AkzoNobel Plans to Separate its Specialty Chemicals Business
AkzoNobel NV reviews its plans to separate its
specialty chemicals business
Netherlands: AkzoNobel NV, a Netherlands
based leading manufacturer of paints, performance coatings and specialty chemicals,
has revealed its plans to separate its specialty chemicals business from the
company. The company is still reviewing strategic options that would result in
setting up an independent specialty chemicals business with its own ownership
structure. The specialty chemicals business garnered USD5.15 billion revenue in
2016, with strong performance across construction, industrial and consumer
goods industry. This strategic move would permit the company to focus more on
the growth and business development of paints and performance coatings business,
thereby maintaining their respective leading positions across global markets.
TechSci Research depicts that
such planned decision would draw company’s focus towards growth of its paints and
performance coatings business both in operations and financial aspects. This
would, thus, strengthen company’s position in the global pigments market,
making it a tough competitor across various regional markets.
According to the recently
published report by TechSci Research,
“Global
Pigments Market
By Type, By Application, Competition
Forecast and Opportunities, 2011 – 2021”, global pigments market size is estimated to
cross US$ 34 billion by 2021. Segment-wise, inorganic pigments dominated the
overall market in 2015, and this trend is anticipated to continue through 2021.
Inorganic pigments are widely used in paints & coatings and plastics to
provide various functional properties such as heat stabilization, antistatic,
flame retardants, anti-block and UV stabilization. In 2015, Asia-Pacific region
dominated the global pigments market, owing to huge presence of paints &
coatings, plastics, construction, and printing ink industries, coupled with
increasing investments across diverse industry verticals. Few of the major
companies operating in the global pigments market include BASF, Clariant,
Huntsman, Tronox, and Lanxess, among others.