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Anyone who follows or participates in the paint and coatings sector would be aware that its success is shaped by demands and progress on many fronts, whether it is internationally [...]

European Correspondent tknowles@rodmanmedia.com Although we're not quite done with 2024 yet, we're already at the stage where colors of the year for 2025 are being announced for the decorative and [...]

Although Kansai Paint's planned sale of its African paint operations to AkzoNobel was called off, the company's war-chest for making acquisitions is still plentifully stocked - stocked to the extent [...]

A government-funded program in the Netherlands is bringing more than 80 different stakeholders together in a project focused on developing new technologies that will help solve some of today's societal [...]

As we approach the mid-point of the 2020s, it seems the perfect time to shine a light on what the remaining years of the decade hold for ink technology and [...]

Westminster played host to the British Coatings Federation (BCF) in December 2023 when the BCF launched a new report underlining the significance of the UK paint and coatings sector in [...]

Reviewing some recent developments that have emerged in EU chemical legislation, some key matters appear to be advancing and some look as if they might be relaxed. These will be [...]

Once again the UK has been cresting something of a coatings high with a wave of innovative and eco-conscious products being launched recently. Also launched and mentioned at the end [...]

Western Europe is the world's third-largest market for packaging after Asia and North America. The factors that will govern it in the coming years are as unsurprising as they are [...]

Looking over material for the latest Coatings World Top Companies report yielded indications that for most companies demand was returning to pre-pandemic levels, and certainly the pandemic shook up a [...]

News in and around the UK coatings sector has been abundant just recently, so this month I have taken the opportunity to highlight some important items from all parts of [...]

For April, I wrote on how Europe's top paint company performed in 2022. This time I thought I would consider the performance of some of the other major European paintmakers, [...]

Pricing initiatives overall culminated in a 14% increase in prices for customers in 2022 and the global turnover result mirrors this very closely: a 13% increase in sales, which rose [...]

Times are changing for the coatings and ink sectors as part of Europe's chemical industry, and the major engine driving these changes is the EU's Green Deal (among others), which [...]

Bio-based chemicals, which include many of relevance to the paint and coatings sector, are already established as a major global market according to Polaris Market Research. The company valued the [...]

The New Year is always a good time to take stock of what has been happening and review some developments, collective fashion. This time I'm throwing the spotlight on paint [...]

The European Commission has announced that its ongoing review and revision of European Union food-contact material (FCM) legislation is likely to be delayed until early 2023, citing the importance of [...]

Just before Christmas, considerable insight and illumination came from CEFIC, the European Chemical Industry Council, with regard to how the EU plans to progress its greening of the European chemical [...]

The recent publication of Kansai Paint's integrated report for 2022 yields some interesting insights into its position in Europe and what its plans are for the future, particularly with regard [...]

As the impact of the EU's ambition chemical transformation program looks increasingly likely to redefine chemical and coating technologies of the future, recently it was announced that a consortium of [...]

What are the trends and developments that are shaping the European packaging sector and the packaging sector in general, and also what factors will shape the food contact area in [...]

The European coatings market is facing a number of battles: raw material prices, supply issues, Brexit, fuel prices and the invasion of Ukraine. Europe is arguably the most troubled regional [...]

Before Brexit was implemented in the UK, there were copious amounts of warnings about what it would mean for businesses here, and now that it has become a reality, the [...]

Spring, and especially the late spring, has been a fairly quiet time for the coatings industry and its suppliers. Consolidation appears to be on the backburner for now, despite being [...]

On April 11, 2022, the EU chemical industry officially embraced the development of a chemical Transition Pathway to support its own successful transformation in terms of fulfilling the EU's Green [...]

Always avoid alliteration, goes the well-known saying about writing. But alliteration is an excellent tool for making messages memorable! AkzoNobel's 'People. Planet. Paint.' message turns out not to be just [...]

The landscape for the EU's chemical sector faces several significant and simultaneous changes that are needed to reshape the industry to fulfill the EU's Green Deal. In short it is [...]

AkzoNobel is the largest paint manufacturer in Europe, where it is challenged by the second-largest paint manufacturer of the USA--and indeed the world: PPG Industries. The two companies compete with [...]

Packaging has long been a battleground for the paint industry in terms of brand appearance and onshelf appeal, identification etc. In more modern times there have been differentshaped cans and [...]

Organizations representing the printing ink industries in different parts of Europe have detailed the precarious and challenging state of supply chain affairs that the sector faces as it moves into [...]

In December chemical industry leaders made an urgent appeal to the European Commission to cooperate in the development of an EU Chemical Industry Transition Pathway to sustain the extraordinary levels [...]

In my first column for Coatings World earlier this year, I wrote about strategy within the paint industry and the significance of acquiring regional paintmakers. In 2021 we have already [...]

Mainland Europe is home to many large paint industries, with the four largest mainland economies of Germany, France, Italy and Spain all being the case in point. The German paint [...]

Economic downturns and recessions invariably prompt shifts in consumer behavior, where judicious suppliers have to respond to tighter budgets by adjusting their prices and lines accordingly. Sometimes such periods deliver [...]

The extremely disruptive pandemic conditions of early 2020 generated strange-looking repercussions in the interim results posted in the summer of last year. For those companies that are diversified enough to [...]

Since just before the turn of the century, the pharmaceuticals sector has employed automated, high-throughput systems for screening chemical structures as a way of zeroing in on drugs with special [...]

Recently, the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA) published as its annual report the latest statistics on the European market for inks. Unsurprisingly, for 2020, the figures it reported were generally [...]

As the end of 2020 approached, PPG Industries made the surprise announcement that it had entered into an agreement to acquire the leading Finnish paintmaker Tikkurila in a deal originally [...]

To say that the paint and coatings industry faces many challenges makes one a master of the understatement, but as the industry moves into the 20s good and proper many [...]

According to a report by the European Printing Ink Association (EuPIA), the volume of packaging inks sold in Europe decreased by 6.9% between 2022 and 2023, totaling 490,000 tons. The volume of publication inks sold also fell by 15.7% during the same period, amounting to 210,000 tons. The performance of individual national industries varied, with Germany, the UK, Italy, and France experiencing sales declines, while Turkey saw an increase in ink sales. The report also highlights the potential of artificial intelligence (AI) in the ink and printing sectors, with applications such as ink formulation optimization and predictive maintenance. [Extracted from the article]

Law enforcement leaders should have a clear perspective of recent advancements in deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) technology and the establishment of forensic data banks. DNA technology proved to be effective in proving a wrong judgment in homicide and rape cases. Enhanced DNA procedures such as the polymerase chain reaction short tandem repeat have been made available with increased benefits for law enforcement. Two forensic data banks, namely, 'DRUGFIRE' and 'CODIS' will be of great help to law enforcement investigators in terms of suspect identification.

This article provides a detailed comparison of two Scandinavian coating companies, Hempel and Jotun, based on their annual reports. While Jotun focuses on direct investments, bold market entries, and organic growth, Hempel has a history of making astute acquisitions. Hempel's main sectors include marine paints, energy, and infrastructure, while Jotun excels in protective coatings, marine coatings, and powder coatings. Both companies experienced strong growth in 2023, with Jotun achieving record-high financial data and Hempel seeing significant growth in its marine paints and energy divisions. [Extracted from the article]

The European coatings industry, along with the global coatings industry, is currently experiencing a period of relative calm after years of acquisitions and investments in new production facilities. The post-COVID era has brought about challenges in distribution and access to raw materials, as well as geopolitical tensions in Eastern Europe and the Middle East. Companies are now focusing their efforts on sustainability, technology, and energy. AkzoNobel, for example, has joined a government-funded project in the Netherlands called Perspectief, which aims to promote greater recycling of materials. The company will be leading the SusInkCoat project, which focuses on making inks and coatings more sustainable. The industry as a whole is working towards greener production processes and reducing energy consumption. AkzoNobel has recently expanded its powder coatings factory in Italy, adding new manufacturing lines and bonding equipment to meet industry standards and improve efficiency. The company is committed to reducing carbon emissions by 50% by 2030. Overall, the coatings industry is increasingly prioritizing eco-friendliness and sustainability. [Extracted from the article]