The market for wood protection in Europe (Switzerland, Germany, Austria, France, Belgium, the Netherlands) increased slightly last year by 1.5 percent in volume. According to a recent study by Interconnection Consulting, moderate growth will continue over the next few years.

Price Increase Due to Environmental Requirements Of the markets examined, Austria is the only one with a negative performance (-0.8% in volume) last year. Sales, however, did rise in Austria (+ 1.6%) as well, due to the global price increases in wood protection. Prices rose by 2-3% especially in the DACH countries, whereas in France / Netherlands / Belgium prices rose by roughly 1.5%. The reason for the rising prices is the growing demand for raw materials, such as titanium, which are necessary due to stricter environmental requirements in the individual markets. “Businesses are increasingly being forced to adapt their ingredients to ever-heightening environmental concerns, which, in turn, also hikes R&D costs,” explains Chems Joly, author of the study. In French companies, R&D investments already account for 5-6% of sales.

Exterior Protection Dominant Outdoor wood protection is expected to see an annual growth of 2.1% until 2021 and is also the dominant sales group with a market share of 65%. By comparison, the interior sector is stagnating (CAGR 17-21: 0.1%). Pre Graying systems are the fastest-growing product group, with a CAGR 17-21 of 3.7% in volume. The reason for this global trend lies in the “old-wood effect” and also because these products are mainly used on facades, one of the most important areas of application for the protection of outdoor wood. Even the thin protective layers are developing well, whereas job orders for interior thick protective layers will be decreasing over the next few years (CAGR 17-21: -0.3% in volume).

Acquisitions Shaping Competition Business dynamics are currently being shaped by acquisitions. By acquiring Valspar, the global leader Sherwin Williams is also attempting to position itself more strongly in the European market. Hempel also consolidated its position in Europe last year with the purchase of J.W. Ostendorf

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Copyright: Interconnection, Publication free of charge for coverage regarding the study and InterConnection Consulting.