The resins market has continued to exhibit signs of growth over the last several years. Multiple factors have contributed to this market’s expansion, including the global health of the coatings market as a whole. According to Sheryl Southwell, president of Specialty Polymers, increased residential and commercial construction activity is a major driver of growth both domestically and globally. “It seems like every mid-size to large city I visit has several multi-family housing developments under construction,” she said. “There is also increased activity in the packaging industry that is propelled by expanding food, beer and wine markets. Add to this the expectation of increased spending for repair and replacement of aging infrastructure.” Globally, home and commercial construction is rising, something Arkema, Eric Dumain, North American commercial director for Coatings, said benefits not only the coatings industry, but the adhesives and sealants markets as well”In protective coatings, we expect increased municipal spending on infrastructure to drive sales of traffic markings and coating materials used to refurbish metal and concrete structures,” he said. The water-based resin market has steadily grown and increased in the last ten years, according to Yasmin Sayed-Sweet, vice president of sales and marketing at Alberdingk Boley. “The main growth contributors are stricter VOC regulations and advancement in the WB resin technology to meet or exceed the performance needs,” she said. Materials also saw a positive upswing in the global resins market, said Sun Chemical’s Michael T. Venturini, marketing director, Coatings, especially in sales of UV-curable, waterborne, and powder coating resins. “The resins market remains highly competitive,” he said, “but trends dictated both by legislation and end consumers in the marketplace that focus on technical service, quality, performance and environmental considerations provide Sun Chemical tremendous opportunities for growth because of the strength of its research and development capabilities, backed by resin engineering from DIC, our parent company.” For example, Venturini said, environmental regulations and social change for sustainable raw materials with less environmental impact are driving rapid change and innovation in all segments of the coatings market. The trend continues to move forward in Europe and the United States, but is quickly growing in Asia driven by China’s regulations for improved air quality and reduced VOC emissions. “This has required paint producers to transition to powder, waterborne or other low-VOC technologies. The ever-growing importance of waterborne technology has created exciting innovation opportunities for resin manufacturers. Sun Chemical Advanced Materials will continue to work with DIC to focus our research and development efforts on expanding our product offerings for sustainable coatings. “We will also work with DIC to provide resins with unique performance properties that are tailored specially for the end user’s application, such as: one pack primers for adhesion to polypropylene and TPO that allow for lightweighting and recyclability of automotive parts. In addition, we have developed a range of acrylic binders in both solvent- and water-based technologies that meet the stringent requirements of premium global automotive manufacturers,” Venturini said. Source：http://www.coatingsworld.com/issues/2017-04-01/view_features/resins-market-update-274904/
Dumain added that the marine market is taking longer to recover, though he expects to see some growth in 2017 and beyond.