International. Clariant presented its new additive solutions developed to meet the specific needs of the Asian coatings market at the last ChinaCoat fair.
The focus of the new solutions on aspects such as safety, UV protection and greater environmental compatibility is of particular relevance to China and its continued boom in construction, infrastructure and maritime projects.
Last year, 84 skyscrapers over 200 meters high were built in China and the country will build 66 new civilian airports on its mainland in the next 5 years. In addition, its fleet of merchant ships has expanded almost threefold in the last three years. The world's second-largest economy places great emphasis on the construction industry to ensure structures and cities are safe and sustainable.
"Our new innovations will allow formulators to keep up with the trend towards greener, low-emission coatings as the transition from solvent-based coatings continues," says Stephan Lynen, Director of Clariant BU Additives. "We have new products for water and powder coatings, for use on a wide range of substrates, indoors and outdoors. But we appreciate that moving away from solvent-based coatings altogether is not yet possible in all situations, so we continue to develop additives to improve these systems as well."
A typical example of Clariant's latest innovations is the Hostavin TB-03 light stabilizer, a high-performance synergistic combination of a UV absorber and a radical sequestrant that contains no toluene or xylene and is suitable for both water-based and solvent-based systems. Two more light stabilizers, Hostavin 3070 P and Hostavin 3070 Disp, offer a "label-free" alternative to traditional HALS currently used in solvent-based and water-based systems, respectively.
On the other hand, Clariant announced earlier this year that two new additive facilities at its current site in Zhenjiang are scheduled to come online in the second half of next year. "These facilities will allow us to offer innovative, high-end solutions tailored to the specific needs of the local coatings, inks and plastics industries, with accelerated response times," says Lynen. In addition to the new products to be launched at ChinaCoat, the locally produced portfolio will also include several important additives from Clariant's existing portfolio that are already well established in the Chinese and Asian markets.
