Brazil Steel-Maker Gerdau Bets on Graphene Coatings

Brazilian steel giant Gerdau is moving up the technology ladder with its latest bet on the rising demand for graphene paints and coatings in the Americas. A new subsidiary, Gerdau Graphene, has begun commercial production of a water-based paint containing graphene, C-Fix, in Brazil. The product is initially being marketed as an abrasion-resistant industrial coating for concrete, cement, asphalt and metal floors.

“This new graphene-based floor paint is extremely abrasion-resistant and requires less maintenance and repainting over its lifetime compared with traditional paints. Based on the performance gains of our new product, it’s clear that graphene will have a transformational impact on the entire paint industry,” said Alexandre Corrêa, CEO of Gerdau Graphene, in a June company statement.

The new company is selling its proprietary graphene additives as development prototypes to major paint producers in the Americas, the statement said. The benefits of using graphene additives include reduced weight and friction, more efficient lubrication, and higher thermal and electrical conductivity, among others. Graphene coatings are said to be 200% stronger than steel and more robust than diamond.

Gerdau Graphene recently used C-Fix to paint the floors of the Gerdau specialty steel mill in Pindamonhangaba, São Paulo; there are plans to apply the coating at all plant locations this year. Parent steel company Gerdau, the largest producer of long steel in the Americas, operates in 10 countries, has 75 commercial offices globally, and has more than 30,000 direct and indirect employees in its operations.

Gerdau steel revenues in 2021 increased to $14.49 billion, compared with $9.31 billion in 2020, according to Market Cap. In the United States, Gerdau Special Steel North America is an engineered bar producer headquartered in Jackson, MI. U.S. operations also include steel mills in Monroe, MI and Fort Smith, AR, as well as metal processing facilities in Huntington, IN.

Testing Graphene Demand Across Segments

Apart from its application in industrial paints, C-Fix also will be marketed into Brazil’s architectural paint segment, which amounts to approximately 1.5 billion liters per year, out of a total national consumption of 1.9 billion liters for all segments combined, according to the statement by Corrêa.

“We have commercialized this new paint for key clients and partners in the construction industry to paint industrial, commercial, and residential building floors,” said Corrêa.

The automotive segment also will be targeted in the near future.

“Gerdau Graphene already has strategic alliances with major graphene developers. In the Brazilian market, it has strategic partnerships in the automotive sector with Baterias Moura and SKF do Brasil to develop applications in energy storage, rubber products, composites and paints,” said the company statement.

Graphene Additives Tailored to Manufacturers

Gerdau Graphene is positioning itself to be a developer of specially-tailored graphene additives, based on specific client formulation needs across a variety of industrial sectors.

“Gerdau Graphene created the graphene technology used to disperse graphene into a paint additive. Because graphene comes in a variety of types and shapes, each of which has unique properties, significant research and testing was required to determine the best graphene format needed to produce a superior paint product. In addition, graphene additives need to be customized based on each paint manufacturer’s unique formula and ingredients,” Corrêa said in the statement.

The graphene component in the new paint is imported from several countries, including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia.

Gerdau Graphene hopes to supply much of the growing hemispheric market of the Americas with Brazilian-made paints and coatings that include graphene additives. The South American paint and coatings additive market is worth $8 billion a year, the company suggested.

In 2019 Gerdau formed a partnership with the Graphene Engineering Innovation Centre (GEIC) at the University of Manchester, UK to conduct research on graphene. The new Gerdau Graphene venture, formed in April 2021, is the result of Gerdau’s partnership with Grafftex Industria e Comercio de Tintas e Revestimentos, a Brazilian paint manufacturer based in Londrina, Paraná, and with Polystell do Brasil, based in São Bernardo do Campo, Sao Paulo state.   Polystell performs research and development on chemical additives. Polystell in May 2020 forged a distribution agreement with Spain’s Crismachem for additives lines on the European continent, with additional commercial goals for Spain and Portugal.

Grafftex, which was formed in 2000, began production with a line of automotive coatings and related materials, including Acrylic Texture, Scratched Acrylic, Racing Putty, Acrylic Putty and Primer for Scratched Acrylic.

Grafftex subsequently added architectural segment products including Premium Acrylic Paint, Standard Acrylic Paint, Economical Acrylic Paint, Akiplus Acrylic Ink, Floors & Courts Paint, and Acrylic Sealer, according to the company website.

Grafftex also markets a tinting system, SelffTex System, comprised of a pigment dosing machine, an agitating machine and formulation software with more than 1,000 colors in an exclusive catalog.

Graphene Demand Outlook is Bullish

The global graphene coating market is forecast to show a compound average growth rate of 6.8% between 2021 and 2031, according to research house Fact.MR. The coatings market in which graphene will compete most closely is the ceramics coatings segment, estimated to be valued at $10.5 billion this year, and $21.8 billion by 2032, the researchers indicate.

The Brazilian industrial segment for paints and coatings is recovering well, based on a current annual forecast of a 1.1% growth rate for industrial production this year. The latest data from the Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE), the national statistics agency, indicated that industrial production in Brazil increased 0.50% in May compared with May 2021. The May 2022 increase is the first since July of last year.

Industrial production in Brazil is forecast to continue rising over the mid term. 

“Brazil industrial production is projected to trend around 2.90% in 2023 and 3.00% in 2024, according to our econometric models,” according to Trading Economics.

In more general terms, Brazil’s economy is growing faster than expected. In June, the Ministério da Economia, or Economy Ministry, raised its forecast for gross domestic product growth this year to 2%, up from an earlier 1.5% forecast, based on recent strong economic indicators, including warming retail sales. Inflation, however, is a rising problem for the economy, with an annual increase of 11.9% registered for the 12 months ending in June, according to the IBGE. However, a recent business poll by Focus yielded a 2022 inflation target expectation of under 8%, and a 2023 inflation target of about 5%.