Sean Milmo , European Correspondent11.13.15
The short to medium outlook for wood coatings in Europe is looking bright at the moment as a result of a revival in the construction industry in the European Union and increased sales of wood products in segments in which previously the material has been little used.
In the longer term the biggest driver in the sector is the widespread belief that wood offers more opportunities than other materials for combating climate change.
However, the expansion of the European wood market presents challenges to producers of wood coatings and related treatments like stains and oils, which goes beyond product innovation. The coatings industry has to be able to demonstrate that the sustainability of its products matches that of wood itself.
Currently growth in demand for timber has not been uniform across Europe or even within individual European countries. But analysts reckon it has been averaging a rate well above GDP growth in Western Europe of around 1-2 percent, which is about the level of expansion of the whole of the region’s coatings market.
Hardwood output went up by 8 percent last year but many hardwood sectors were still at production levels below those before the 2008 recession, according to the European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF).
Timber sales in Germany went up 4 percent in 2014, considerably above the country’s GDP rise, reports GD Holz, the German timber trade association.
But this increase was offset by a 7-percent drop in sales in the first four months of this year with building product sales going down by 7 percent.
There has been a steep increase in demand for some engineered woods in northern European countries, which have helped to widen the architectural potential of wood.
In Stockholm a joint venture of a contractor and house developer is planning to build 6,000 dwellings using engineered woods, including a 13-storey apartment block.
B&K Structures, a specialist in hybrid materials structures, has been building at Banyan Wharf, London, a 10-story residential construction with a mix of frames of steel and engineered wood. A 14-storey building of engineered wood in Bergen, Norway, is due to be completed this year, while in Vienna a 24-story tower of concrete and wood is also being constructed for commercial use.
A major consequence of the greater use of wood in a wider variety of building, both on their exteriors and in their interiors, as well as in niches in the automobile, household appliance and signage sectors is that wood coatings manufactures have to operate more on a bespoke basis with architects and designers wanting customised products.
The outcome is a much more fragmented market. Of the 600,000 architects in Europe, a growing number are becoming aware of the benefits of wood components and then are wanting to specify the paints and dyes to be used on them.
In the EU joinery and furniture industries alone, there are around 300,000 manufacturers, the vast majority of them small-scale.
This fragmentation is helping SMEs specializing in wood coatings, particularly those mainly serving local or regional markets.
The bigger players have to rely on networks of distributors. Also, to keep up with the rising demand for customized products and constant innovation, they require versatile R&D departments.
Italy’s IVM Group, based in Milan, which, through its Milesi unit, is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of wood coatings for professionals, spends 8 percent of its revenue on R&D.
A possible consolation for wood coatings manufacturers is that the surge in sales of the new, engineered woods, whose strands and fibers are restructured to form composite high-strength materials, looks unlikely to necessitate the development of complex new coatings formulations.
At present the ones proving to be popular with architects and designers in Europe are cross-linked timber (CLT), glulam and thermally and chemically modified woods.
CLT comprises layers of boards placed cross-wise to adjacent layers, while glued laminated timber or glulam consists of several layers of timber of different dimensions stuck together with adhesives to make vertical or horizontal columns as strong as steel.
“The big bonus for coatings manufacturers is that these woods are chemically and physically more stable than conventional woods, “ explained a UK-based timber consultant. “The existing coatings actually perform better on them and can be applied with heavier loadings.”
On the other hand coatings on engineered woods have a disadvantage in respect to the contribution they make to the sustainability of the woods. CLT, glulam and others have a long service life in buildings so that far lower energy inputs are required than with other materials while they act as a means of storing carbon. But this gain comes far more from the engineering of the wood itself than the coating itself.
With conventional woods, coatings have a much bigger role in extending the service life of the woods, a quality which would be reflected in the life cycle assessments (LCAs) of the coatings.
“We have an LCA database with data on the chemicals in coatings going back 20 years, which show how they improve the environmental impact of wood products by altering their life cycles,” explained Sandy Smith, a consultant at thinkstep, LCA specialists, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany.
With a rising number of wood purchasers wanting to know the LCAs of what they buy, including those of the coatings, it is becoming important to know as accurately as possible how much coatings exactly prolong service lives of woods.
With coatings on exterior wood components on buildings, like window frames, there can be significant differences in estimates of service life of coatings because of the lack of consistency in the data from short-term laboratory tests, including accelerated weathering, and that from natural or field weathering exposures.
Servowood, a research project co-ordinated by the European Coatings Federation (CEPE) and funded by the EU, aims to fill the data gaps between the two systems of weathering tests.
Started last year and due to be completed in 2017, it aims to establish European Standards for facilitating the prediction of the service life for exterior wood coatings across different climatic zones. Much of the research will be focused on measuring the inputs in dosage based on factors like temperature, UV light and moisture and the response of different coatings systems to them.
“We will establish parameters for creating models for extrapolating the causal links between the inputs dosages and the performance of the coatings in both laboratory and field-based exposures,” explained Jan van der Meulen, CEPE’s director general.
CEPE is hoping that the firmer data on the service life of exterior wood coatings will help coatings companies develop even more efficient products, while highlighting how much coatings underpin the unique sustainability of wood, particularly in buildings.
“The research will help wood products to be even more effective in the fight against climate change,” van der Meulen said.
In the longer term the biggest driver in the sector is the widespread belief that wood offers more opportunities than other materials for combating climate change.
However, the expansion of the European wood market presents challenges to producers of wood coatings and related treatments like stains and oils, which goes beyond product innovation. The coatings industry has to be able to demonstrate that the sustainability of its products matches that of wood itself.
Currently growth in demand for timber has not been uniform across Europe or even within individual European countries. But analysts reckon it has been averaging a rate well above GDP growth in Western Europe of around 1-2 percent, which is about the level of expansion of the whole of the region’s coatings market.
Hardwood output went up by 8 percent last year but many hardwood sectors were still at production levels below those before the 2008 recession, according to the European Timber Trade Federation (ETTF).
Timber sales in Germany went up 4 percent in 2014, considerably above the country’s GDP rise, reports GD Holz, the German timber trade association.
But this increase was offset by a 7-percent drop in sales in the first four months of this year with building product sales going down by 7 percent.
There has been a steep increase in demand for some engineered woods in northern European countries, which have helped to widen the architectural potential of wood.
In Stockholm a joint venture of a contractor and house developer is planning to build 6,000 dwellings using engineered woods, including a 13-storey apartment block.
B&K Structures, a specialist in hybrid materials structures, has been building at Banyan Wharf, London, a 10-story residential construction with a mix of frames of steel and engineered wood. A 14-storey building of engineered wood in Bergen, Norway, is due to be completed this year, while in Vienna a 24-story tower of concrete and wood is also being constructed for commercial use.
A major consequence of the greater use of wood in a wider variety of building, both on their exteriors and in their interiors, as well as in niches in the automobile, household appliance and signage sectors is that wood coatings manufactures have to operate more on a bespoke basis with architects and designers wanting customised products.
The outcome is a much more fragmented market. Of the 600,000 architects in Europe, a growing number are becoming aware of the benefits of wood components and then are wanting to specify the paints and dyes to be used on them.
In the EU joinery and furniture industries alone, there are around 300,000 manufacturers, the vast majority of them small-scale.
This fragmentation is helping SMEs specializing in wood coatings, particularly those mainly serving local or regional markets.
The bigger players have to rely on networks of distributors. Also, to keep up with the rising demand for customized products and constant innovation, they require versatile R&D departments.
Italy’s IVM Group, based in Milan, which, through its Milesi unit, is one of Europe’s leading suppliers of wood coatings for professionals, spends 8 percent of its revenue on R&D.
A possible consolation for wood coatings manufacturers is that the surge in sales of the new, engineered woods, whose strands and fibers are restructured to form composite high-strength materials, looks unlikely to necessitate the development of complex new coatings formulations.
At present the ones proving to be popular with architects and designers in Europe are cross-linked timber (CLT), glulam and thermally and chemically modified woods.
CLT comprises layers of boards placed cross-wise to adjacent layers, while glued laminated timber or glulam consists of several layers of timber of different dimensions stuck together with adhesives to make vertical or horizontal columns as strong as steel.
“The big bonus for coatings manufacturers is that these woods are chemically and physically more stable than conventional woods, “ explained a UK-based timber consultant. “The existing coatings actually perform better on them and can be applied with heavier loadings.”
On the other hand coatings on engineered woods have a disadvantage in respect to the contribution they make to the sustainability of the woods. CLT, glulam and others have a long service life in buildings so that far lower energy inputs are required than with other materials while they act as a means of storing carbon. But this gain comes far more from the engineering of the wood itself than the coating itself.
With conventional woods, coatings have a much bigger role in extending the service life of the woods, a quality which would be reflected in the life cycle assessments (LCAs) of the coatings.
“We have an LCA database with data on the chemicals in coatings going back 20 years, which show how they improve the environmental impact of wood products by altering their life cycles,” explained Sandy Smith, a consultant at thinkstep, LCA specialists, Leinfelden-Echterdingen, Germany.
With a rising number of wood purchasers wanting to know the LCAs of what they buy, including those of the coatings, it is becoming important to know as accurately as possible how much coatings exactly prolong service lives of woods.
With coatings on exterior wood components on buildings, like window frames, there can be significant differences in estimates of service life of coatings because of the lack of consistency in the data from short-term laboratory tests, including accelerated weathering, and that from natural or field weathering exposures.
Servowood, a research project co-ordinated by the European Coatings Federation (CEPE) and funded by the EU, aims to fill the data gaps between the two systems of weathering tests.
Started last year and due to be completed in 2017, it aims to establish European Standards for facilitating the prediction of the service life for exterior wood coatings across different climatic zones. Much of the research will be focused on measuring the inputs in dosage based on factors like temperature, UV light and moisture and the response of different coatings systems to them.
“We will establish parameters for creating models for extrapolating the causal links between the inputs dosages and the performance of the coatings in both laboratory and field-based exposures,” explained Jan van der Meulen, CEPE’s director general.
CEPE is hoping that the firmer data on the service life of exterior wood coatings will help coatings companies develop even more efficient products, while highlighting how much coatings underpin the unique sustainability of wood, particularly in buildings.
“The research will help wood products to be even more effective in the fight against climate change,” van der Meulen said.
