In an exclusive interview with Pravin Prashant, Executive Editor, Indian Chemical News, Thomas Roemer, Executive Vice President and Global Head of Coatings and Adhesives, Covestro Deutschland AGA shared his views on industry trends, customers' expectations, current and projected demand of Trimer, market share, and new applications. Excerpts of the interview:

Key industry trends with respect to Trimer?

Trimer aliphatic crosslinker is an essential ingredient in high performance polyurethane coatings. Polyurethane coatings based on Trimer as crosslinker can deliver customized chemical and mechanical resistance along with excellent weathering resistance and appearance and thus are preferred for coating transportation vehicles such as automobiles, metro/railway coaches, buses, aircrafts, steel in infrastructure projects among other applications. 

In many applications, there is focus on higher chemical resistance, faster drying, improved mechanical properties such as flexibility as well customers expect solutions for reduction of VOC content and improved process efficiency. Low viscosity trimers are most suitable for such applications. Water based coatings are more and more preferred and specified in many applications and demand will grow in future. All these trends will drive Trimer demand and where we see a lot of growth.

How is Covestro geared to meet customers' expectations?

We have already been manufacturing TDI derivatives and Biuret, an aliphatic crosslinker in India. In Ankleshwar, we have been the first company to produce Biuret, an aliphatic crosslinker in India and we have now seen a surging demand in Trimer so we have built a production plant for Trimer production. You know, we also have an application development laboratory in Mumbai. We usually get the first call from Indian customers when it is about innovation and therefore, we are investing in application R&D and production resources into India. This is how we are trying to meet our customers’ expectations.

Current demand of Trimer products globally? Projected demand for Trimer in the next three years?

The demand for trimer products is projected to grow globally slightly above gross domestic product. Therefore, we usually estimate the growth to be around 4% and Indian demand is of course amazing.

The amount of per capita paint consumption in India as per sources and our assessment is less than five liters per capita. In Germany and in Western Europe and North America, it is ~15 liters per capita. This is three times higher which is, however, only half of the story for Trimer because the key figures are penetration of high-performance Polyurethane (PU) adhesives and coatings in the industry. I have learned that in India the PU penetration, as per internal estimate, is also less than five percent while in Western Europe and North America it is around 20.

When I am in India, I don't look at the GDP or the global demand for Trimer. I look at the vast potential in India and this if you multiply three times more paint per capita, four times more PU penetration, you easily come to tenfold demand numbers, and this is why we have come here. With local production, I would say it will be at least double the demand for Trimer here in India going forward in a few years. This is not something that we will see only for one time but for many years.

What is the current market share of Covestro globally in Trimer?

We do not give specific numbers, but we consider ourselves the leading raw material supplier in the coatings and adhesives sector globally.

Can you throw some light on how you are planning to increase your base through new products globally?

There are multiple types of Trimers in our portfolio. The Covestro’s portfolio of coatings and adhesives raw materials are not only focused on the cross-linking part but also focused on total solution, with resins included. In this context, Covestro is one of the global leaders in coatings and adhesives resin or binder providers. With acquisition of DSM’s Resins & Functional Material business in 2021 which has added to the historically strong polyurethane expertise of Covestro, significant insights regarding Acrylics and certain areas of Polyurethane Dispersions. One cannot be the most innovative R&D coatings company if it only focuses on one of the components. Thus, we are in position to offer a ‘total solution’ to our customers.

I would like to mention two areas that our R&D labs are working on to increase our market presence. First, is renewable energy. The windmills would not be as productive without our coatings used in leading edge protection coatings. For solar panels, we have back-sheet coating solutions and frame coating solutions. Second, an industry which is a bit unintuitive because it is a long-standing industry, and one connected with lots of innovation is print and packaging. The trend goes into recyclability and mono-material systems, and this is now possible with a very good barrier coating solution and with excellent solutions in the adhesive arena. We can move from multi-layered systems that are not recyclable at all into areas where it is possible. This is the trend globally and we are researching and will commercialize soon.

What are the new applications which Covestro is focusing on to increase its market share?

We have made a very large acquisition recently and this was significantly above 1 billion euro that we have spent on a portfolio in coatings and adhesives. We are still fascinated by bringing together the scientists of both companies by learning about the vast opportunities that the combination of acrylics and polyurethanes can have. Therefore, the chance of a new acquisition is relatively slim as we first want to first tap into the vast potential. We are a chemical company with the broadest technological toolkit in coatings and adhesives, and presently we have only scratched the surface. Our radar is always on, and I am not excluding anything, but we have more than enough ammunition in our laboratories to solve lots of unmet market needs and therefore we are not looking for additions.

How many global facilities do you have with respect to Trimer? With the launch of the Ankleshwar facility, what is the additional capacity that you are planning to add to the overall global Trimer capacity?

This is the fourth dedicated facility that we have. We have a joint venture with Sumitomo in Japan which is also producing Trimer. As per our company policy, we do not give away the exact capacities. For the Ankleshwar site, we have invested more than 20 million euros (around Rs. 200 crore).

We have built the plant regarding two things. First, we believe, and we are very sure that we can cater to the local demand for the upcoming years. Second, we also have room for expansion and when additional capacities would be required, and this is more important than the pure capacity that we have brought leading products from our global network into India. We will produce a low viscosity Trimer that some of our older derivative units cannot produce globally. From my perspective, it is worth even more and shows our trust and belief in the Asian market.