Sherwin-Williams enhances maritime production

Sherwin-Williams has boosted its maritime coatings production capabilities at Sumaré, in Sao Paulo state, Brazil, with the aim of capturing a growing share of the country’s booming maritime construction and offshore oil industries.
    
Industrial paints represent 24 percent of Sherwin-William’s revenue in Brazil, and in 2009 its sales in all segments there rose 12 percent in value and 4.5 percent in volume, according to Esmerk, a Latin information agency.
    
Apart from hopes for increased private sector sales of its maritime coatings, Sherwin-Williams is counting on greater sales to the Brazilian government both for ships and for oil platforms, largely controlled by state-company Petrobras. A government investment program to support the sector—the Programa de Modernização e Expansão da Frota da Transpetro (Promef)—is expected to help sales this year as some 50 new vessels are added to the national fleet.
    
The first of the ships built under the program—the Panamax oil tanker João Cândido—was painted by Sherwin-Williams at the Estaleiro Atlântico Sul (EAS) shipyard, in Iojuca, within the Suape port complex in Pernambuco state. The ship is the first large-scale vessel built in Brazil in nearly 14 years. Brazil already detains the world’s fifth-largest oil tanker fleet, an EAS spokesman indicated.
    
In a May interview in Brazil David Ivy Jr., director of marketing for Sherwin-Williams in Brazil, said, “The (government’s) program for modernization and expansion of the transportation fleet will enhance the economic growth of states in the region, as well as promote the progress and development of new technologies in diverse industries. The coatings industry will be one of those most positively affected.”
    
Among Sherwin-Williams brands in the Brazilian market are Aquacryl, Colorgin, Euronavy, Kem Tone, Metalatex, Novacor and Sumaré. In 2008 Sherwin-Williams bought Euronavy-Tintas Maritimas e Industriais S.A., based in Setúbal, Portugal.
    
Last year, Sherwin-Williams Protective and Marine Coatings unveiled its Sher-Release Silicone Fouling Release Coating System, a nontoxic alternative to conventional antifouling coatings. And in 2008, Sherwin-Williams introduced its SeaGuard Heavy Metal Free Antifoulant coating, which utilizes a metal-free organic biocide agent and provides the same effective antifouling protection as traditional copper-based coatings.
    
A five-year study in 2007 by the International Paint and Printing Ink Council (IPPIC) projected that the marine coatings market would be worth $4.7 billion in 2012 on a volume of 904 million liters, corresponding to roughly four percent of the total global coatings market. Latin America corresponds to only about one percent of the total global marine coatings market, IPPIC projected.