 "Pigments industry: Need to change colours from commodity to premium product")
Pigments address colouring needs of a wide range of end-use industries, ranging from paints and coatings to construction. Increasing globalisation and restructuring have been a key trend shaping the pigments industry over the past several years, with production base shifting to cost-effective Asian markets. “In India, it is the organics which are growing the fastest and, traditionally, India has dominated in the green and blue colour space or the copper pthalocynines. India is clearly the dominant player in the organic green pigments and a serious player in the blue pigments,” said Ravi Kapoor, Managing Director, Heubach Colour India.
A colourful market
However, inorganic pigments segment is different story. In spite of having one of the world’s largest and high quality reserves of limonite (from which one gets titanium dioxide pigment) in the coastal area of Kerala, Andhra and Orissa, the country has failed to take the advantage. “Our manufacture of the pigment grade is limited to small volumes as compared to what the large payers in the world do and what we deserve to make,” opined Kapoor.
India has a reasonable capacity of the carbon black. The country still produces chrome and lead based pigments, which are globally in the sunset phase for ecological reasons.
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Kapoor commented, “With regard to the high performance specialties, we have a relatively small marketshare and this area is still dominated by Europe, US and Japan maybe Korea a bit. In India, Heubach is a leading producer of high performance pigments (HPP) across a range of chemistries and in fact, has the only global size Diketopyrrolo-Pyrrole Pigments (DPP) red plant in India.”
In terms of volumes, pigments demand is expected to reach 4.4 million tonnes by 2018. As per latest industry research report, specialty pigments market is expected to have fastest growth potential among the global pigments market. Availability of large variety of products and ability to encompass high and unique visual effects is primarily fueling the growth of the specialty pigments market.
Kapoor said, “Inorganic pigments dominated the market, accounting for over 51% of the global demand in 2011. Specialty pigments are expected to be the most promising product segment, and are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.7% from 2013 to 2018. Under growing regulatory pressure, specialty and organic pigments are being increasingly investigated for substitution potential over their inorganic counterparts.”
Solving environment concerns
Pigments generate a fair amount of waste and the correct technology for waste management has to be practiced. Hence, it is a very serious environment issue. Since pigment manufacturing consumes a large amount of water, technologies for reducing the water consumption, recycling and reuse also needs to be implemented.
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Kapoor added, “There is also a fair bit of energy consumption and this is a growing concern with the rising gas prices and the attitude of authorities to coal. It is also true that in the past the required level of investment and the advanced technologies for advance treatment of waste specially tertiary treatment was not done and in this regard catching up is being done and needs to be done even more.”
In general, manufacturers have realised this and are addressing this issue with different degrees of intensity. However, it is very important that the regulations defining quality of treated waste water needs to be done in a judicious manner reflecting the correct environmental impact, the point of discharge (for example, one should not impose the same norms for deep sea discharge as for coastal discharge), total pollution load, etc. “And once this is done, it should be strictly implemented across the country ensuring that there is a level playing field all across. This is most important as today there is a feeling that a pigment plant in one area or state has a softer path than in another regarding the waste parameter,” said Kapoor.
Premium in demand
“Belying the current economic situation, it is the high value pearl effect pigments from the Merck portfolio that are experiencing strong growth in India. It goes to show that our customers, and consequently, the industry, are not simply considering the price point; but the overall value the product brings them. This comes from being able to offer uniqueness, distinctiveness and individuality to their customers at the point of sales, which in turn, favourably impacts their marketshare,” said Siddhartha Sengupta, Regional Head Asia – Performance Materials (Decoratives), Merck, which is a one of the global leaders in pearl effect pigments.
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According to Kapoor, the demand for high-performance organic pigments is increasing in lieu of the lead and chrome pigments due to the ecology and toxicology reasons as the world is moving away from these pigments. “The chrome replacement project is a hot issue and is a real challenge as price wise too it is not so easy to achieve these targets. The HPP market in India will grow as overall we have a low share of the market and this can only grow in the future. I believe there is an opportunity for Indian producers to become serious players here in the next few years,” he added.
With gaining environment awareness among consumers, experts believe that eco-friendly, high performance dyes and organic pigments would drive future growth in the market. “Consumer concern for environment friendly products is on the rise; consequently, more and more customers are approaching Merck for sustainable, safe and environmentally friendly pearl effect pigments. While this demand is seen especially from the cosmetics and packaging industries, and those in exports; the dispersion paint industry has also started shopping around for options in unleaded paints,” said Sengupta.
A colourful market
However, inorganic pigments segment is different story. In spite of having one of the world’s largest and high quality reserves of limonite (from which one gets titanium dioxide pigment) in the coastal area of Kerala, Andhra and Orissa, the country has failed to take the advantage. “Our manufacture of the pigment grade is limited to small volumes as compared to what the large payers in the world do and what we deserve to make,” opined Kapoor.
India has a reasonable capacity of the carbon black. The country still produces chrome and lead based pigments, which are globally in the sunset phase for ecological reasons.
ALSO READ: Can the chemical end-user industries get back on track?
Kapoor commented, “With regard to the high performance specialties, we have a relatively small marketshare and this area is still dominated by Europe, US and Japan maybe Korea a bit. In India, Heubach is a leading producer of high performance pigments (HPP) across a range of chemistries and in fact, has the only global size Diketopyrrolo-Pyrrole Pigments (DPP) red plant in India.”
Heubach Colour India's Ravi Kapoor
In short, while India is growing in the commodity and lower value pigment space, which has now become a run of the mill process with the supply chain reasonably efficient, the country is not so strong in the high performance area. “This is mainly because of the old malady of low level of R&D, an incomplete understanding of application based solutions and certain traditional reasons of growth like the textile industry etc. There are other reasons of lack of availability of intermediates for the specialty areas as well as weakness on the yellow and the red azo pigments again due to the availability of cheap and good quality intermediates,” points out Kapoor.In terms of volumes, pigments demand is expected to reach 4.4 million tonnes by 2018. As per latest industry research report, specialty pigments market is expected to have fastest growth potential among the global pigments market. Availability of large variety of products and ability to encompass high and unique visual effects is primarily fueling the growth of the specialty pigments market.
Kapoor said, “Inorganic pigments dominated the market, accounting for over 51% of the global demand in 2011. Specialty pigments are expected to be the most promising product segment, and are estimated to grow at a CAGR of 4.7% from 2013 to 2018. Under growing regulatory pressure, specialty and organic pigments are being increasingly investigated for substitution potential over their inorganic counterparts.”
Solving environment concerns
Pigments generate a fair amount of waste and the correct technology for waste management has to be practiced. Hence, it is a very serious environment issue. Since pigment manufacturing consumes a large amount of water, technologies for reducing the water consumption, recycling and reuse also needs to be implemented.
ALSO READ: Specialty ingredients giving a facelift to personal care products market
Kapoor added, “There is also a fair bit of energy consumption and this is a growing concern with the rising gas prices and the attitude of authorities to coal. It is also true that in the past the required level of investment and the advanced technologies for advance treatment of waste specially tertiary treatment was not done and in this regard catching up is being done and needs to be done even more.”
In general, manufacturers have realised this and are addressing this issue with different degrees of intensity. However, it is very important that the regulations defining quality of treated waste water needs to be done in a judicious manner reflecting the correct environmental impact, the point of discharge (for example, one should not impose the same norms for deep sea discharge as for coastal discharge), total pollution load, etc. “And once this is done, it should be strictly implemented across the country ensuring that there is a level playing field all across. This is most important as today there is a feeling that a pigment plant in one area or state has a softer path than in another regarding the waste parameter,” said Kapoor.
Premium in demand
Merck India's Siddhartha Sengupta
As per the RNCOS report, ‘Indian paint industry forecast to 2015’, the pigment market is expected to witness CAGR growth of 15% during FY 2012-2015. With the increasing demand of premium paints, the market for special effect pigments, such as metallic and pearlescent (which are usually imported into the country), are also expected to witness an upswing.“Belying the current economic situation, it is the high value pearl effect pigments from the Merck portfolio that are experiencing strong growth in India. It goes to show that our customers, and consequently, the industry, are not simply considering the price point; but the overall value the product brings them. This comes from being able to offer uniqueness, distinctiveness and individuality to their customers at the point of sales, which in turn, favourably impacts their marketshare,” said Siddhartha Sengupta, Regional Head Asia – Performance Materials (Decoratives), Merck, which is a one of the global leaders in pearl effect pigments.
ALSO READ: Refinish coatings, a new ray of hope for auto paints manufacturers?
According to Kapoor, the demand for high-performance organic pigments is increasing in lieu of the lead and chrome pigments due to the ecology and toxicology reasons as the world is moving away from these pigments. “The chrome replacement project is a hot issue and is a real challenge as price wise too it is not so easy to achieve these targets. The HPP market in India will grow as overall we have a low share of the market and this can only grow in the future. I believe there is an opportunity for Indian producers to become serious players here in the next few years,” he added.
With gaining environment awareness among consumers, experts believe that eco-friendly, high performance dyes and organic pigments would drive future growth in the market. “Consumer concern for environment friendly products is on the rise; consequently, more and more customers are approaching Merck for sustainable, safe and environmentally friendly pearl effect pigments. While this demand is seen especially from the cosmetics and packaging industries, and those in exports; the dispersion paint industry has also started shopping around for options in unleaded paints,” said Sengupta.