European paint sales: A high-risk 2023 looms

This is because the last few months have already been difficult with several price increases during the year echoing the numerous increases of 2021. Price increases have boosted the value of the market by around 10% to 20% in 2022 according to the premium manufacturers, because most of them have applied two price hikes, as in 2021.

“The increases in turnover range from 5% to 15% depending on the manufacturers. But profitability has not necessarily improved because the cost of raw materials has increased by 20%, logistics by 25% to 50%, and container transport costs by three or four. As for packaging, it has gone up by 25% over the last two years” acknowledges Arnaud Racapé, Marketing Director, Automotive Refinish - South Europe at PPG.

Maintaining the level of service expected by bodybuilders is a challenge, even if the supply rate is lower than for mechanical parts. “We do our best to ensure delivery to the distributor and the repair shops, so we sometimes had to sign much more expensive supply contracts” confesses Jules Mikhael, Regional Business Manager & Managing Director of BASF Refinish Coatings Solutions.

It will however be necessary to continue to pass on this generalised inflation to the final sales price because, since the war in Ukraine last February, the cost of gas and electricity has exploded. “Businesses are poorly protected from price increases compared to individuals. The cost of energy impacts our production and our training centres, in addition to our bodyshop customers who, when their energy contracts expire, see the cost of their energy multiplied by three, four, five or even six” adds A. Racapé.

Inflation hides the return to normality of the paint market since the vagaries of a year 2020 marked by Covid-19. “The trend of the second half of 2021 was already close to normal, after a slow first six months. We are not yet at the end of 2022, but the results are not bad at all in Europe” says J. Mikhael.

Not without recalling that the activity of bodyshopss is dependent on mileage travelled, back to normal compared to 2019. According to the European Council for Paints, Printing Inks and Art Colours (CEPE), the market is stable in the United Kingdom, Germany and Italy, up 5% in Spain and down 3% in France, according to the volumes reported by the six main paint manufacturers.