Kansai Nerolac tweaks brand strategy
Paint manufacturer Kansai Nerolac is customising its brand promotion strategy to establish an  emotional connect with its clients here to tap the West Bengal market.
“We are engaging with dealers and also with paint contractors in a unique initiative which we are calling ‘Adda'. Here, dealers participate in workshops where they do the talking, setting us an agenda, which we then take forward,” said Sukhpreet Singh, Geneneral Manager, Marketing. He said West Bengal was one of Kansai Nerolac's fastest growing markets on which the company has been focussing for the last two to three years. “We have vigorously launched products which we felt had good potential for this market.” Citing an instance he said that the company had launched an entry-level emulsion paint to ‘seed' a market where distemper was the preferred paint for the majority. <more>

Pro-UDF TUs flay CITU stand
KOLLAM: The pro-UDF trade unions of Kerala� Minerals and Metals Limited (KMML) have laid the blame on the CITU for disrupting a move by the management to slash the price of Titanium Dioxide, which has resulted in over 4,600 tonnes of the pigment stock remaining unsold. Interestingly,the INTUC had joined with the CITU and other Left trade unions in objecting the move to slash prices in February this year.
The leaders of the INTUC, UTUC(B) and STU of KMML, Chavara criticised the CITU at a press meet here on Tuesday, alleging that the CITU’s protest resulted in the management stepping back from a move to reach a ‘Market Acceptable Price for Titanium Dioxide’ pigment by considering the fluctuations in the international market. <more>

Asian Paints to expand Haryana plant capacity
CM Hooda inaugurates 7 industrial projects
Seven major industrial units, bringing in investment of around Rs 4,700 crore to the state, were inaugurated on Monday by Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda at Industrial Model Township (IMT), Rohtak. Haryana government claimed that the projects are expected to generate 40,000 direct and indirect employment opportunities.
In a daylong inauguration spree Hooda laid the foundation stones of Research and Development facility of Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, a two-wheeler plant of Suzuki Motorcycle India Pvt Ltd and projects of Nippon Carbide, Sabarkantha Cooperative - a unit of Amul Dairy, Lakshmi Precision Screws Ltd and Aisin Automotive Haryana Pvt Ltd in Rohtak. Hooda also inaugurated the second plant of M/s Asian Paints Limited and a blending and bottling plant. The plant has a capacity of 150,000 kilo litres now. <more>  <more>

BASF
BASF to build new India polyurethane site by 2014
BASF will invest €150 million to set up a new chemical production site at Dahej, located on the west coast of India in Gujarat. The start of production is planned for 2014. The project will be financed by BASF India Ltd. through internal accruals and loans.
BASF will invest €150 million to set up a new chemical production site at Dahej, located on the west coast of India in Gujarat.
The new site will be an integrated hub for polyurethane manufacturing and will also house production facilities for care chemicals and polymer dispersions for coatings and paper, the company said.
With this new production site, BASF aims to ensure local supply for growing markets and industries such as appliances, footwear, automotive, construction, adhesives, architectural coatings, paper and personal care, according to the company.
The start of production is planned for 2014. The project will be financed by BASF India Ltd. through internal accruals and loans.
“With its robust local industries, India is set to become a pillar of growth in Asia Pacific,” said Dr. Martin Brudermueller, vice chairman of the board of directors of BASF, responsible for Asia Pacific.
“The country’s changing demographic profile and the resulting need for improved quality of life are driving increasing market demand,” he added. “With the new manufacturing facility, we will be able to serve our customers better by developing solutions that meet their individual needs as well as strengthen their competitive advantage.”
“The Dahej site complements the existing manufacturing set-up of BASF in India and will support and contribute to the growth of the Indian chemical industry,” said Prasad Chandran, chairman and managing director of BASF India Ltd. <more>

KMML commissioned its 500 tonnes per day titanium sponge project at Chavara, near Kollam, <more>

PPG announces price increase for industrial coatings in Asia/Pacific region
Liquid, powder, e-coat product prices to increase April 1 or as permissible by contract

PITTSBURGH, April 5, 2012 – PPG Industries’ (NYSE:PPG) industrial coatings business has announced today it is raising prices by an average of 2 to 10 percent on all its liquid, powder and electrocoat (E-coat) products in the Asia/Pacific region, effective April 1 or as permissible by contract.
"We have experienced ongoing and significant cost escalation for a majority of our raw materials, especially titanium dioxide (TiO2) and resins,” said Willie Wu, PPG vice president, industrial coatings, Asia/Pacific. “We will continue to implement cost-control measures throughout our operations, and to aggressively negotiate pricing with suppliers, but the pressures we are facing make this action unavoidable.”
Sales representatives will communicate price increase details to their customers for all products affected. <more>

Graco Announces Scheduled Closing Date for Finishing Brands Acquisition
MINNEAPOLIS, MN (March 27, 2012) - Graco Inc. (NYSE: GGG) announced today the scheduled closing of its previously-announced $650 million acquisition of the Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE: ITW) finishing businesses for April 2, 2012. The Company has reached an agreement with the United States Federal Trade Commission (“FTC”) that will allow for closing to occur while the FTC investigates and considers a settlement proposal from Graco.
The acquisition was first announced on April 14, 2011 and includes complementary powder and liquid finishing equipment operations, technologies and brands. In powder finishing, Graco will add Gema®, a global leader in superior powder coating technology (the “Powder Finishing” business). In industrial liquid finishing, the acquisition includes Binks® spray finishing equipment, DeVilbiss® spray guns and accessories, Ransburg® electrostatic equipment and accessories and BGK curing technology (excluding Powder Finishing, collectively known as the “Liquid Finishing” businesses).
Since Graco originally filed its required notification pursuant to the Hart-Scott-Rodino Antitrust Improvements Act of 1976, as amended ("HSR Act"), on May 2, 2011, the Company has been cooperating with the FTC in its review of the acquisition. On December 15, 2011, the FTC formally filed a complaint to challenge the acquisition on the grounds that the addition of the Liquid Finishing businesses to Graco would be anticompetitive, which Graco has denied. <more>

AkzoNobel warns of tough year as Q1 beats
(Reuters) - AkzoNobel NV (AKZO.AS), the world's largest paints maker and owner of the Dulux brand, on Thursday said a weak economic environment and high raw materials prices posed challenges this year.
AkzoNobel, which reported better-than-expected first-quarter results, said it expects higher prices for oil and titanium dioxide, a paint pigment, to have an inflationary impact, while the weak economy was affecting volumes. <more>

PPG lay off 2,000 workers; Q1 Profit Up
Chemical maker PPG Industries, Inc. (NYSE:PPG) declared its estimate first-quarter profit above Wall Street anticipation and posted that it would cut 2,000 employees, generally in Europe, due to weak demand.<more>

Jotun expands pipeline coatings range
Dubai: Thu, 12 Apr 2012
Jotun Powder Coatings has combined its powder and liquid coatings to create and develop a new extensive range of pipeline coating solutions; providing transmission pipelines with the required protection – both inside and out. The move complements Jotun’s efforts to increase its regional market share over the next three years, a statement said.<more>


U.S. paint and coatings industry to reach USD 24 billion in 2015
At 56 % of the volume, and 49 % of the value in 2010, the architectural segment continues to account for the largest segment with regard to U.S. paints and coatings demand. <more>

Report discloses serious counterfeiting in China's paint industry
BEIJING, April 6 (Xinhua) -- A report said Friday indiscernible quality and counterfeiting has long plagued China's paint industry and the public is weary of every product in the market.

Big names in the sector including Nippon Paint and Dulux were both recently found by watchdogs with quality problems, the Securities Daily reported.

Quality checks by local authorities in Inner Mongolia recently also revealed quality problems with products of Dulux and Carpoly, said the Beijing-based newspaper. <more>

Evonik Industries boosts Titanium Dioxide prices globally
The Business Unit "Inorganic Materials" of Evonik Industries AG is raising its prices for fumed titanium dioxide on a global base.

The price increase of 12 % will come into effect on May 1st, 2012, as far as permissible under existing agreements.

Evonik, the creative industrial group from Germany, is one of the world leaders in specialty chemicals. Its activities focus on the key megatrends health, nutrition, resource efficiency and globalization. Profitable growth and a sustained increase in the value of the company form the heart of Evonik’s corporate strategy. Evonik benefits specifically from its innovative prowess and integrated technology platforms. <more>


Global Solvents Market to Reach $33 Billion
Experts from Ceresana Research forecast the global solvents market to earn revenues of about $33 billion in 2019.

The explorer whose team located the remains of the Titanic has drawn up plans to have robots apply protective coatings to the wreck, to preserve the disintegrating resting place of more than 1,500 dead.
Corrosion, scavengers and tourists plague the rapidly decaying remains of the doomed ship that sank on its maiden voyage April 15, 1912, says Dr. Robert Ballard, of the University of Rhode Island.

Photos: NOAA / Institute for Exploration/University of Rhode Island
The bow of the Titanic was photographed on the floor of the North Atlantic as part of a 2004 expedition led by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Part of the remedy, Ballard says, may be a new coating job by deep-water robots dispatched to the floor of the North Atlantic.
Original Paint Job
“When I first came to the ship in 1985, I saw original anti-fouling paint on the bottom and no corrosion there,” Ballard told National Geographic in a new two-part special airing this week. "It works, but obviously they didn't think they'd need to paint the whole ship with anti-fouling paint.”
Under Ballard’s plan, robots would clean the ship’s steel hull and coat it with an antifouling system such as that used to treat the hulls of oil tankers.
Ballard said the coating is needed “so the hull doesn't splay open and expose the highly preserved interior with its precious contents.”
He also proposes that robots be used as “sentries” to monitor the tourist submarines that researchers and authorities say are damaging the wreck, which rests 12,000 feet below sea level and more than 350 nautical miles off the coast of <more>

Polyurethanes (PU) Market Revenue is Expected to Reach USD 57.4 Billion Globally by 2016:
According to a new market report published by Transparency Market Research "Polyurethanes (PU) Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share & Forecast (2009 - 2016)",Global PU Product market revenue reached USD 40.6 billion in 2011 and is expected to reach USD 57.4 billion by 2016, growing at a CAGR of 7.2% from 2011 to 2016. Europe is expected to have the second largest market share after Asia Pacific by 2016.<more>

Graco Inc
As announced before, Graco Inc. (NYSE:GGG - News) completed acquiring the finishing businesses of Illinois Tool Works Inc. (NYSE:ITW - News) on Monday. Though the deal was closed at $650 million, Graco awaits a final settlement review from the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (:FTC).
As declared at the time of announcing the acquisition, Graco added a few equipment and technologies to its existing product range from this acquisition. This included Germa for its Powder Finishing along with Binks spray, DeVilbiss spray guns, Ransburg electrostatic devices and BGK curing technologies with its various accessories for its Industrial Liquid Finishing,<more>

Some Flame Retardants Make Fires More Deadly
ScienceDaily (Mar. 27, 2012) — Some of the flame retardants added to carpets, furniture upholstery, plastics, crib mattresses, car and airline seats and other products to suppress the visible flames in fires are actually increasing the danger of invisible toxic gases that are the No. 1 cause of death in fires. That was the finding of a new study presented in San Diego on March 27 at the 243rd National Meeting & Exposition of the American Chemical Society (ACS), the world's largest scientific society. Anna A. Stec, Ph.D., led the research, which focused on the most widely-used category of flame retardants, which contain the chemical element bromine. Scientists term these "halogen-based" flame retardants because bromine is in a group of elements called halogens.

"Halogen-based flame retardants are effective in reducing the ignitability of materials," Stec said. "We found, however, that flame retardants have the undesirable effect of increasing the amounts of carbon monoxide and hydrogen cyanide released during combustion. These gases, not the thermal effects of burns on the body, are the No. 1 cause of fire deaths." Stec, who is with the University of Central Lancashire, Centre for Fire and Hazards Science, Lancashire, U.K., spoke at an ACS symposium on "Fire and Polymers," which included 60 presentations.
Almost 10,000 deaths from fires occur in industrialized countries worldwide each year, including about 3,500 in the U.S. Contrary to popular belief, inhalation of toxic gases released by burning materials -- not burns -- causes the most deaths and most of the serious injuries. Stec's team set out to determine the effects of flame retardants on the production of those gases. The scientists tested brominated flame retardants with antimony synergists, mineral-based flame retardants and so-called intumescent agents, which swell when heated, forming a barrier that flames cannot penetrate.<more>

ASTM International Releases New Compilation of Paint and Coatings Standards
ASTM International has released a new compilation, ASTM Paint and Coating Standards, on CD-ROM. The collection provides a useful tool for personnel working in the field of coatings and allied products.

Each of the 48 ASTM standards featured in ASTM Paint and Coatings Standards contains a detailed description of the noted test method, procedure, or guide. Topics cover:
- Operating salt spray (fog) apparatus;
- Testing water resistance of coatings;
- Volatile content of coatings;
- Tensile properties of organic coatings;
- Flash point of liquids;
- Measuring adhesion by tape test;
- Testing polyurethane raw materials;
- And much more!
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