Shepherd Color featured in January Edition of Coatings World

Kerry Pianoforte presents a round table discussion from industry leaders on pigments

This is an excerpt from the article, you may find the entire article on the Coatings World website.

Included in this round table discussion on pigments are Darren Bianchi, CEO, Brilliant Group; Kevin Sonby, vice president sales – Coatings, Plastics Specialties, Cathay Industries USA; Mark Ryan, marketing manager, The Shepherd Color Company; and Falko Orlowski, executive vice president marketing and sales, Trust Chem USA.

CW: How did the pigments market perform in 2022?

Brilliant Group: Demand has been solid. There were still some supply chain issues in the first part of the year, but our policy of holding inventory allowed us to meet customer demand.

Cathay Industries: Given the strong demand we experienced during the COVID years for inorganic pigments, we expected to see things level off in 2022. While we did see this occur in specific niche areas, our core markets of coatings, plastics and construction remained particularly strong, and we saw a yearover-year increase in the demand for our products. The fourth quarter has started to show some weakness.

Shepherd Color: Demand continued to be strong through most of 2022 but the future in 2023 is difficult to parse out as lingering supply chain effects and regional and market challenges could (this doesn’t seem finished) stifle growth.

Trust Chem: The first three quarters of 2022 performed above expectation with additional growth for Trust Chem. The fourth quarter we do see a slowdown mainly to customer inventory adjustments and uncertainty.

CW: Have you witnessed any recovery back to pre-COVID times?

Brilliant Group: We did not significantly lose volume during the pandemic. There were some raw material issues but customers are back to their normal ordering patterns.

Cathay Industries: While demand for our products remains as strong as it was pre-COVID, many other aspects regarding how we interact with our colleagues and customers has changed and will likely not revert to the pre-COVID environment. Availability of products appears to have greatly improved, as well as ocean freight rates.

Shepherd Color: Tradeshows, conferences and customer meetings are getting back to normal outside of some specific areas but at the same time we continue to leverage the remote resources and capabilities to better communicate in and outside our organization. Sometimes a face-to-face meeting is the best, but from a convenience and timing standpoint, remote methods have their place.

Trust Chem: Yes, sales are back to levels before the pandemic.

Continue reading the entire article on the Coatings World website.

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