The State of the Global Coatings Industry

The global recession of 2008 and 2009 has had a tremendous impact on the coatings industry with all segments affected. However, the good news is that the market now appears to be in recovery.

The economic downturn that began in late 2008 has had a significant impact on the global paint and coatings industry. From 2002 to 2007 the global paint and coatings industry grew at an annual rate of nearly five percent in terms of volume and nearly seven percent in terms of revenue. From 2007 to 2008 the market was essentially flat as the dramatic decline in the fourth quarter erased gains that had been realized earlier in the year. The full impact of the market decline, however, was felt in 2009 as the market experienced real decline of approximately two to three percent in both volume and value.

Orr & Boss estimates that total global 2009 revenues for the paint and coatings industry were approximately US$90 billion on a volume of over 26 billion liters. In late 2010, the International Paint and Printing Ink Council (IPPIC) will publish a new edition of its "Global Paint and Coatings Industry Market Analysis Report." As with the earlier version, IPPIC has retained Orr & Boss to prepare this comprehensive, in-depth market analysis. The coatings market data presented in this article follows the basic market segmentation structure that is used in these industry reports.

Market Overview

Decorative coatings make up the largest of the major coatings segments representing approximately 51% of the global volume and 44% of the global coatings value. The importance of decorative coatings as a component of the overall market has actually grown as a result of the global recession. The percentage of the coatings market made up of decorative coatings has increased over the past two years as industrial coatings production has fallen. Global decorative coatings, while declining in sales, have done so at a lower rate when compared to industrial coatings. The industrial coatings market is comprised of nine sub-segments. General industrial is the largest of these sub-segments, comprising roughly ten percent of the volume and 11% of the market value. Powder, wood, transportation, and industrial maintanence and protective coatings are the other large industrial sub-segments. Chart 1 below details the market distribution of the industrial sub-segments by volume and value.