Polyurethane coatings: Traditional market changing
Tense situation: Supply problems and regulation are a challenge in the polyurethane coatings market. However, this current challenging development in the industry is also encouraging a shift to more sustainable products. A market report.
In 2020, polyurethane coatings accounted for 5.9 million tonnes sold globally, which was around 11 % of the total paints and coatings market (53.6 million tonnes) and valued at EUR 28 billion according to José Bottino at market research company IRL. This is predicted to grow to 7.6 million metric tonnes and 11.7 % of the market by 2025.
In terms of end use application, the largest share of PU coating sales in 2020 was in the protective coatings segment, with 32.1 % of the market. The industrial wood coatings segment made up 24.7 % of sales. These segments have been gaining share from alkyds recently and are set to grow further (Figure 1). IRL attributes investments in infrastructure as driving the protective coatings market and growing construction for driving industrial wood coatings in some regions despite overall volumes declining.
Protective performance trends
Miriam Peralta at Lubrizol, says that the main trends for protective coatings are to “keep improving performance with more optimised systems (fewer coats), improve emissions (reduce the amount of solvents and increase the solid content), and improve the carbon footprint of the products (without reducing performance) by using bio-solvents, systems with better curing profiles (to reduce the amount of energy used), etc.”
PU coatings is still largely a traditional market
Currently, solvent-based, two-component (2K) systems and high-solids PU systems represent the highest proportion of the total PU resin type for highly demanding applications such as protective coatings, according to Lubrizol. PU coatings is still largely a traditional market that relies heavily on solvent-borne chemistry, which makes up 82 % of the volume and 76 % of sales according to Mike Growney at market research company KNG. There is a gradual shift towards more water-borne coatings, which Growney predicts are growing nearly twice as fast as the 3 % rate he forecasts for global market growth.
IRL rates the market share of solvent-borne chemistry more conservatively at 66.5 % of total sales and predicts this will decrease to 63.9 % by 2025 in favour of increases in the water-borne, radiation curing and powder PU coating sectors.
The positive environmental and regulatory profile of water-borne solutions such as polyurethane dispersions is a major factor in this technology gaining market share. Peralta say that significant performance improvements have been made in polyurethane dispersions in recent years, making them comparable, for instance, to some commonly used 2K systems. She adds that “some new polyol technologies in the market (i.e. polyamide polyols) or polyurethane dispersions with higher solid contents are making the gap in performance between 1K and 2K smaller and smaller.”
A more detailed version of this analysis of the powder coatings market can be found in European Coatings Journal 02/2022. The issue is available digitally at our online library 360°.
