Economic Census Coatings Market Trends – Is the Industry Back on Track

By Allen Irish

After at least four consecutive years of declin­ing volumes, the U.S. Census MA325F report (Paint and Allied Products) reveals that 2010 showed the first year-over-year (YOY) growth in both value and volume for the coatings industry since 2007 (see Figure 1). The value of shipments in 2010 rose $1.289 billion (7.70%) on a 5.87% increase in total gallons shipped (up 64 million gallons). Coatings demand is broadly reflective of the economy as a whole, and is heavily influenced by demand generated by such things as construction and the manufacturing of durable goods. I

n terms of overall economic activity, however, the average of the GDP figures for the private goods-producing industries and durable goods manufacturing ap­pear to most closely mirror the economic fortunes of the coatings industry during the past four years, as shown in Figure 2. Drilling down into the major categories, it is clear that much of the increase in the value of shipments was due to a particularly strong bounce­back in OEM coatings, a category that had suffered disproportionately in the past few years. Looking at year-over-year changes for each category (Figure 3), the strongest was OEM coatings, which gained nearly 19% in value of products shipped over 2009.