{"id":6643,"date":"2017-06-16T08:00:16","date_gmt":"2017-06-16T14:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ulprospector.com\/knowledge\/?p=6643"},"modified":"2017-12-07T13:49:01","modified_gmt":"2017-12-07T19:49:01","slug":"pc-european-coatings-show-2017-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ulprospector.ul.com\/6643\/pc-european-coatings-show-2017-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"Recap: 2017 European Coatings Show"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"ReadEarlier this year, I attended the European Coatings Show<\/a> in Nuremburg, Germany. The show takes place every two years, and this was a record-setting year: 1,135 exhibitors and more than 30,000 trade visitors, all in seven halls. Even in three days you can only touch the surface; you have to be very selective on how you use your time. In case you didn\u2019t get to see everything you wanted to see, I have gathered some highlights below.<\/p>\n

TiO2 is apparently in very short supply and prices are going up.<\/h3>\n

By June, all titanium dioxide (TiO2)<\/a> grades will have reached USD3000-3100\/T and in some markets, the Chinese grades are now more expensive than European grades. A lot of the major TiO2 suppliers are at present not accepting orders for August and September. For the European summer months, even the biggest European paint companies have already been put on allocation by the TiO2 majors.<\/p>\n

At ECS, the TiO2<\/a> stands for some of the smaller producers were quite busy as the larger paint companies scramble to meet all their TiO2 requirements for the northern summer. Some TiO2 producers are saying that TiO2 prices may reach USD3500-4000\/T by year end. They also feel that the Cristal\/Tronox merger will increase costs as the new entity will decrease costs by cutting unprofitable TiO2 production units out of their portfolio.<\/p>\n

Continued shortage of MMA\/BA and Styrene monomer<\/h3>\n

Polymer producers are saying that they do not see any easing in the shortage of methyl methacrylate\/n-butyl acrylate (MMA\/BA) and Styrene Monomer until at least the last quarter of 2017, with Pure Acrylic\/styrene acrylic (PA\/SA) latex prices continuing to rise as the polymers remain in short supply.<\/p>\n

Also I picked up from several Polymer stands that a lot of European and North\/East African PA and SA end users are relooking at vinyl acetate (VA) and vinyl esters of versatic acid (VeoVA) for medium-low quality end uses. Whether this trend will reach the Republic of South Africa (RSA) is debatable, but I feel that it should be discussed with local polymer suppliers. It might relieve other monomer shortages but it might also put pressure on VA and VeoVA stocks, possibly making the local supply situation worse, not better.<\/p>\n

Meetings and discussion topics<\/h3>\n

I had a nearly two-hour meeting with Byk. We discussed the Optiflo<\/a> range of Rheology Modifiers and DISPERBYK-199<\/a>. I also saw a very interesting short presentation on Optiflo 1010 at the show.<\/p>\n

Then I spent 30 minutes with the American\/Dutch marketing team of Shephard; we looked at their range of IR Black pigments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Notable booths<\/h3>\n