Interview: “India offers remarkable opportunities”
BASF’s Coatings division has expanded its cathodic dip coating production facility in Mangalore, India. This strategic expansion is driven by growing local demand and customers in the ASEAN markets of South Asia, according to Patrick Zhao, Senior Vice President, Global Automotive OEM Coatings.
Interview by Damir Gagro
You already expanded the Automotive Coatings Application Centre in India two years ago. What were the reasons for the recent expansion of the e-coat production facility in India?
Patrick Zhao: BASF’s Coatings business has been growing in India over the years, driven by the thriving automotive sector and our strategic investments.
In May 2022, we expanded the Automotive Coatings Application Center in Mangalore to enhance our customer service capabilities with a world-class facility.
The latest expansion of our e-coat production facility in Mangalore was motivated by the increasing demand for e-coat solutions from local automotive OEM customers in India, as well as customers in the South Asian and ASEAN markets. As a leading player, we aim to further strengthen our presence in the market and contribute to our customers’ success in India and beyond.
Today, India is the world’s third-largest automotive market, and it has a promising future for engineering, manufacturing, and exports of vehicles and components, as outlined in the Indian government’s Automotive Mission Plan 2026. This market holds remarkable opportunities, which require our long-term commitment and strategic investments, as evidenced by our past successes.
BASF has expanded its e-coat production facility in Mangalore, India. What does the expansion look like and what details does it include?
Patrick Zhao: Our investment goes beyond increasing the size of our manufacturing facility – it also represents our commitment to sustainability, digitalization, and nurturing talent.
Through our digitalisation initiatives at the Mangalore site, we have successfully digitalised and connected all aspects of the complex plant processes, from raw materials to shipment, while creating real-time interfaces for users. This new digital workflow has allowed us to become more agile, improve efficiency, and minimise errors.
In terms of sustainability, the expanded e-coat production in India showcases some of our state-of-the-art innovations. While we currently focus on “CathoGuard 500” and “CathoGuard 800”, the expansion enables us to manufacture the latest generation of e-coat products, such as “CathoGuard 800 RE”. This advanced product offers numerous benefits: It has lower consumption, increased efficiency, and higher reactivity making it an ideal choice for automotive coatings in the electric vehicle segment. One of the key highlights of “CathoGuard 800 RE” is its significant contribution to sustainability: It achieves a 30 % reduction in CO2 emissions per kilogram, and around 30 % reduction in waste and fresh-water usage / dump.
It is important to highlight that talent cultivation is also an important part of our quality growth. Our investments have not only created job opportunities for local talents. We also actively engage with local communities, educational institutions, and industry partners to identify and nurture individuals with potentials, providing them with training, mentorship and networking opportunities.
In the last 24 months, we have given opportunities to more than 20 individuals under the “National Apprentice Promotion Scheme”, a scheme supported by the India government to develop skilled workforce for the Indian economy by promoting on-the-job experiential trainings. Under our “Grow Program”, we have recruited nine young professional from various leading technical institutes across India.
Please describe the market for automotive coatings in India. What potential does the market for automotive coatings in India harbour, and what are the challenges?
Patrick Zhao: The Indian market is characterided by a highly diverse and promising growth prospects, mainly driven by the rising population and increasing disposable income. The Indian market offers different development opportunities and various automotive customers, both local and global OEMs.
Consumer behaviour in the Indian market is more focused on value proposition and evolving toward diversity, which can be observed in their colour preferences. According to data from the BASF Color Report 2021 for automotive OEMs, the Indian market has seen a notable increase in chromatic colours, especially warm colours like beige and orange. In contrast, globally, the share of chromatic colours has remained relatively stable.
These trends highlight the importance for us to be close to our customers, to timely react to evolving customer requirements, and to accommodate local market specifics. BASF Coatings aims to be the most reliable partner for all OEMs in India and to deliver cost-effective offerings combined with outstanding quality, pioneering technologies, driving sustainable solutions, and diversified colours.
To what extent are further investments planned in the automotive coatings segment – both in India and in other regions of the world?
Patrick Zhao: As the leading supplier of surface solutions, BASF’s Coatings division has established a global business unit set-up in 2023 to better serve our customers’ increasing demand for global support and services. While expanding our reach globally, we remain committed to staying as close as possible to our customers.
Notable examples include the expansion of our resin plant in Shanghai, China, and the sustainable production facility in Muenster, Germany. These investments cater to the needs of local customers while benefiting OEM manufacturers worldwide.
Specifically in the e-coat segment, we have invested in state-of-the-art technology centers in Muenster and Shanghai. In 2022, we allocated EUR 15 million to build an e-coat research center in Muenster, enabling us to simulate our customers’ processes and paint systems to deliver optimal products. In 2023, we opened a new technical center in Shanghai to enhance our technical competence and application engineering capability.
Through these investments, we aim to bring together research and development, technical services, and account teams to form the best collaboration for OEM customers. Our goal is to drive innovative, sustainable, and digitalized development in the automotive coatings industry.
