KONSTANZ, Germany - Ceresana Research has released a newly updated, in-depth study on the global pigments market.

Ceresana Research expects that pigment revenues will increase to more than $45 billion by 2018. In 2010, the Asia-Pacific region was responsible for 45 percent of the global demand for pigments. The second-largest market was North America, followed by Western Europe. Ceresana anticipates that the Asia-Pacific region will continue to significantly influence market dynamics in the future. The rapidly developing emerging markets have the greatest growth potential, above all China and India. Moreover, South America and the Middle East register above-average growth rates of 3.6 percent to 4.4 percent.

The demand for different types of pigments in individual regions shows different developments. Iron oxides and organic pigments record the highest growth rates in North America and Western Europe. In emerging markets, the demand for carbon black pigments is especially increasing. Carbon black is used in many plastics and rubbers. Ceresana expects that titanium dioxide will have a share of somewhat more than 60 percent of the global pigment market in 2018. Iron oxides, currently mainly used for paint and varnishes, are also gaining importance for other products, e.g. in the food and cosmetics industries.

Pigments have always been used primarily as colorants. However, secondary properties are gaining importance, for example protection from UV rays or corrosion prevention. Product innovations primarily aim at organic, effect and special pigments. The focus is on higher color intensity, color variety and additional properties, such as self-cleaning and antibacterial characteristics, insulating properties, or the reflection of infrared light. Organic pigments do only have a small market share in volume, but they benefit from above-average growth in the demand from producers of printing inks, plastics and textiles.

Pigments are needed in large quantities for growth markets such as printing inks, paint and varnishes, plastics, and the coloring of construction materials. Other segments, such as cosmetics, paper, textiles, ceramics and glass, use pigments to provide more gloss to their products. More and more manufacturers improve their packaging and promotional items by using modern colors and visual effects.

For additional information about the study, visitwww.ceresana.com/en/market-studies/additives/pigments-new/.