Hempel has opened a new manufacturing facility in Buk, Poland. Able to produce the company’s full range of coatings for the Central and Northern European market, the factory has a total capacity of 40 million liters a year and can be expanded to supply 60 million liters a year if needed. The €25 million project was completed in nine months. The factory was co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund under the Innovative Economy Operational Programme. As part of the deal, Hempel will create at least 100 new jobs.

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World demand for architectural paint is forecast to rise 3.6 percent per year through 2013 to 22.8 million metric tons, valued at $51 billion. Growth will slow in comparison to the performance of the 2003 to 2008 period due to a deceleration in global building construction growth through 2013. These and other trends are presented in "World Architectural Paint," a new study from industry research firm The Freedonia Group Inc. As was the case over the past decade, the most rapid gains will arise in the world’s emerging markets, most prominently in Asia. North America will post slightly above-average gains through 2013. Western Europe’s share of the global market will continue to slip as the region registers weak gains, due to below-average economic and building construction expenditure growth, mortgage sector weaknesses in some constituent nations and stagnant regional population gains. Nevertheless, Western Europe will remain the world’s leading regional net exporter of architectural paint, due largely to the presence of Germany.

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Valspar's haselected William M. Cook, 56, chairman of the board, president and CEO, Donaldson Company, Inc., to its board of directors. Mr. Cook has been appointed to serve on the board's compensation committee.

"The breadth and depth of Bill's business experience and his track record of success with technology-driven growth will be of great value to our board and to Valspar," said William L. Mansfield, Valspar chairman and chief executive officer. "His global perspective and counsel will be a tremendous asset as we continue to expand our presence in global paint and coatings markets. It is a pleasure to welcome Bill to our board."

Mr. Cook has served as president and CEO of Donaldson since August 1, 2004 and was elected chairman on August 1, 2005. He joined Donaldson in 1980 and has held various senior leadership positions including senior vice president, international and chief financial officer, and senior vice president, commercial and industrial group. Cook holds a Bachelor of Science degree in business administration and an MBA from Virginia Tech. Mr. Cook is also a director of IDEX Corporation

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PPG’s industrial coatings business has opened the Shmaze Color Design Studio sponsored by PPG Trendcast, a facility near Irvine, CA, devoted to helping manufacturers and industrial designers accelerate color design and prototype development. Richard Zoulek, PPG general manager for strategic markets, said the Shmaze Color Design Studio expands PPG’s resources as a premier coatings supplier by uniting it with the hands-on application expertise of a world-class production team.

“This new facility enables manufacturers and industrial designers from around the world to come into our workshop and walk out with production-ready parts and coatings that can run almost anywhere in the world,” he said. “For design-intensive organizations like consumer electronics companies, that process can take three to six months due to logistical challenges. With the new studio this can be reduced to days.”

Michael Shamassian, principal of the Shmaze Color Design Studio, said the facility’s core mission is problem-solving. “Lots of companies have design studios like ours, but no one has the equipment and on-site production expertise that we do, all under one roof,” he said. “We have a full-service production line with robots, tooling, molders and other equipment that enables us to work through production and quality issues in real time, and to prove the viability of a coating in a matter of hours or days.”

Viktor Sekmakas, PPG vice president, global industrial coatings, said the studio is part of PPG’s strategy to focus on ‘listen and do’ instead of ‘show and tell.’ “This facility is unique to the industry because it combines the creativity of a studio with a real-world production environment,” he said. “Customers can work directly with our experts to bring their color concepts to life, then walk right on to a production line to push and pull those ideas until they get exactly what they want. In most color design workshops, designers have to settle for something close to what they originally envisioned. There’s no settling here.”

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AkzoNobel's global coatings expertise will be one of the first things that visitors experience when they visit Shanghai's World Expo 2010, which opens on May 1.The company's products have been used to paint ten of the main pavilions, as well as several other buildings, including the Expo Axis, Expo Village and Expo Performance Center. More than 70 million people are expected to attend before the event closes in October.

"Having been closely associated with China for nearly three decades, the company is both proud and excited to be involved with the World Expo 2010," said Leif Darner, Board member AkzoNobel, responsible for China. "The event will be a tremendous global stage for China and represents a perfect opportunity for AkzoNobel to showcase its extensive portfolio of high performance products."

Along with the distinctive China Pavilion, the company's coatings have been used on the pavilions of countries such as Spain, the UAE, Germany, Norway, Mexico and Canada. Advanced coatings technology developed by AkzoNobel will also be on show in the Dutch Pavilion, which houses a model of a futuristic airliner. Dubbed Zeft, the sustainable aircraft has been coated with the company's aerospace coatings. AkzoNobel is also a sponsor of the Dutch Pavilion, also known as Happy Street.

"Asia - and China in particular - is pivotal to our global strategy," continued Darner. "We have been actively increasing our presence in China and will keep investing in what is a key market. I'm sure the World Expo 2010 will be another landmark in the country's ongoing success."

AkzoNobel already has a strong track record of involvement with major projects in China, having supplied coatings for the Bird's Nest Stadium and Water Cube used for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. The company also coated five of the ten stadiums being used at this summer's soccer World Cup in South Africa.

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Daimler and BASF Coatings have joined forces to develop the Alubeam paint for the F 800 Style Mercedes Benz. BASF's Liquid Metal basecoat immerses the car in a radiant deep gloss, making it look as if it were made of chrome rather than painted. The research vehicle's latest appearance was at the Geneva Motor Show. The new coating gleams like liquid metal. Alubeam stretches around the body like a metallic skin, lending the F 800 Style coated in gray metallic a highly dynamic note. The integration of a special-effect pigment into a waterborne paint system is the key to the unique metallic look, according to the company. Liquid Metal paints use aluminum flakes as effect pigments. For the latest generation of Liquid Metal paints, BASF uses so-called PVDA pigments (physical vapor deposited aluminum). As a result, the paint has a more uniform appearance and seems to stretch across the car’s body like a metallic skin, emphasizing the important lines and contours of the vehicle design more significantly, the company said. The surfaces can reflect light with greater intensity and are given additional gloss. The resulting metallic look has an intensity that could not previously be achieved with conventional metallic paints. BASF Coatings’ Liquid Metal is available today as an environmentally friendly waterborne basecoat and complies with the required specifications for adhesion and weathering. Add-on parts can be painted in the color of the vehicle as well.

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IRL has published a study entitled "Pigments and Fillers in the European Coatings Industry." The study provides an overview of the market sizes and trends, which govern the demand for all of the key types of pigments and fillers within the European paint and coatings sector.

Pigment consumption by the European paint and coatings industry was rated at 1,035,000 tons in 2009, with titanium dioxide use accounting for just over 762,000 tons (approximately 73%). Carbon black is the second-largest single pigment type, with consumption at 77,500 tons, which is just slightly less than the combined use of other inorganic, organic and special effect pigments. Functional pigments represent a market of 116,000 tons.

A number of driving forces continue to shape the market for pigments as far as the coatings industry is concerned. These include the elimination of heavy metals and heavy metal salts on the one hand and the greater ingress of competitively priced high-performance pigments from the Far East on the other. Inorganic pigments, although losing some appeal due to cadmium, chromium or barium content, will in general continue to be the preferred types where heat, light and chemical resistance properties are required. Organic pigments represent an area of modest growth where phthalo blues and greens make up 27% of this market; classic azo reds/lakes and toners 24%; reds and oranges 13%; diarylide yellows 10%; yellows 8%; monoarylides 6%; and all others 12%.

The volume of fillers and extenders consumed by the European coatings industry is placed at almost 1.65 million tons in 2009. The market is dominated by consumption of calcium carbonate at 960,000 tons, followed at a considerable distance by talc and kaolin applications. Tightening legislation, changing formulation practices and increased use in functional applications are all driving innovation in the pigment industry. Most parts of the paint pigments market are growing at between two percent and four percent per annum (the exception being chromium-containing types, which are in gentle decline), with metallics offering the best growth prospects.

For more information visit www.informationresearch.co.uk.

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