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COATINGS Marc S. Reisch C&EN Northeast News Bureau
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aints and coatings are a thriving, ω $61 billion-a-year worldwide busi ness. Yet beneath the pretty sur face, paint manufacturers compete fiercely with one another to spread their colors on the growing output of industrialized and newly industrializing nations. In the U.S., the value of paint ship ments at the producer level exceeded $14.4 billion last year, up 4% from the year before. During the first six months of 1996, the value of paint shipments in the U.S. rose nearly 16% from last year's first half to more than $8.3 billion, ac cording to Commerce Department fig ures. The number of gallons the industry shipped in first-half 1996 also rose at double-digit rates—up almost 13% to just under 685 million gal. No doubt Com merce will revise these numbers, but Painter applies polyisocyanate-based coating. they do reflect a strong U.S. economy and suggest that 1996 will indeed be a banner year for paints in the U.S. Value of world paint production to rise 6% annually to $82 billion by 2000 as de However, what the numbers do not mand in developing countries grows. Page 46 clearly show is the strong industry com Material suppliers help growth of waterborne coatings with performance boost petition that has reduced the number of ing additives to make paints longer lasting. Page 50 active U.S. paint producers to about 800 from nearly 1,200 a decade ago. The Marine coatings are dominated by tributyl tin copolymers, despite continuing numbers do not show the industry's environmental concerns. Page 62 scramble to deal with the increased bur Dry-paint-film manufacturers dare to hope they can displace liquid automotive den of government regulations, nor the coatings as they begin testing the market. Page 64 research and development effort paint materials suppliers and paint manufactur Powder paint producers aim at wood and plastic markets with radiation-cured ers have put into current liquid-paint sys coatings that are less energy intensive to apply. Page 65 tems to meet regulatory and environmen tal restrictions. And they do not show 44 OCTOBER 14, 1996 C&EN
the energy that researchers have put into developing new paint technologies. Since the Clean Air Act of 1990 became law, it has effectively forced paint manufacturers to reduce the use of solvents that emit volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These compounds are precursors of lower atmospheric smog caused by ozone. With few exceptions, most liquid coatings contain VOCs. Some paint producers continue to question the governments scientific basis for restricting solvent use and contend the attempt to limit VOCs emitted from paint is wrongheaded. llieir opposition has led to a postponement in model VOC rules the Environmental Protection Agency planned to publish in April 1997 for the architectural and industrial maintenance paint manufacturers. Now, says Robert Nelson, director of environmental affairs for the National Paint & Coatings Association (NPCA) in Washington, D C , the rule will not appear before January 1998. EPA has had a measure of success getting the small number of aerospace coatings manufacturers to agree to VOC reductions in their paint formulas. Similarly, the relatively small n u m b e r of manufacturers of coatings for wood furniture also has agreed with EPA on reductions in VOC contents of their coatings. Rules covering architectural and industrial paint producers affect about 65% of all paint sold, as well as many small paint producers who say they cannot readily afford the cost to reformulate their coatings. Robert E. Wendoll, director of environmental affairs for Los Angeles-based Dunn-Edwards, a regional manufacturer of architectural coatings, says he objects
to the very notion of limiting VOCs. He questions the scientific basis on which EPA attempts to Emit these compounds. More than half of the country does not exceed maximum ozone levels, says Wendoll. Lirge portions of the SMttheast and Northeast sections of the cl have smog problems not becaus VOCs, but because of levels of nitrogen oxides in those regions. Nitrogen oxides from the burning of fossil fuels in cars and power plants are largely responsible for lower atmospheric smog, says Wendoll. Half of all VOC contributions to the formation of smog come from naturally occurring sources such as trees and vegetation, and the remainder from vehicle exhaust, gasoline evaporation, and solvent use. Paint and coatings contribute less than 1% of the
VOCs emitted into the air from all sources, claims Wendoll, who also heads El Rap, a group primarily made up of small paint producers. Wendoll maintains that the proposed EPA rule on VOC emissions from architectural and industrial maintenance paints unfairly penalizes small paint manufacturers. He says small producers with less than $50 million in annual sales ac-
Technician examines pigment dispersions used in volumetric dispensers.
count for 90 to 95% of gross annual sales of architectural paints. Only two dozen or so architectural paint producers have sales of more than $50 million annually. Wendoll says some small paint producers would lose up to a quarter of their paint lines and incur millions of dollars in costs to reformulate their paints to meet unnecessary regulations. NPCAs Nelson says EPA has revised its proposed VOC regulations for architectural and industrial maintenance paints so they are more in line with the model the association proposed. NPCA would like to see a rule sooner rather than later, so that members who make paints for many U.S. markets will haveone uniform reference to follow Now^j^Hftl has held up the rule, a number o f S H k m a y go on with their own rules to satisMtlcan Air Act requirements. The crazy quilt pattern of regulations would make paint formulation more expensive and difficult for these paint manufacturers, Nelson argues. Nelson also warns that while paint manufacturers may be concerned about VOCs today, in the future they also will have to pay attention to government interest in paint and its effects on indoor
air quality. EPA, he says, is beginning to look into indoor coatings ingredients and their effect on air quality. The agency is taking no regulator)' action now, but paint producers ought to be aware of the agency's present work on indoor air. Some of the paint material suppliers who may have to take notice of EPAs interest in coatings ingredients include manufacturers of paint additives. Many additives have come on the market in recent years to aid in the shift from solvent-borne coatings to waterborne coatings. The effort has helped manufacturers reduce the VOC content of their coatings. It would be ironic if some of the materials that aided the shift to waterborne coatings were regulated out of use because of additional environmental concerns. Partly in anticipation of concerns over the health risks associated with certain paint ingredients, manufacturers of nonyl phenol ethoxylate surfactants are offering alternative surfactants. Nonyl phenol ethoxylates may be estrogen mimics and could pose some health concerns. Should paint users wish to skirt VOC and toxicity concerns altogether, new coatings technologies may offer solutions. One alternative would allow paint users to apply a powder coating that melts to form a film at temperatures of about 100 °C, and then cures on exposure to an ultraviolet light source. Typical powder coating systems now require heating the powder and substrate to temperatures as high as 200 °C to melt and cure the coating. These requirements limit powder coatings largely to metal substrates. The newest radiation-curable powder coating systems could allow the use of powders to coat plastic and wood. A few powder coating and material suppliers are now working on this type of paint system and it may be commercially available soon. A second alternative, which again promises little or no VOC or toxicity concern, is the use of a dry-paint film to coat metal and plastic parts. These painted, printed, or pigmented plastic films already have found uses on items such as plastic automotive instrument panels, metal arcliitcctural panels, and for graphics on the sides of trucks. Efforts are now under way to enlarge the smaMAadway dry-paint films have made in use o^utomotive ex teriors. A few metal parts oh the exterior of cars already have been tested. Some film manufacturers and processors are looking to enlarge that success with drypaint-film coatings of otherwise difficult-topaint plastic parts.-4 OCTOBER 14, 1996 C&EN
45
produot report
Paint value climbs
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he value of global paint and coatings production exceeded $61 billion in 1995, according to the Freedonia Group. A recent study from the Cleveland-based business research company estimated the value of world paint and coatings production would grow at more than 6% per year for the remainder of the decade, reaching more than $82 billion by 2000. In terms of weight, however, Freedonia projects world demand for paints and coatings will increase 3% annually from almost 48 billion lb in 1995 to more than 55 billion lb by 2000. The fastest growth will be in the developing countries of Asia, Freedonia says. In Asia, average annual growth of nearly 6% should bring paint demand to more than 9.8 billion lb by 2000, partly because of China's desire for self-reliance and partly because the growth of middle-class consumers in South Korea and Taiwan will fuel paint consumption. Demand in the regions of Central and South America and in Africa and the Middle East also will exceed the world average, according to Freedonia. Both regions will see paint demand rise 4% annually, with Central and South American demand approaching 3.4 billion lb and demand in Africa and the Middle East at 2.3 billion lb by 2000. According to Freedonia's figures, North America still will remain the largest market for paints and coatings in 2000, with demand rising more than 2% annually to 15.6 billion lb. Western Europe will remain the second largest market, with demand growing 2.5% annually to 13.8 billion lb.
Growth in global demand is slower than it would otherwise be because of paint performance improvements. The global trend is toward "higher performance coatings that require fewer, thinner coats that last longer," according to the Freedonia study. Government regulatory action is, in part, forcing those performance improvements and "pushing paint makers toward more environmentally acceptable technologies, especially water-based paints, powder coatings, and high-solids types," says the study's author, Luci Young. In the U.S., paint shipments in 1995 were nearly the same as they were in 1994. According to the most recent statistics from the Department of Commerce, U.S. paint shipments have remained close to the 1.2 billion-gal mark for the past five years with one exception. Shipments in 1993, following a recession, were a little more than 1.3 billion gal, up about 8% from the year before. Overall, however, paint shipments between 1991 and 1995 showed a compound annual average decline of 0.4% because manufacturers continued to shift to production of higher solids coatings and because of a lag in architectural coatings shipments in 1995. Nevertheless, while paint shipments stagnated, the value of the new higher performing paints increased 3% annually to a little more than $14.4 billion in 1995. While other market segments saw some increase in shipments in 1995, those of architectural coatings, the largest segment, declined nearly 3% from the previous year to 627 million gal. The decline
Prices of prepared paint, paint materials inch up Price index, 1982 = 100 160 140
120 100 hi
1985 86 87
88
89
90
Source: Department of Labor
46 OCTOBER 14, 1996 C&EN
91 92
93 94
95
Paint employment up after two-year decline Thousands 80 I Total s
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Nonproduction workers 40 s,^i, ,%*:& »Wi.-
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1985 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 Source: Labor Department
marked a pause following robust growth in each of the preceding four years. The second largest segment, product coatings, continued to show good gains because the economy continued to be strong. Shipments of these coatings— which original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) use to protect automobiles, appliances, metal furniture, and other products—rose more than 3% to 385 million gal in 1995. Shipments of paints in the third and smallest segment of the coatings market, special-purpose coatings, rose modestly in 1995 for the fourth year in a row. Paints in this category used for highway traffic markings and bridge maintenance rose 1% in 1995 to 196 million gal, following a robust 8% growth in the previous year. Within the specific product categories, the value of architectural coatings shipments rose nearly 3% in 1995 to $6.1 billion, while product coatings value rose 4% to almost $5.3 billion, and specialpurpose coatings value rose more than 8% to $3.1 billion. In 1995, architectural coatings accounted for almost 52% of all paint shipments, but only 42% of the value of total shipments. Product coatings accounted for 32% of shipments, but 37% of the value of total shipments. Special-purpose coatings accounted for 16% of all shipments, but 21% of the value of those shipments. These percentages do not change appreciably from year-to-year. The Commerce Department data also reveal that the average cost per gallon of paint on the producer level averaged $11.83 in 1995, up nearly 4% from the 1994 figure. Within individual market categories, the average price per gallon for
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