Paint and product shortages continue to plague the industry. Paint prices are increasing due to raw materials shortages. Labor shortages have created issues from getting the paint to market to getting it on the wall once it gets there. There isn’t a lot of comforting news as to when it will ease up.
26 January, 2022
Many consumer-oriented companies have reported delays and losses, and the paint industry is no exception. An article in Bloomberg noted that paint giant Sherwin-Williams, challenged by raw materials shortages and staffing issues in managers, drivers, and field reps, reported lower than expected earnings. The company also announced a 12% increase in pricing to take place beginning February 1st.
“As we enter 2022, demand remains strong across the majority of our end markets, though we expect raw material availability and COVID-related issues to persist through the first quarter. Raw material and other costs remain elevated, and we continue to respond with pricing actions in every Group to offset higher costs,” said company president John Morikis in a prepared statement published by the company.
At PPG, CEO Michael McGarry cited a 30% raw materials increase, and expects shortages and price hikes to continue in 2022. “Looking ahead, while demand for PPG products remains strong, the heightened supply and COVID-related disruptions experienced in the fourth quarter are expected to continue in the first quarter of the year impacting our ability to manufacture and deliver product,” he said in a PPG press release. “We expect raw material costs to remain at an elevated level and we are experiencing additional inflation in other cost areas, including logistics and labor. Further selling price increases are being implemented in all of our businesses to mitigate the incremental inflation.”
Sources:
investors.sherwin-williams.com
If your customers are singing the blues, they need to stop — according to an article in the Philadelphia Inquirer, there’s a shortage of the ingredients needed for blue in both artist and architectural paint. European company Akzo Nobel has reported a shortage of many of the ingredients needed for its blues, while stateside, Golden Artist reports that a shortage of titanium white could hinder its production of colors such as light ultramarine and phthalo blue. Golden Artist has had to, at least temporarily, discontinue other colors as well, when certain ingredients weren’t available. According to the article, many of the ingredients for the colors were sourced in India, and the oxygen needed to produce those colors was instead directed to COVID patients.
An article in Real Homes suggests that while blue paint won’t be impossible to find, it’s a good idea to let your clients know they might be on a wait list to get it.
Not only that, but it once the paint manufacturers get the ingredients, where are they going to put them? Akzo Nobel reported that it’s been having difficulty sourcing the tinplate used in the manufacture of paint cans, forcing the company to ship empty metal cans from other countries so it can fill them with paint.
While homeowners may be willing to wait, or get a different shade, larger projects which need a large quantity of one color may have some issues if a particular color is hard to source.
Line striping coatings have also been in short supply in some areas. According the Carolina-based A&K Painting Company, one reason may be that as products are harder to find, companies are focusing more on high margin products. Another may be the aforementioned shortage of titanium dioxide, which plays a large part in traffic paint production.
Sources:
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Costs/Boycott
Painters and their customers as well as DIYers should consider paying high prices a patriotic duty; the boycott of Russian products including metallic salts/pigments.
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