Prepaint Buyers Ponder Price Hikes

With the notable exception of AkzoNobel, leading suppliers of paint and coatings to the prepaint market have announced price hikes of 5-7 percent, effective in January. And some coil coaters and their customers are not happy about it.

One prepaint buyer who closely tracks raw material costs questions whether the current hike is justified. “While materials, particularly titanium dioxide, have risen this year, chemicals used in paint are not back to the levels they were in 2014 when the paint companies had their last price increase. Chemical costs dropped significantly in 2015 and 2016. Paint companies never decrease prices, they only raise prices,” he said.