Expansions in India Paint & Coatings Industry

Indian paint and coatings producers added significant production capacities in 2018. Currently, there are a number of ongoing expansions in the paint and coatings sector by major producers in the country.

Overview of the Indian paint industry

Estimated at $7.26 billion at the end of financial year 2018-19, the Indian paint industry registered modest growth in the just concluded financial year. The decorative paint category constitutes almost 75 percent of the overall market. The decorative paint market includes multiple categories, including exterior wall paints, interior wall paints, wood finishes and enamels, as well as ancillary products like primers, putties, etc.

The industrial paint category constitutes the balance 25 percent of the paint market and includes a broad array of segments like automotive, marine, packaging, powder, protective and other general industrial coatings. The domestic paint industry still continues to have a 32-35 percent share of unorganized players which primarily cater to the low-end of the market.

Slew of capacity expansions by Indian paint majors

Four major paint producers, who account for more than 60 percent of the total output of the Indian paint and coating industry, have either added significant production capacity or are in the process of adding additional capacity to their operations to aid in meeting the growing demand of paint and coatings in the country. This is set to be the biggest addition of capital expenditure seen in the industry ever.

Asian Paints

Among the big four of the Indian paint industry, Asian Paints, the leader in the decorative paints segment, operates 27 manufacturing facilities both in the country and in foreign markets. In financial year 2018-19 (April 2018- March 2019), the company commissioned two large paint manufacturing units of 300,000 KL/annum each at Mysuru (state of Karnataka) in September 2018 and Visakhapatnam (state of Andhra Pradesh) in January 2019. Both these plants will be scaled up in the second phase of expansion, taking the overall installed capacity of each plant to 6,000,000 KL/annum.

Coming up with an investment of $579 million, both of these plants are fully automated with world-class automation systems in all their operations. Newer technology has been tested and successfully implemented on the packing floor and their finished goods warehouses as well. With these two capacity additions, the company has an overall installed capacity of 17,300,000 KL per annum of installed capacity of decorative paints and 14,000 KL and 7,200 MT per year of industrial paints installed capacity.

Kansai Nerolac

The country’s second largest paint producer (in terms of sales revenue for the year 2018-19), Kansai Nerolac has been aggressively augmenting capacity to match its expanding portfolio of offerings. In the last financial year, the company commenced commercial production at its new state-of-the-art industrial coatings plant at Sayakha, Gujarat.

Gujarat manufacturing plant is Kansai Nerolac’s fifth production facility in the country. Kansai Nerolac, the leader in the industrial paints segment, has four other manufacturing facilities in the country located at Lote in Maharashtra, Bawal in Haryana, Jainpur in Uttar Pradesh, and at Hosur in the state of Tamil Nadu.

The company is also in the process to set up two state-of-the-art new plants equipped with modern production technologies at Amritsar in Punjab and Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh.

Kansai’s upcoming manufacturing plant in the state of Punjab with an installed capacity of 52,800 KL per annum is being constructed at Goindwal Sahib near Amritsar in Punjab.  Coming up with an investment of $28 million, this plant is expected to commence commercial production in early 2020. The company’s seventh manufacturing unit is coming up in the Achutapuram, Vishakhapatnam district in the coastal state of Andhra Pradesh. The plant will have a capacity of 60,000 KL per year, which is expendable in phases, at an estimated cost of $43 million. Timeline of commencement of commercial production from this plant has not been announced by Kansai Nerolac.

AkzoNobel India

AkzoNobel, the owner of brands such as Dulux and Sikkens, operates six plants across India. In early 2018, AkzoNobel India commenced commercial production at its new powder coatings facility at Thane, near Mumbai. Coming up with an investment of $10 million, this is AkzoNobel’s sixth manufacturing facility in the country. The new facility complements AkzoNobel’s existing plant in Bangalore, adding new product lines in bonded metallic powder and pipe and re-bar coatings.

Speaking at the inauguration ceremony, Jayakumar Krishnaswamy, managing director, AkzoNobel India said, “AkzoNobel India Powder Coatings has been delivering strong profitable growth. The new facility plays a critical role in AkzoNobel India’s expansion plans and provides a boost to our access to the markets located in Northern and Western parts of India.”

Berger Paints India

Berger Paints has lined up an investment of $39 million over two years to expand capacity in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.

The company is coming up with a greenfield unit at Sandila industrial area in the state of Uttar Pradesh at an investment of $28 million and another $11 million is earmarked for expansion at the company’s existing unit at Jejuri in the state of Maharashtra.

“We will soon commence work for the installation of water and solvent-based decorative, industrial and protective coatings, resin, putty, emulsion and construction of chemical manufacturing facility at an estimated investment of $28 million at Sandila in Uttar Pradesh. The project is likely to be completed in 2021, subject to the availability of approvals,” according to a statement from Berger Paints Chairman Kuldip Singh Dhingra at a recent annual general meeting of shareholders.

Berger Paints is present in the decorative, industrial paints, protective and powder coating categories.  It has 12 paint manufacturing units now (including its latest unit in Assam) with an annual installed capacity of 720,000 tons.