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Uprisings Spur Paint Market Growth

Friday, March 16, 2012

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Q: What do revolution and soccer have in common?

A: Both are good at stepping up paint and coatings demand.

That’s the conclusion of A Profile of the Middle Eastern and African Paints Industries, a new market forecast by UK-based researchers IRL.

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“Many paint companies have recently targeted Egypt for investment, and with good reason,” says the report. The Egyptian economy has been strong since before the Arab Spring of 2011.

The 2011 political and social uprising known as the Arab Spring “had and is continuing to have a huge impact” on many Middle Eastern and North African economies, “and the paints industry has not been immune to this unrest,” says a summary of the report’s fourth edition, which updates the region’s paint picture since 2009.

Middle East: ‘Significant Growth’

The Middle Eastern paint market was estimated at more than 1.8 million tons in 2011. The huge Saudi paint and coatings market leads the pack, followed by the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.

“As well as being the leaders in size, these countries also offer significant growth opportunities, in particular Qatar,” says the report. Qatar’s paint appetite will be sharpened by the many large-scale infrastructure projects anticipated as the country prepares to host the World Cup in 2022.

Graphics: “A Profile of the Middle Eastern and African Paints Industries”

Surprisingly, the report adds, many Middle Eastern markets have proved more resilient than other economies (including those in Europe) in recovering from the economic crises of 2008-09.

(The strength of the Saudi market comes more from oil wealth than unrest, the report said. That country saw only minor protests in the Arab Spring.)

Africa: Focus on Egypt

North Africa is another coatings-ripe region, in spite of—and, in part, due to—the unrest of the Arab Spring movement. The African paint market is estimated at just above 1 million tons in 2011, and there is “good growth” mainly in the north of the continent, IRL reports.

“Many paint companies have recently targeted Egypt for investment, and with good reason,” IRL reports. “Egypt has enjoyed a really strong economic growth (up to 10% in recent years) and has become an increasingly important supply base for coatings (in particular to Libya).

“Despite recent political and social unrest, Egyptian GDP is expected to grow by around 3.5% in 2012.”

Across the African continent, paint market growth is expected to be at about 4 percent annually in the medium term, reflecting many of the GDP growth rates found across the region.

Key Trends, Other Views

The report also highlights these trends:

• After a massive drop in GDP growth over the last couple of years (GDP grew by only 0.6 percent in 2010), Saudi Arabia is now experiencing moderate growth, thanks to the current spike in oil prices and on-going construction of the new urban centers.

• After being badly hit by the recession, construction industries in the United Arab Emirates are now moving forward, but more slowly than in the past.

• South Africa is still recovering from the sharp economic downturn of 2009-10. As a result, the paint market has moved toward low-medium-quality products.

The paint and coatings assessment was the third upbeat paint and coatings forecast in recent days.

Earlier this week, the American Coatings Association’s new U.S. Paint & Coatings Industry Market Analysis: 2010-2015 forecast a robust domestic and export market of nearly $24 billion by 2015.

At the same time, the UK’s Paint Research Association released Global Industrial Coatings Markets, 2010-2020, offering a detailed look at protective and other industrial coatings growth worldwide for the rest of the decade.