Revista Paint & Pintura - Edição 244

CLIPPING 8 | PAINT&PINTURA | Junho 2019 aking. But the process is so costly that it eventually becomes a bottleneck in the paint production process, particularly for being rather slow. Accordingly, customers opting for ready- -to-use dispersions have grown in number.” According to Milton Yoshio Uehara, technical manager at Clariant’s Coatings & Printing business for Latin America, the waterborne pigment dispersion technology, particularly whe- re organic pigments are used, can be said to be more firmly established in the decorative paint segment. “For industrial and automotive coatings, the use of pigment dispersions is much smaller, especially due to limitations on the maximum concentration that can be used in the preparations without having any adverse side effect on the quality and the physical and chemical properties of those coatings. It’s alsoworth point out that there a significant migration trend in connectionwith the use of pigment dispersions: the tinting process is moving more andmore out of the paint factory and into points of sale equipped with tinting systems. For this reason, the pigment dispersion business has been really stable within the Brazilian coatings market in the past few years,” Uehara says. EPOXY RESINS - WATER-BASED TECHNOLOGIES GAIN TRACTION Epoxy resins are a key material in the paint and coatings in- dustry in Brazil and Latin America for enabling manufacturers to provide customers with products featuring high corrosion resistance and chemical strength. “The automotive, oil and gas, petrochemical and shipbuilding industries are the leading customers for epoxy resins and are expected to be growth markets over the next few years, keeping pace with the gro- wth in the Brazilian and regional manufacturing sector,” says Thiago Guimarães, Hexion’s sales manager for Latin America, adding that the growth forecast for the year 2019 is that it will be about the same as in 2018, in terms of volume, given how little Brazil’s economic scenario has improved. According toMarcos França, headof research anddevelopment at Olin for Latin America, the epoxy-based paint segment has been developing consistently, but it is also worth noting that it is a rather mature business and therefore displays growth rates newthoseoftheGDP(grossdomesticproduct).“However,other industry segments are starting to go through changes. We’re beginning to see more domestic consumer products based on epoxy resins not only in the coatings industry, but also in the re- lated fields of civil engineering, in building and construction, and even in do-it-yourself products, which means more people are starting to learnmore about the benefits of using epoxy resins.” França also reports that there is a unique growth pattern in the epoxy resinmarket in each country, depending on the level of business andmanufacturing activity. “Latin America has been going through a delicate situation, with social and economic crises in several countries. That paradigm is not expected to change in the epoxy resin business, and there’s nothing on the horizon like what happened in 2008, which saw a substantial increase in the volume of resins sold as a result of a sudden spike in the wind energy market, as wind turbine blades are made of an epoxy-fiberglass compound - which market cur- rently accounts for as much as 3 percent of all epoxy resins consumed globally. Accordingly, we keep track of market moves and try work as closely as possible to our customers so we can seize emerging opportunities.” CORROSION INHIBITORS - ADDED PROTECTION FROM CORROSION Corrosion inhibitors make up amarket segment that has been keeping pace with developments in the paint industry and, more auspiciously, changing for the better through innovation aiming at more sustainable products that are also less toxic while better in performance. Showing great potential for development on both the de- mand and the technical fronts, this segment has developed through environmentally friendlier products and materials that deliver improved performance to different applications and provide effective solutions for the long run, according to Regina Kaway, business manager at Evonik’s Coating Additi- ves business. “These features have had a growing presence in coatings formulations for various applications. Brazil, as a country, also has great potential, with a substantial market for corrosion protection coatings, and we are ready to keep up with an upturn in production. The application of corrosion protection to concrete is still new to a country with such little maintenance culture, but, on the other hand, it is sure to grow exponentially—just take a look at the problems the city of São Paulo is having with its urban infrastructure, espe- cially bridges and tunnels, which call for a fast, cost-effective and long-lasting solution. We are always carefully looking for growth opportunities. And let’s not forget that we are one of the world’s top-five paint producing countries, which calls for more incentive for the development of new technologies and environment-friendly solutions that are sustainable in the long run. Accordingly, we do expect a pick-up in the economy, the market and, as a result, the demand for our products.” Corrosion-inhibiting additives and pigments currentlymake up one of Metachem’s core product lines, according to business manager Selena Mendonça. “For the past several years, we have seen key trends emerge, such as using this kindof product not only in industrial coating, but also in decorative paints, for example. In additions, we’ve been getting requests in connec- tion with developments of improved-performance coatings, featuring extended salt-spray resistance and better adhesion. As a result, we believe 2019 is going to be an important year in the process of establishing the use of rust and corrosion inhibitors in applications other than industrial coatings.”