1

● Dow announces mechanical completion of first acrylic monomer plant in the

Middle East 2

● Drytac ® sells UV liquid coating division to Advanced Finishing Technologies, a

member of the Digital2You USA network 3

● Brenntag expands its service facilities in Thailand 4

● ShawCor announces contract to provide pipe coating services for the Edvard

Grieg project in the North Sea 4

● Trust Chem Europe growing 5

● Bordeaux Digital Printink continues to expand in the UK: partners with FTC (UK)

to deliver coatings and liquid laminates 6

● A PROFILE OF THE MEXICAN PAINT INDUSTRY 6

Argex announces purchase agreement with PPG

Argex Titanium Inc. announced that it has

entered into a long-term supply agreement

with PPG Industries Inc. relating to titanium

dioxide (TiO2) pigment suitable for various

end-use applications by PPG.

PPG is one of the world’s leading coatings and

speciality products companies, serving

customers in construction, consumer products,

industrial and transportation markets and aftermarkets. PPG operates in nearly 70 countries

around the world, with sales in 2012 of US$15.2 billion.

The supply agreement and a concurrently executed research services agreement between

PPG and Argex, whereby PPG will provide continued research and development support to

both optimise Argex pigment grade TiO2 for paints and coatings and combine PPG’s

coatings technology and expertise with Argex’s TiO2

proprietary processing technology, replace the

collaboration agreement signed by the

two parties that was

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CONTENTS

2

announced in April 2012.

Roy Bonnell, Argex President and Chief Executive Officer, said, “The agreements with PPG

are a significant milestone for our company. Our relationship with PPG has greatly assisted

with our stated goal to move towards production. We are very pleased that PPG will be our

first customer for TiO2 pigment suitable for use in its architectural paint production. We are

also pleased that we will continue our collaboration with PPG to optimise our product for

other various end-use applications.”

“These agreements and our ongoing collaboration with Argex are demonstrative of PPG’s

stated intent to leverage our expertise to secure an enhanced supply of critical raw

materials,” said Charles F. Kahle II, PPG Chief Technology Officer and Vice President,

Research and Development, Coatings.

PPG previously manufactured titanium dioxide using the chloride process at its former

Natrium, W.Va., chemicals plant and sold titanium dioxide pigment for coatings and other

end-use applications. Titanium dioxide is a raw material widely used in the paint and

coatings industry as pigment for its hiding, durability and whiteness characteristics.

Source: Argex Titanium, 27 June

The Dow Chemical Company is pleased to

announce the mechanical completion of

the first acrylic monomer production

facility in the Middle East. The Saudi

Acrylic Monomer Company (SAMCo) joint

venture plant in Al-Jubail, Saudi Arabia,

provides the company with advantaged

feedstocks to fuel Dow’s production of

acrylic emulsion polymers for applications

such as coatings and adhesives. The plant

will also allow more reliable and efficient

supply to customers in the Middle East

and Asia-Pacific.

Dow acquired a joint venture stake in

SAMCo with Tasnee Sahara Olefins

Company in 2009. The new plant will

produce Glacial Acrylic Acid (GAA) and

Butyl Acrylate (BA) to fuel regional, global

and captive demand. Tasnee will market

the products in the Gulf Cooperation

Council (GCC) countries and Dow will

market them throughout the rest of the

world. Pre-marketing activities have been

underway for several months and SAMCo

looks forward to commencing commercial

shipments in the next quarter.

Dow

3

“The SAMCo plant was designed to

incorporate Dow’s best technologies to

help ensure safe and efficient operations

to allow us to improve reliable supply to

customers around the world as well as our

own downstream businesses,” said Pat

Gottschalk, Business President for Dow’s

monomers, resins and intermediates

businesses.

The SAMCo plant was completed with an

outstanding construction safety record

and the project was recognised by Project

Finance magazine as the Middle East

petrochemical project of the year in 2012.

Source: Dow, 27 June

Drytac®, an international manufacturer of adhesive-coated

products and graphics finishing equipment and supplies,

has signed a formal agreement with Advanced Finishing

Technologies/Digital2You to sell its UV liquid coating

division, including UV coaters and UV liquid coatings. The sale is a direct result of a recent

corporate review during which Drytac® decided to shift its business strategy.

Going forward, Drytac® will focus on its expanded line of standard and custom adhesive-

coated products. Jim Tatum, who previously managed Drytac®’s UV liquid coating division,

will now champion the product line at Advanced Finishing Technologies. Advanced Finishing

Technologies will continue to offer the same UV product lines with the same product names

through various sales channels and the Digital2You dealer network.

“Jim’s knowledge of the UV liquids market is vast, and his familiarity with our UV liquid

customers should ensure a smooth transition for both companies,” states Marc Oosterhuis,

Drytac® President. Jim Tatum adds, “This is a product line that I helped develop from the

ground up so I consider this a great opportunity to advance liquid coating technologies. It’s

both an honour and a challenge, but I look forward to continued success with the UV liquids

line.”

It is important to note that Drytac® will retain its aqueous (water-based) liquid coating

division, which offers both aqueous liquid coaters and liquid coatings to customers in the

graphics finishing market. In addition, the company plans to introduce a new aqueous giclee

coater and several liquid coatings during the SGIA Expo in Orlando, Florida, held October 23-

25, 2013.

Source: Drytec, 1 July

Drytac/Advanced Finishing Technologies

4

Brenntag, the global market leader in

chemical distribution, has further

expanded its application laboratory

facilities with the construction of a new

Innovation & Training Centre in Thailand.

The new facility is situated within the

premises of the Warehouse and Logistics

Centre in Bangkok offering two training

rooms and six technical application

laboratories. The labs are designed to

support Brenntag’s Specialties business

for Personal Care, Food & Beverage, Agro,

Cleaning, Textile and Coatings (ACES).

For customers, Brenntag adds value by

developing new product formulations for

and together with customers using the

broad range of speciality ingredients in its

product portfolio. Customers appreciate

that Brenntag can speed up the process

for new product launches by having

access to an application lab and technical

staff in close proximity to their markets.

Through the new Innovation & Training

Centre, Brenntag Thailand is also able to

offer more value-added services to

suppliers. In partnership with suppliers,

Brenntag arranges customer seminars

which are targeting individual customer

needs. Suppliers also have the

opportunity to conduct training sessions

at the Centre with the assistance of

experienced and competent specialists of

Brenntag.

Source: Brenntag, 28 June

ShawCor Ltd. has announced that its pipe

coating division, Bredero Shaw, has

received a contract with a value of

approximately US$30 million from Statoil

Norway to provide pipeline coatings for the Edvard Grieg Oil Pipeline project and the Utsira

High Gas Pipeline project. These pipelines will transport oil and gas from the Edvard Grieg

and Ivar Aasen fields. The gas will be transported to St. Fergus through a tie in of the Utsira

High Gas Pipeline to the Sage system and the oil will be transported to Sture, Norway,

through a tie in of the Edvard Grieg Oil Pipeline to the existing Grane Oil Pipeline. The

Edvard Grieg field (formerly Luno) is located in the Utsira High area of the Norwegian North

Sea. The contract will be executed at the Bredero Shaw pipe coating facility in Leith,

Scotland.

ShawCor

Brenntag

5

This contract involves coating approximately 98 km of 16" pipe and 46 km of 29" pipe with

3-layer polypropylene anticorrosion coating, internal flow efficiency coating and concrete

weight coating. Coating will commence during the fourth quarter of 2013.

ShawCor Ltd is an energy services company specialising in products and services for the

pipeline and pipe services and the petrochemical and industrial segments of the oil and gas

industry. The company operates through eight divisions with over seventy-five

manufacturing and service facilities located around the world.

Source: ShawCor, 28 June

Trust Chem Europe BV, the European

division of Trust Chem Co. Ltd, has

announced that effective 28th June 2013,

as part of its continued growth, its

European headquarters in Deventer (the

Netherlands) is moving to a new office

location.

“We expect that with the recent

introduction of our DiAzoCondensation

Yellow range and with the successes of

our other High Performance Pigments a

further increase will be needed.”

commented Henk Loonstra, Technical

Director Trust Chem Europe.

“As we build upon our expansion into

Europe we are continuously looking for

new and value-added ways to do

business. After doubling the square

metres of our European warehouses in

2012 we now are doubling office space.

With more office space, and a state-of-

the-art infrastructure, logistics and

warehouses, we will be able to provide

even better services to our distributors

and customers,” said Robert Paul

Wielinga, Marketing & Sales Director,

Trust Chem Europe.

Source: Trust Chem Europe, 27 June

Trust Chem Europe

6

Bordeaux Digital Printink, a leading innovator of a wide

range of inks and coatings for a variety of demanding

inkjet applications, printing technologies and techniques, has announced that FTC (UK) has

joined its reseller network. FTC (UK), a leading manufacturer of finishing products for the

Visual Communications Market, will distribute Bordeaux’s coating and liquid laminates

throughout the United Kingdom.

FTC will showcase Bordeaux’s coatings at the FESPA 2013 conference, 25th-29th June 2013, in

London, UK at the Excel London Exhibition Centre, stand G75S. Live demonstrations will

include coatings with Bordeaux’s CLEAR WIDE™ UV coating series for high volume wide

format applications.

Bordeaux also offers a wide variety of environmentally friendly water-based coatings, latex-

based inks, dye-sublimation, UV and UV LED curable inks and bulk ink delivery solutions. The

company’s wide range of inks and liquids for inkjets is available in the UK through UK

Euroconnect and Stehlin Hostag.

Source: Bordeaux Digital Printink, 24 June

A PROFILE OF THE MEXICAN PAINT INDUSTRY

1ST

EDITION

IRL is pleased to announce the publication of a brand new publication A Profile of the Mexican

Paint Industry. For the first time ever, IRL examines Mexico’s paints and coatings market

independently and not as part of a regional study on the Central American paint market, thereby

enabling to present more in-depth paint market data and trends. This first edition provides market

data for 2011, anticipated figures for 2012, and forecasts to 2016.

Mexico’s paints and coatings sector was enjoying a period of rapid expansion until the outbreak of

the world financial crisis which, accompanied by an increase in raw material prices, caused the

sector to tumble. With NAFTA free-trade agreements in place, Mexico succeeded at increasing trade

competitiveness with the USA, bringing the paints and coatings market into full recovery in 2010.

Last year Mexico outperformed Brazil in terms of GDP growth (Mexico: 3.9%; Brazil: 2.7%)

benefitting the development of the paints and coatings sector, causing it to further expand and

reach an estimated demand of 820,400 tonnes. Although the elections taking place on 1 July 2012

have caused the economy to slow-down, this trend has quickly reversed and consumer behaviour

and investments have risen once again.

Available now from IRL...

Bordeaux/FTC

7

Decorative paints is by far the largest market segment, accounting for almost 70% of the total paints

and coatings market share but is subject to seasonal demand. Together with Mexico’s increased

purchasing power, credit lending has allowed for refurbishment works to drive the construction

sector. While many are identifying the development of a second seasonality peak, it is the smaller

industrial coatings sector that is foreseen to undergo faster growth rates on average in the next few

years -with AAGR of 3.1 % up until 2016 in the decorative segment as opposed to a 3.7 % growth

expected on the industrial coatings segment. By the end of the year 2016, the market could reach a

demand of 965,000 tonnes.

The booming of the automotive industry will be the key driver to fuel Mexico’s industrial coatings

growth and will also promote the use of automotive refinishes on the long term. Indeed, the

automotive OEM coatings sector is expected to experience growth rates well above Mexico’s

expected GDP progress, with the possibility of attaining a 5.2% year-on-year growth rate.

Otherwise, new investments into Mexico’s state-run Pemex, which largely dominates the country’s

oil and gas sectors, will be the main factor to trigger expansion in most other industrial coatings

sectors including the marine, protective and general industrial coatings sectors.

0

200,000

400,000

600,000

800,000

Mexican Paint Market, 2011 - 2016

2011

2016

8

On the technological side, a number of reformulations to improve the eco-friendliness of paints have

strengthened the existing, but relatively recent, trend towards substitution of solventborne with

waterborne coatings. A much stronger use of powder coatings has also been reported. However,

despite environmental awareness increasing slowly, there is otherwise not much legislative incentive

to promote a faster switch-over towards environmentally-friendlier products.

A challenge to be addressed within the paints and coatings sector is that much of the industry still

relies on outdated equipment and technologies. In addition, the market remains largely dominated

by the giant paint maker Comex.

Nonetheless, the outlook for the paints and coatings market sector in Mexico appears highly

promising. The country’s per capita paint consumption stands at 7.1 kg/head, a figure considerably

lower to that of Brazil, placed at 8.4 kg/head. This indicates much potential for growth in a country

that over the past decades has continuously leapfrogged Brazil as Latin’s America top economy.

‘A Profile of the Mexican Paint Industry’, 1st

Edition, gives an insight into the market changes in the

past few years as well as the current market status of the paint industry. The report outlines the

key trends affecting nine mainstream paints and coatings segments. The paints and coatings

segments covered are: decorative, industrial wood, protective, marine, automotive OEM,

automotive refinishes, powder, general industrial and plastic coatings. Forecasts on these are

presented to the year 2016, including the release of anticipated market figures for the end of the

year 2012.

For more information on this report, please contact Cathy Galbraith: cgalbraith@brggroup.com or

call +44 208 832 7830.

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