Raw Materials 2022 – Ongoing Difficulties

Where to start? First and foremost, this article is not about the large, global paint and coatings companies, because we learn everything we need to know about their struggles with supply chain issues from public reports. What we don’t typically hear about are the struggles of small and medium enterprise (SME) distributors and coatings producers and how they are dealing with the ongoing supply chain issues. Nor have we been hearing about raw material suppliers, both large and small, that despite the chaos surrounding them have nonetheless been able to continue, albeit at a slower pace, the R&D efforts that resulted in the introduction of new raw materials during the past 24-month period, that are of potential value to the paint and coatings formulators. In a day and age when we are constantly bombarded with news, nothing ends up being actual news because we are inured to the whole concept. Similarly, in a paint and coatings industry where we are living with daily shortages, substitutions, price increases, transportation issues, allocations, force majeures, and lead times that can go beyond six months for certain types of raw materials, paint and coatings raw material sup- pliers, paint producers and paint and coatings users are basically becoming numb from the unending onslaught that made life so stressful in 2021 and is continuing into 2022. About the best news I can offer, and it is qualified good news, as of the time of this writing in early March 2022, is that we appear to be seeing some stabilization in the overall situation, insofar as pricing increases seem likely to moderate, although pricing decreases do not appear to be on the horizon, with perhaps some isolated instances.