Automotive Coatings

At a time when high unemployment, a faltering stock market and war concerns are hampering U.S. and world economic recovery, auto sales have surprisingly held up in an otherwise dismal economy. With consumers lured into showrooms by huge rebates and low financing, some might expect to find automotive paint makers comfortably enjoying the brisk sales of their customers.

But it's because of these incentives, along with other changing practices, that paint suppliers are finding the automotive coatings market increasingly difficult to navigate. With their margins under pressure, carmakers are not only looking at ways to reduce raw material costs, they're also asking suppliers to work harder to help cut overall production costs. Following a trend of increasing vendor input, coatings manufacturers must formulate the best-performing product at the lowest costs and figure out the most efficient methods for applying the coating. And if that's not enough, as automakers become more global, they expect vendors to supply products that are consistent regardless if the assembly plant is in Mexico or Michigan. With many U.S. autos now built overseas or in Mexico or Cana