but sales had grown due to price increases in related products. However, the price adjustments were not sufficient, and most paint companies absorbed the impact of spiraling costs. On average we estimate that Vitex has sustained soaring costs by 25% and passed on only 8%. This of course influenced our margin and in parallel with our commitment to grow our market share, profitability has dropped to low but sustainable levels.

CW: Have you seen an improvement in business, such as supply chain issues, logistics, etc., as the pandemic has (hopefully) ended?

AkzoNobel:

Generally, availability of raw materials has improved, backlog falling with the number of force majeures but was offset by the explosion at the site of a major resin supplier in North America in 2022. We saw continued deflation in commodity raw materials, although there was a more diverse picture in specialties and non-commodity materials. Also, while the freight rates have been declining, the cost of ground transportation remains elevated, so additional inflation is expected in 2023. At AkzoNobel, we’ve been focused on reducing inventory levels, hence lower raw material purchases.

BASF:

The business is still volatile, and the past years proved that especially the supply chain needs increased attention. Therefore, we continuously monitor developments on the market and identify alternatives where possible so that we can counteract interruptions in the supply chain at an early stage. While supply problems with raw materials have a direct impact on the production of our products, factors such as the semiconductor crisis, for example, lead to our customers interrupting their production and thus being unable to take delivery of our products. We therefore need to keep a close eye on both sides of the supply chain and respond at an early stage.

Beckers:

Supply conditions have improved significantly, and raw material shortages are now rare - but conditions varied dramatically throughout the year. Q1 and Q2 were characterized by demands above expectation, supply chain interruptions, soaring prices and supplier force majeures. Close cooperation with suppliers, frequent replanning of demands, exchange of raw materials between Beckers sites based on centralized decision-making helped to keep On Time Delivery to Beckers customers up. Business patterns changed over the summer to a much lower demand in Q3 and Q4, which led to significantly improved availability.

Berger:

Yes, the supply chain issues have eased considerably though raw material prices remain at a high level.

CIN:

As the pandemic effects are decreasing, we face economic turbulence and high inflation rates. But in general, availability is (mostly) back to normal due to the global trade slowdown. As a result, there is a downward trend in some feedstock prices, but energy price significantly impacts some raw materials; therefore, some prices are still increasing.

Hempel:

We are no longer seeing the same shortages in raw materials or extreme lead-times. Freight rates on major routes like Asia to Europe have dropped significantly and capacity is widely available, which has reduced cost, improved planning and predictability. The fuel and energy cost is obviously still an issue - a challenge that has forced us to work smarter and be creative in our logistics. It has been challenging times in the past two to three years, but the pandemic and war in Ukraine, and all that it has brought with it, has really taught us a lot. From a logistics point of view, focus is now on re-balancing our stock at different locations around the world. During the pandemic, we did see some customers stockpiling certain products – that is now being evened out.

HMG:

Unfortunately supply chain and raw material issues were still a main topic of conversation across our internal meetings. Thankfully the teams across the business at HMG from the lab, purchasing, and production have dealt admirably with the situation and we’ve managed to build our customer base and ensure continued supply to our customers, despite the disruption we have faced. As a UK manufacturer we also saw some advantages of the supply chain issues as brands who import product to the UK market were struggling to supply; we managed to capitalise on the situation and solve supply issues for a number of new customers. As a paint partner, our primary focus was to ensure our customers business operations were not interrupted, and 2022 saw us strengthen our existing relationships and also develop a number of new ones by providing innovative products backed up with technical support.

PPG:

Supply chain and other logistics issues are moderating as the impact of COVID lessens in key markets like China and Europe. Our strong position in China also will benefit us as the COVID reopening progresses there and demand begins to strengthen in earnest beginning in the second quarter. In Europe, demand has stabilized at lower levels and if consumer confidence improves we could see modest growth later in the year, though it may not be what we’d see in a normal year.

Tnemec:

Supply chain issues continue to gradually improve. Following a couple of years of abnormal purchasing practices, many companies are sorting through imbalanced inventories. This very likely is creating a temporary softening in upstream demand. Shipping logistics continue to be difficult and costly.

Vitex:

In 2022 business ran smoothly, with limited impact on the supply chain deriving from the pandemic. The high paint market demand during lockdowns has reverted, basically because of a shrinking DIY market. On the contrary we saw business growing in segments related to the tourism industry with hotels, private rentals and restaurants being renovated with the post-pandemic hospitality industry rebooting.

CW: What areas of the paint and coatings market represent the most growth opportunities for your company?

AkzoNobel:

We see a wide range of possible but positive outcomes for our China business in 2023, reflective of uncertainty over the speed and magnitude of our business rebound from Q2 onwards as the economy began to reopen. We’ll also see the benefits of easing year-on-year comparatives in Q2 as we lap the beginning of the COVID-19 impact in 2022. The same applies for the continued recovery in marine and protective and the improving trends in aerospace and automotive in 2023. For the longer term, powder is structurally a growth segment based on the liquid-to-powder sustainability-driven trend.

BASF:

The automotive OEM market in Asia Pacific is still strong and we stay close to our customers to support them with state-of-the-art coatings technology. Last year, we expanded our Automotive Coatings Application Center at the Coatings Technology Center in Mangalore, India. The expansion of the application center is an important addition to serve the Indian market with high-quality coatings solutions. It symbolizes our strong commitment to supporting the automotive industry’s long-term growth in the country. Furthermore, this investment is a significant milestone in our effort to further strengthen our R&D footprint in Asia Pacific and improves our proximity to customers in one of the fastest growing regions for our automotive coatings solutions. With the expanded automotive coatings application center, we aim to not only continue our investment in OEM coatings in India, but to also support long-term growth in the automotive market in the region going forward.

Beckers:

We have high expectation for our core strategic segment coil coatings. We believe that coil coatings offers plenty of headroom for growth, and this is where we want to build market leadership with innovation and new solutions in sustainability. We want to secure our position in Europe with growth in Asia and the Americas. We also believe there are opportunities for Beckers in the global agricultural, construction and earth moving equipment (ACE) sector.

Berger:

In architectural coatings, there are some identified opportunities in the exterior category where we will be offering consumers some unique solutions. Opportunities exist in the waterproofing segment whether in existing structures or in new projects. The revival of the general industrial and protective coatings sectors presents us with significant scope to consolidate our leadership position. The auto industry has seen resurgence in demand and manufacturers are ramping up production of passenger vehicles and two-wheelers which should also offer us an upside.

CIN:

All the market areas where CIN operates represent an opportunity for growth, and we have plans to develop new products and consolidate the current portfolio in all our business units. We estimate, however, that the performance coatings (protective and industrial units) will have more significant growth potential in 2023.

Hempel:

We will continue to build segment leadership positions in selected geographies within Marine, Decorative, Infrastructure and Energy. Our technology and expertise in these areas brings real value to our customers and our focus will ensure we have a robust product development pipeline, with sustainability as a key driver in our innovation, to continuously reinforce our position.

HMG:

The pandemic seems to been a catalyst for the entrepreneurial spirit across the UK, and we have developed a number of new opportunities with brands and individuals looking for their own paint ranges. As a white label and toll manufacturing specialist, this has allowed us to work on some exciting projects with world-wide market leading brands to bring some exceptional and unique products to the market which represent exciting growth potential in 2023. We also foresee a number of opportunities in the Protective Coatings merchant marketing supplying such products as 1K DTM Coatings, uPVC Coatings and other specialist products. The Commercial Vehicle market is also one that is showing a number of opportunities for us. Our Acrythane 4G is still our biggest seller under the HMG brand and it has become the go-to product for commercial vehicle OEMs and refinishers across the country and extremely popular with our distributor network following the launch of our ColourBox containing 2,400 colours for customers to select. For OEM’s we offer direct supply of the graphene containing Acrythane Ultra, which is becoming increasingly specified on projects due to its premium finish and extended durability properties.

PPG:

We see numerous opportunities for growth. In automotive, for example, both the OEM and refinish segments have been at recession levels for the past three years. Automakers built 40 million fewer cars from 2019 through 2022 compared to the six-year period prior to the pandemic, so there’s significant pent-up demand worldwide.

The electric vehicle (EV) market is another growth opportunity that can impact several of our businesses. We’re especially strong in China, and some 65 percent of last year’s global EV sales were in the Chinese market. We have a strong relationship with China’s largest EV manufacturer and our growth strategy focuses not just on new technology, but also on selling conventional corrosion protection and beautification products.

Our automotive refinish business is down compared to 2019, but we made steady progress in 2022 and are pursuing an aggressive strategy that enabled us to add around 2,000 shops to our worldwide customer base last year.
On the OEM side, we see the market starting to pick up modestly this year, though we are cautiously optimistic. For the year, we anticipate single-digit growth.

In aerospace, we posted organic growth of 20 percent year-over-year in 2022. As aircraft manufacturers continue to ramp up production of new aircraft and travel returns to pre-pandemic levels, we expect demand to continue throughout for a number of years.

Finally, we see continued growth opportunities for our protective and marine coatings business. China’s reopening bodes well for this business, and we’re seeing significant investment in all aspects of liquid natural gas, which uses many of our advantaged protective products. There’s also significant infrastructure investment in the U.S. and other countries that offer growth opportunities for the protective business. And in Mexico, PPG Comex is a fantastic distribution network of more than 5,000 locations that have historically been very heavily architectural deco-focused. We’re now leveraging that network to grow our protective business in the same way we’ve used our retail networks to grow the protective business in the U.S. and other countries.

Tnemec:

Infrastructure spending in North America should continue to be strong with years of catching up on deferred maintenance. We anticipate achieving business growth with the introduction of a number of new coatings technologies designed to improve asset life cycle maintenance costs.

Vitex:

Our main market, Greece, is rapidly recovering from a long recession period, and we are experiencing economic growth. Energy efficiency of buildings is one of the top priorities in most of the countries we operate, and relevant upgrades are a market driver. We see our ETICS business rapidly growing because of the grants and subsidies the governments provide. Big residential projects and infrastructure works in Greece are expected to roll out raising demand, but also augmenting the skilled labor shortage. DIY market is still very slow, but we expect that it will grow in summertime, since consumers will need to do works that professionals will not undertake. Tourism will continue to grow and be one of the key market segments for Vitex. All in all, we are optimistic about the next years.

CW: What is your business strategy for growth in 2023 and beyond?

AkzoNobel: AkzoNobel expects the ongoing macro-economic uncertainties to continue and weigh on organic volume growth. The company will focus on margin management, cost reduction, working capital normalization and de-leveraging. As raw material prices progressively retreat, our focus will be to protect pricing so that we can expand margins, which have been significantly deflated by this inflationary cycle.

Cost reduction programs are expected to mitigate the ongoing pressure from inflation in operating expenses for 2023. The company expects declining raw material costs to have a favorable impact on profitability, which will rebound in 2023.

We plan to close the Kansai Paint Africa acquisition in Q4 2023. And while we expect global volumes to be down for 2023, we see many pockets of growth, such as Asia, Aerospace Coatings, Vehicle Refinishes and Marine and Protective Coatings.

BASF:

The topic of sustainability significantly gained importance in recent years, and for us sustainability is in the core of our strategy with innovative products and processes. In close cooperation, we support our customers with individual solutions in achieving their respective sustainability goals. In 2022, for example, a leading automotive manufacturer introduced for the first time products for series production coating that are certified according to BASF’s biomass balance process and are based on the use of renewable raw materials at the start of the production process. In addition, we have developed a functional film that can be applied to wind turbine rotor blades and provides an additional yield of up to 3 percent.

Beckers:

I see many opportunities for growth and for Beckers to support the demand in construction and in sustainability. Our customers are committed to decreasing their carbon footprint, and as a customer-focused organization we let their behaviors guide our path forward to achieve our growth goals. In 2022, we made a commitment to bring sustainability to life for our customers and end-users and accelerate the scope and scale of our innovation. To this end, Beckers is building a new Sustainable Innovation Centre in the UK to help unlock the potential of more sustainable coil coating technologies such as ultraviolet/electron beam (UV/EB) curing.

Berger:

As always, Berger Paints will strive to be the fastest growing and most profitable manufacturer in the Indian market. This being our centenary year in India, there is the added sense of responsibility, and we will be rededicating our efforts to bettering the life of our consumers, employees, and society. Overall, our strategy is centered around continuous innovation, distribution expansion, operational efficiency, and strong branding and marketing, all of which should allow us to increase our market share and profitability.

CIN:

We are working on a significant improvement in our production capacity, which will simplify and speed up the manufacturing process to deliver more and faster.

Hempel:

We are on a growth journey here at Hempel, partway through our Double Impact business strategy, which will see Hempel double its revenue to €3 billion in 2025. This year, we’ll be further scaling our business to ensure it is fit for future growth. Continuing on our digitalization journey and delivering on our commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion will also be in focus for the year ahead. Our growth path is ambitious and, since we launched our Double Impact strategy in 2020, we have been very focused on sales growth. Moving forward and in line with our strategy, we want to more cost-effectively scale our business. This will help us to invest even more in new sustainable solutions in the future and provide superior returns to our owner, the Hempel Foundation, to be able to donate more to its extremely important philanthropic work around the world.

HMG:

As the last few years have shown we cannot predict what is coming and can only focus on what we can control. For 2023 and beyond it is about being a true partner to our customers and not just a paint supplier. As mentioned earlier, the influences of the Ukraine War and energy crisis is still filtering through into the marketplace and we will be working side by side with customers to optimise the performance of the paint and their processes. By working this way it allows us to create partnerships which are long-term and also sustainable. Due to the unique agile nature of HMG Paints we’re perfectly structured to adapt, develop and manufacture products which are bespoke for our customer needs and this will be done with our technical support and R&D teams working closely with customers to find the perfect coatings solution.

PPG:

Our immediate focus and priority is margin recovery and we are highly confident that we will make good progress in this area in 2023. The core areas of our strategy are first to deliver consistent organic growth that is above global industrial production by thrilling our customers with advantaged products that improve their productivity and sustainability; second to modernize, simplify, and further digitize our operations to sustain long-term value creation; and finally, we will continue to be outstanding cash generators and balance our return of cash to shareholders, for example, through dividends, and into investments to further grow our company through accretive acquisitions that add to PPG capabilities and better enable organic growth.

Tnemec:

We look for growth in four categories at Tnemec Company. First and foremost is the continual pursuit of innovative technologies that extend asset life cycles and provide enhanced functional properties for industrial and architectural projects. Secondly, we are constantly seeking to expand our sales representation. Thirdly, Tnemec is actively pursuing growth in foreign markets. Fourth and finally, we continue to find strategically complementary opportunities with acquisitions.

Vitex:

We are committed to maintain the leading market position we obtained in 2022 in our main market, Greece. We aim to grow our presence as an international brand in Bulgaria, Serbia and Cyprus. Increasing our market share together with all our stakeholders, strategic suppliers, retailers, professional product users and specifiers and consumers is our strategy. We will keep investing in growing our production and warehousing capacity both in paint and ETICS market sector.

CW: In what areas are you focusing your R&D efforts?

AkzoNobel:

With our company purpose – People. Planet. Paint. – front and center, innovation is the spark that ignites our ability to advance our products, services and technologies while benefitting our customers and the world around us. And sustainability is part of our DNA.
In 2022, we made good progress as we achieved 28% carbon reduction in our own operations, compared with the 2018 baseline (well on track for 50% in 2030). We’ve reached 40% revenue from sustainable solutions and are aiming for 50% as a target for 2030. Our circular use of materials, which also includes water, is now at 56% and we aim to increase this to 100% by 2030.

Our proud track record of game-changing innovation stretches all the way back to the 19th century. Going forward, we’ve identified four innovation drivers: productivity, asset protection, surface enhancement and environmental protection. They ensure that our approach remains fully aligned with our sustainability goals and our company strategy, as well as helping us to deliver unrivalled solutions.

BASF:

We are continuously developing coatings and surface solutions that offer superior functional, economic and environmental performance. This is not limited to the products itself, but also includes the way we are working. The industry is undergoing a transformation process in which megatrends such as digitization and sustainability are playing an important role. Through intelligent use of data, processes can be optimized, supply chains can be tracked, and products can be used more efficiently. We want to walk this path together with our customers and develop solutions tailored to their specific needs.

Beckers:

Innovation and new solutions in sustainability are key for Beckers to lead the transformation in coil coatings. We continuously challenge ourselves to rethink what we do, not just when it comes to R&D and our formulations, but in how we work with suppliers, how we design our own processes as well as how we can optimize the processes of our customers.
Our R&D efforts continue to focus on providing unique, high-performance solutions that improve customer competitiveness while protecting people and planet. The main example in 2022 is further enhancement to the Beckers Sustainability Index (BSI). The BSI is a transparent product classification tool to map and measure full systems’ sustainability. It classifies the sustainable impact of coating systems along both material and functional dimensions and can be used by Beckers and our customers for sustainable product development. In 2022 we completed charting all our products’ functionality as well as their materiality. Over the past few months, Beckers has been working with Ernst & Young on a detailed audit of the BSI model, which we are confident will lead to a validation of the model by EY.

Berger:

Berger Paints is constantly investing in R&D to enhance our product portfolio and improve their performance characteristics, sustainability, and durability. Some areas where our R&D efforts are focused include: Sustainability: This is one of the priority areas for us and our focus is on developing sustainable products that are eco-friendly and use of production processes that minimize the impact on the environment. This encompasses as wide spectrum from water-based coatings that have lower VOC (volatile organic compounds) emissions and are safer for human health to more advanced products.

Performance improvements: We are interested in the development of new technologies to improve the performance characteristics of their products, such as better durability, scratch-resistance, and self-cleaning properties. We are also expanding the research into the use of nanotechnology to improve the performance of coatings.

Smart coatings: Coatings that can sense and respond to changes in their environment are at the cutting edge of technology and we are looking at this closely.

Bio-based materials: We are interested in developing coatings from renewable, bio-based materials. We are keen to identify new sources of bio-based materials and develop coatings that are biodegradable, compostable, and sustainable.

Overall, the focus on our R&D is to serve our customers and the nation, stay competitive and meet the changing needs of customers and society.

CIN:

Across all technical teams, we are committed to meeting all environmental, sustainability and occupational health and safety requirements, with extensive work replacing raw materials that do not comply with emerging and future legislation and regulations.

Hempel:

Co-creating with our customers to understand their current challenges and opportunities and to anticipate future ones has always been a key priority at Hempel. The deep insights this intimacy allows are essential in our development of new solutions for our key segments. One such example is the launch of Hempablade Edge, which in our tests outperforms other coatings solutions in rain erosion testing. We expect to see many more examples like this in the future.
At Hempel our ambition is to lead our industry on sustainability, without compromising on performance. You will see us continue to improve the sustainability profile of our products, as we have done in 2022. With a clear strategic focus on sustainability, we are now ahead of our 2025 targets on replacing hazardous raw materials and providing biocide free options to our customers.

HMG:

2022 seemed like a year where the R&D team was constantly juggling with raw material and formulation optimisation projects, 2023 however is where they will be focusing on what they enjoy most, innovative product development. A key area of their efforts will be looking at developing sustainable and water-based alternatives to a number of our traditionally bestselling products. The demand for water-based and sustainable coatings is growing year on year and as a business we’re well placed to capitalise on the opportunities that the market is presenting us.

PPG:

Our R&D focuses on several areas that affect both the products we make and how we make them. We continue to listen to and work with partners and customers to identify and address their needs. In some instances, we work with them to develop technologies that improve their manufacturing processes to make them more efficient and environmentally responsible.
Internally, we continue to invest R&D into our sustainability efforts, as we continue to reduce the environmental impact of our operations and develop products that enhance and support our customer’s sustainability efforts.

Tnemec:

I attended Tnemec’s R&D conference in January and came away with a high degree of excitement and anticipation for what is to come. With an increase in staff and investments in newer facilities, we are poised for years of innovation in performance coatings and functional products for specialized applications. Tnemec’s focus is unchanged from decades of work to innovate and improve paint and coating performance. Our labs are engaged in exciting projects with new technologies from raw material suppliers, and it’s a special experience for Tnemec chemists to see their work develop into commercially valuable products for our customers.

Vitex:

Our R&D efforts are focused on addressing new consumer needs for more healthy and safe indoor living environment, as well as providing with state-of-the-art outdoor protective coatings and ETICS with excellent performance, low environmental footprint and verified unique sustainability characteristics. Sustainability, under the prism of digital transformation, will be a main driver for our innovative journey. Our main task will be to promote the flow of ideas along the value chain we serve, to come up not only with innovative and functional products but also with new and alternative ways of serving the market. 

Bio-based wax additives for inks, wood, metal, and powder coatings

Wax additives are surface modifiers that enhance and protect the appearance, feel, slip, durability, and abrasion- and scratch-resistance of inks and coatings.

Shamrock Technologies develops and offers effective bio-based wax additives which can be used in a wide variety of long-lasting formulations, providing performance-enhancing benefits needed in the inks and coatings industry.

By developing bio-based options, we seek to:
• Rethink fossil-based value chains
• Return to more natural sources, without depleting feedstock
• Reimagine a greener future with less impact on the environment

There are two primary reasons for using wax additives: controlling the processability of products—making them easier to use in a variety of applications—and improving the properties of various surfaces. Because of their versatility,

it is important to choose the right product and type of additive for each project. Wax additives deliver a variety of surface effects across a wide range of applications, including:
•  UV Inks: improve performance in UV-cured systems.
•  Digital Printing Inks: improve rub-resistance and anti-blocking properties with minimal influence on gloss.
•  Wood Coatings: increase scratch- and abrasion-resistance and anti-blocking surface properties.
•  Coil Coatings: control CoF, anti-blocking, anti-scratch and anti-abrasion properties while improving durability of surface properties.
• Powder Coatings: improve fluidization and antistatic properties during application and cure; provide slip and impact-resistance during use.

Shamrock Technologies offers a range of sustainable vegetable-derived natural wax additives as a part of our dedication towards green initiatives and promoting the circular economy. We are committed to helping the environment through our working practices of using bio-renewable resources and conservative energy processing methods.

In keeping with this approach, we are proud to announce the expansion of our bio-based wax additives with our new BioSLIP™ series. The BioSLIP™ product line offers outstanding slip and mar resistance with a controlled impact on gloss and clarity. For example, BioSLIP™ 297 is an all-natural wax, able to achieve the same high performance in Taber abrasion values as fossil-based materials in wood floor coatings. BioSLIP™ products integrate naturally sourced materials into ink formulations and coatings, improving their performance and extending the useful life of the products.

About Shamrock Technologies:

Shamrock is an innovative leader in recycled PTFE micropowders and micronized wax. Our products are manufactured to meet the highest performance requirements in compliance with ISO 9001:2015. Headquartered in Newark, New Jersey, Shamrock has state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities in the USA, Belgium, and China. 

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