According to Companiesandmarkets.com, a leading market research company, the global coatings market has been forecast to increase at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 5.46% through to 2015, with the industry set to hit 8.7 billion gallons and $107 billion by the year 2017.
• Key factors contributing to growth within the painting market include the recovery of global economies from the recent economic turmoil, rapid industrialization, increasing demand from end-use sectors, such as automotive and construction, the increasing stringency in regulations, rising competition, growth in unique formulations, and technological and product developments.
• The recent downturn in the global economic market has mauled the coatings industry, as was the case with several other sectors. The global coatings market, as a whole, along with all major segments witnessed a substantial decline in volume and value sales during the downturn. However, the impact of the recession varied among each segments.
• Production within the global coatings market is witnessing a major shift away from the developed regions of Europe and the U.S., to the developing economies, such as Asia, comprising Korea, India, and China. Sustained demand from the developed countries, in addition to the burgeoning demand from these regions, is contributing to the overall expansion of the coatings market worldwide.
• The mergers and acquisitions activity that has been witnessed in the past decade in the coatings industry has made the big players bigger and smaller players finding the going extremely tough. Mature markets tend to form an anti-inflationary environment and this compels companies to reduce costs, and at the same time, enhance productivity. As a result of this, larger companies are left with no alternative but to integrate respective operations into a single entity in order to maintain synergies, cut down on costs and to jointly initiate R&D and marketing efforts to increase sales.
