Recovering Marine Coatings Market Prepares for New Challenges

By Cynthia Challener

The commercial marine market in 2011 is showing signs of recovery, even in the more mature EU and U.S. sectors. Asia, particularly China, now dominates both new building and maintenance and repair (M&R) activities and consequently is experiencing the fastest growth. With the largest fleet of in-service vessels ever seen, marine coating manufactur­ers anticipate improved demand in the coming years. At the same time, they face many challenges ranging from ris­ing raw material costs to declines in new build orders to new country-based regulations and international standards for performance.

Coating producers are responding with the development of novel technologies aimed at not only improving coating performance, but also increasing ease of use and reducing environmental impact . The economic downturn hit the com­mercial marine industry in 2009, largely impacting the M&R sector as ship own­ers and operators faced increased com­petition and lower freight rates. As a re­sult, many looked to delay maintenance activities or elected to use less expen­sive coating options to reduce expenses, according to Martin Porsbjerg, Hempel’s Group marine product manager.

This trend began to reverse itself in 2010 as the general economic recovery took hold, and Steve Dickey, market director for the Global Marine business at Sherwin-. Williams Protective & Marine Coatings, expects continued improvement going forward. Global new building remained strong during this period but is expected to decline from 2011 to 2013 as re­duced order rates work their way through the system. Industry experts predict, however, that it will recover in 2014.