A market that does not sink

by: María Cecilia Hernández

Since the 1980s , coastal countries have expressed concern about the negative impact on the environment and marine organisms generated by the use of materials, chemicals and coatings containing tributyltin and heavy metals such as lead and chromium.

Nearly 30 years have been necessary for government and environmental entities in all countries to generate a series of restrictions that, far from being mandatory, seek to generate environmental awareness about the manufacture, application and use of paints, not only marine, that achieve the least adverse effect on both the environment and human health.

Inpra Latina consulted different experts from Central and South American countries about the current state and future that we can expect from the marine paint market. Mexico, Colombia and Chile are three countries with marked differences in this industrial dynamic. However, their vision and treatment of the environmental and economic issue makes them similar.

It staggered but remains
In the Chilean case this year there was a particularity that made the daily business take different directions. "As is well known, on February 27, 2010, we suffered the serious consequences of an earthquake, so this year has been very special especially if we compare ourselves with our neighbors in this industry. The earthquake undoubtedly affected us and continues to affect us in what has to do with the consumption of paints. I think it will be like this until we start with the reconstruction work," says Heriberto Curaqueo, technical manager of Sherwin Williams in Chile.

Curaqueo adds that one of its most important shipyards, Asmar, located in Talcahuano in the bay of Concepción, suffered serious consequences during the tragedy and at the moment this situation has paused production for that specific client, but "we are aware that everything will have to be rebuilt, repaired, repainted and we hope that at that time the operation with them will be activated again", Says.

Chile is a country that consumes an annual average of 250 thousand liters of paint for marine use as reported by the official of Sherwin Williams, which means a higher consumption capacity if compared to its neighbor Colombia.

As indicated by Juan Carlos Velásquez M., manager of the maintenance and marine line of the Global Paint Company (Pintuco), "in Colombia there are shipyards for ships up to 10,000 tons. This is a relatively small market compared to the other Andean Pact countries like Peru which has one of the largest fishing fleets in the world."

Colombia and Mexico open market
Velásquez explained that although the market is small due to the low number of shipyards and their capacity, this country has seen a sustained growth in recent years in the consumption of marine paints. "The country's shipyards such as Cotecmar and Vikingos work with high quality standards. In the case of Cotecmar we have developments that include replacing the abrasive jet with sand for surface preparation. The market is growing thanks to the current shipyards planning expansions and there are other new shipyards in development."

For its part, Mexico has been strengthening its marine paint industry through the generation of environmental awareness. According to Alfonso Enríquez, coordinator of engineering and design of the company El Nervión S.A. de CV, located in the municipality of Tlalnepatla, in the State of Mexico, if you take as an example the production and marketing of marine product that only this company has, you can make, at scale, an estimate of the rebound of the industry in the Aztec country in general.

"From 2004 to 2009 there has been a noticeable growth, I can not say that it has been double but it is a good margin of evolution. For example, in 2004 we sold about 10,000 liters a year in marine products . Now, in 2009, we achieved an approximate sales volume of 50 thousand liters in marine product. These sales are mainly for the tourism sector: yachts, boats, fishing, shrimp, a good part for the government sector, and the vast majority of consumption is made by the private sector, "said Enríquez.

According to the Mexican "this rebound has been presented thanks to the importance that the maritime sector is giving to the care of coatings and the maintenance that is carried out in order to protect structures and assets. Due to environmental restrictions, they are obliged to paint with products free of contaminants such as tin."

This is confirmed by Alfonso Enríquez: "Most of the innovations that are taking place in this market have to do with what has been called green coatings, which contain high solids and low Volatile Organic Components (VOC); they are coatings of polysiloxane technology, they are practically no longer using poisons, this with the aim of protecting marine fauna. By having better technology paints, the application processes change, they must evolve and become even more technical, they become more efficient, more effective and there is less emission of pollutants into the atmosphere in the application process. It is a gradual change that occurs more rapidly in other regions, but in the case of Mexico it has occurred with delay."

In addition to these characteristics, Heriberto Curaqueo explains that new technologies are aiming to manufacture products that have a maximum tolerance to moisture and rust, products that tend to have 100% solids, that offer the possibility of being applied on surfaces that are going to be exposed to different factors, and that test the resistance. Likewise, they must have excellent adhesion, low productivity in the preparation of surfaces and that can be applied in extreme atmospheric conditions.
In Colombia, on the other hand, it has begun with a process of adoption of the technology of International Paint, world leaders in marine paints. "We are technology graduates from them. Thus we can offer the market state-of-the-art developments for the different areas of the ship, including non-polluting antifouling agents of high durability, which increase the efficiency of the ships by minimizing friction, in addition to working on the issue of scale by a non-adhesion mechanism based on silicone polymers and fluoropolymers, "says Velásquez.

Regulating and prohibiting are not the same
On the subject of regulation and legislation of the manufacture and use of marine paints, the three countries agree on their concept: it exists, it is known, but it is not always put into practice.

"In Chile there is no regulation that points directly to marine paint, there are general regulations that talk about the content of lead and heavy metals, but there is no legislation regarding this type of substances, and many times the standards come from outside since we have an international merchant fleet," said Curaqueo.

Likewise, in Mexico there are general regulations that try to protect the environment and warn about the issue of VOC, the use of chromium and lead. According to Enríquez this "is regulated, it is restricted, but it is not prohibited, in practice there is no prohibition as such, there are restrictions but they are at the discretion of the manufacturer and the demand of the end user, so it is not being carried out 100%".

Faced with this situation, from Colombia, Juan Carlos Velásquez calls on government entities to be stricter in complying with the restrictions, "the government must increase regulation in many aspects of the paint industry, since there are many companies that offer low quality products that do not comply with international standards."