The global market for automotive refinish coatings features a markedly high level of consolidation, with the top five companies accounting for a share of over 65 percent of the global market in 2015, observes Transparency Market Research in a recent market intelligence report. The top two vendors, PPG Industries and Axalta Coatings Systems, LLC, together held over 40 percent share of the global market in the said year. Strict regulatory reforms related to VOC emissions from coatings, especially across developed regions such as North America and Europe, have led to a substantial reduction in demand for solvent-based coatings.

“The trend has compelled many key manufacturers to increase focus on the development of effective waterborne varieties of automotive refinish coatings in the past few years,” said a TMR analyst. The trend is expected to have a transformative impact on the market’s dynamics in the near future. TMR estimates that the global automotive refinish coatings market will exhibit a healthy 5.7 percent CAGR over the period between 2016 and 2024. Growing at this pace, the market, which was valued at $6.6 billion in 2015, is expected to rise to $10.8 billion by 2024.

Coating Activators to Witness Most Promising Growth

Of the key product varieties examined in the report, the segment of basecoat presently dominates the global market and is expected to acquire a share of nearly 31 percent of the global market by 2024. However, the segment of activators is expected to exhibit the most promising growth over the forecast period and witness a slight rise in its share in the global market by 2024. North America is a dominant regional market and is expected to retain its position, but lose prominence to Asia Pacific in terms of growth opportunities.

Flourishing Automotive Markets in Emerging Economies to Emerge as Key Driver

Key emerging economies of the world, including countries such as India, China, Brazil, and South Africa, are expected to witness a significant expansion of their automotive markets over the period between 2016 and 2021. The rise in automotive sales across these countries is expected to be triggered by factors such as rising disposable incomes and the promising growth of GDPs in the past few years.

Rise in sales of automobiles across these countries is expected to lead to a sizeable expansion of the pool of vehicles and have a direct positive impact on the overall demand for automotive refinish coatings. Rising disposable incomes in emerging economies are also expected to lead to a sizeable rise in vehicle repair and maintenance activities, which is a key driver of the automotive refinish coatings market in developed regions such as North America and Europe.

Shifting Consumer Preference from Solvent-Based to Water-Based Products to Hamper Market’s Growth

In the past few years, several stringent emission-related reforms have been imposed that regulate the usage of certain chemicals and elements in automotive refinish coatings. This has dealt a huge blow to the sales of solvent-based products, which have been known to include higher levels of VOCs as compared to water-based products. Attempts made by environment sustenance and government bodies to raise awareness among consumers in these regards have led to a significant decline in the overall global consumption of solvent-based coatings in the past few years. Being the dominant revenue generator of the global automotive refinish coatings market, hampered growth of the segment also directly implies a huge blow to the market’s overall growth prospects.

Along with this factor, the fluctuating prices of key raw materials required for the production of automotive refinish coatings, which are mostly derived from crude oil and natural gas, are also expected to restrain the market’s growth to a certain extent in the coming years. Nevertheless, these factors are expected to drive the market for water-based refinish coatings, the product varieties known to have lesser impact on the environment, and bring about new developments in terms of product varieties and reliability of waterborne coatings.

This review of the market is based on a recent market research report published by Transparency Market Research, titled “Automotive Refinish Coatings Market – Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecast, 2016-2024.“