Generally, paints and coatings are applied to products to protect them from environmental corrosion and improve their aesthetic appeal. Paints are classified into two broad categories-(a) decorative or architectural coatings and (b) industrial paints. Decorative paints used in buildings include distempers, emulsions, synthetic enamels, cement paints and wood finishes.
In India decorative paints dominate with a share of 75 per cent of the total paints. Here Asian Paints dominates with a 37 per cent of market share followed by Goodlass Nerolac (14 per cent). Industrial paints include automotive paints, powder coatings, marine paints, high performance coatings and special purpose finishes. These are technology intensive. Goodlass Nerolac is the undisputed leader in industrial paints.
The paints industry involves around 500 different types of raw materials contributing 50-55 percent of the total costs. The key raw materials titanium dioxide (pigment); PAN (used in manufacture); and pentacrythril. Paint making ponies are largely confined to big cities like Mu Kolkata, Bharuch, Chennai, Ahmadabad, Na and Kanpur etc. Asian Paints is leading company followed by Goodlass Nero Jenson and Nicholson and Berger Paints etc. production was 185,000 tons in 1987-88 w rose to 200,000 tons in 1991 -92. This has attracted many multi-nationals to tie-up with Indian conies. Goolass Nerolac’s tie-up with Kansai Pain Japan and Du Pont of the US has benefitted immensely.
Paint industry is undergoing all transfusion in recent years. The multiplicity of cement paint, furniture enamels, and epoxy paints, ponder coatings, and high performance coatings area of them which are gaining popularity.
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The paint industry started in India in 1 with Shalimar Paints in Kolkata. Presently there 18 companies in organised sector with install capacity of 2.83 lakh tons per annum. Beside there are about 1,000 small scale units.
The Indi Paint Association (IPA) is a representative b accounting for about 80 per cent of the producti capacity of the industry. Similarly the Indian Scale Paint Association (ISSPA) with about 71 members is the representative body of the scale units. In the early years the industry w dominated by U.K. companies. Asian Paints, an indigenous unit, was started in 1942. During eighties leading Japanese companies like Nippon Paints, Kansai Paints, Nippon Oil and Fat, Chugoku Paints, Nihon Parkerising, Nihon Tokushu Tokyo (NTT) and UM Corporation tied up for technical collaborations with various Indian companies.
With liberalisation, both large and small scale units have secured technical collaboration with paint companies from Japan, Germany, the USA, Holland, Denmark, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Belgium and Australia. The main an area in which technical knowhow is obtained are architectural paints, automotive coatings, coil coatings, heavy duty coatings, industrial paints, marine paints and powder coatings. Thus Indian paint industry has got world-class technology and is fully capable of meeting international standards.
India’s per capita consumption of paints is very low at 0.23 kg as compared to the US (25 kg), France (15 kg), Japan (8 kg), Malaysia (4.8 kg), and Thailand (1.0 kg). Hence, there is a good prospect for the industry. The Ministry of Environment and Forests has selected three groups of paints for eco- friendly labels. These are water-based coatings, high solids coatings and powder coatings.