BASF Coatings

Muenster, Germany
www.basf-coatings.com

PUBLIC COMPANY; YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1865

REVENUE: $4.55 billion s (2021: $3.58 billion)

MARKETS SERVED
Automotive OEM; Automotive refinish; Commercial vehicles; Decorative coatings; Surface treatments

KEY EXECUTIVES:
Uta Holzenkamp, president BASF Coatings division; Patrick Zhao, SVP, Automotive OEM Coatings Solutions; Chris Titmarsh, SVP, Automotive Refinish Coatings Solutions; Marcos Allemann, VP, Decorative Paints Solutions South America; Frank Naber, SVP, Surface Treatment.

BASF Coatings, a division of BASF SE, is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings, decorative paints as well as applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries. BASF shares skills, knowledge and resources of interdisciplinary and global teams for the benefit of customers by operating a collaborative network of sites in Europe, North America, South America and Asia Pacific. In 2022, the Coatings division achieved global sales of about $4.55 billion. The company employs approximately 11,400 people globally and has more than 70 sites worldwide. The Coatings division of BASF is a global expert in the development, production and marketing of innovative and sustainable automotive OEM and refinish coatings, decorative paints as well as applied surface treatments for metal, plastic and glass substrates in a wide range of industries. This portfolio is supplemented by "Beyond Paint Solutions," which enable new applications with innovative surfaces.

Key Happenings:
• BASF and BMW Group rely on renewable raw materials for automotive coatings
• BASF launches first biomass balance automotive coatings in China
• AeroSHARK from Lufthansa Technik and BASF now certified for Boeing 777

The State of the Coatings Industry:
Uta Holzenkamp, head of BASF’s Coatings division:
“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.

"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.

"However, 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.”

Facing Key Trends:
“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.

"The Coatings division of BASF will become an even more complete provider of surface solutions. In addition to our core business automotive paint, we will also focus on solutions beyond paint and digital business models to develop new markets. Our Digital Incubation Unit acts as a business model incubator. It offers an environment to ideate, prototype and scale-up innovative, digital business ideas from the area of Automotive and Surface Solutions.

And of course sustainability will stay in our focus. We will consequently together with our partners implement the next steps to achieve our Net Zero targets and to create a more
sustainable future.”