Paper Coating Materials Market Expected to Reach $3.4 Billion by 2031—Allied Market Research

According to a new report published by Allied Market Research, titled, “Paper Coating Materials Market," The paper coating materials market size was valued at $2.1 billion in 2021, and paper coating materials industry is estimated to reach $3.4 billion by 2031, growing at a CAGR of 4.8% from 2022 to 2031.

Paper coating is the process of laminating a paper or board with an agent for improvements in brightness or printing properties. Various materials such as China clay, PCC, pigment, or adhesive are used for coating. Coating helps to fill minute pits between fibers in raw papers, thus giving it a flat surface and smooth finish that helps to improve luster, opacity, and color-absorption ability. Coating is done to improve print quality, durability, and aesthetics of paper. The coating process includes different levels of coating rendering desired paper properties. As PCC is manufactured, properties such as particle size distribution, particle size, particle shape, surface area, and surface chemistry can be customized according to requirement. This makes it an ideal coating material with adjustable properties catering to specific requirements. Titanium dioxide coatings offer various advantages such as excellent opacity and retention characteristics, exceptional light stability, high brightness with neutral, and self-dispersing features in alkaline aqueous systems. Styrene butadiene latex and styrene acrylic latex coatings are used for graphical paper, specialty paper, and liquid packaging board.

Titanium dioxide and talc are used in small quantities for special applications, which require extreme whiteness, pitch control, and opacity. Wax coating is an effective and economical coating method, which helps to protect products from water, humidity, and grease. In the food industry, paper is coated to prevent against humidity and oxygen. For packaging of chemicals, coating materials are used to prevent any reaction with the packaging material and for protection against any external conditions such as air, sunlight, and water.

India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) is a trust established by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Department of Commerce in collaboration with the Government of India with the purpose of promoting and creating international awareness of goods manufactured in India. According to IBEF, demand for paper in India is expected to rise in the coming years. In past few years, the paper sector in India invested an amount of $ 20 billion on technology upgrade, capacity enhancement, and acquisitions. Rapid growth in the paper industry, coupled with applications of various uses of papers such as corrugated boxes and food packaging is anticipated to boost the paper coating materials market.

The global paper coating materials market analysis is segmented on the basis of material type, coating type, end use and region. By material type, the market is divided into calcium carbonate, kaolin clay, titanium dioxide, starch, and others. By coating type, it includes single-side and double-side. By end use, it is classified into binding, stationary, packaging, corrugated boxes and others.

Region wise, the market is studied across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and LAMEA. Presently, Asia-Pacific accounts for the largest paper coating materials market share, followed by North America and Europe.

Major companies profiled in this report include BASF SE, Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) Sinarmas, DuPont, Celanese Corporation, Imerys SA, Omya AG, Penford Corporation, Michelman Inc., Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd, and Eastman Chemical Company. Rapidly increasing consumption of paper, owing to environmental concerns on the usage of plastic has led to growth of the paper coating materials market, especially in Asia-Pacific and Middle East. Product innovation and expansion in various regions is a key strategy adopted by major players in the paper coating materials industry.

Additional growth strategies such as expansion of production capacities, acquisition, partnership, and research & innovation in applications of bio-degradable coating materials on paper lead to key developments in the global paper coating materials market trends.

Key findings of the study:

• By product type, the calcium carbonate segment accounted for the largest share in 2021.
• By coating type, the double-side segment is expected witness the fastest growth, registering a CAGR of 5.2% during the forecast period.
• By end use, the packaging segment dominated the paper coating materials market, and is expected to retain its dominance throughout the forecast period.
• Region wise, Asia-Pacific held a dominant position in 2021, and is expected to continue to maintain the lead during the forecast period.
• South Korea is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 5.0% during the forecast period.
• Japan is expected exhibit CAGR of 4.4% during the forecast period

COVID-19 analysis:

• COVID-19 is an infectious disease that originated in Hubei province of the Wuhan city in China in late December. The highly contagious disease, caused by a virus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2, is transmitted from humans to humans. Since the outbreak in December 2019, the disease has spread to almost 213 countries around the globe with the World Health Organization declaring it a public health emergency on March 11, 2020.
• Covid-19 pandemic outbreak led manufactures encounter several challenges leading to crisis among paper and packaging producers. Self-isolation has resulted in short supply and various manufacturing units are sourcing supply chains away from China. The impact of covid-19 on the packaging industry is expected to have mixed impact and it depends on their portfolios to different end-users of packaging. Most packaging manufacturers supply their products and services to important industries including pharmaceutical packaging, packaged food, labelling of hand sanitizers and disinfectants, and packaging of soaps, detergents and hand washes which were in high demand. Presence of this demand has driven paper coating materials market growth.
• COVID-19 has impacted corrugated packaging globally as demand of finished products has declined, which resulted in lower demand for corrugated packaging. All developed and developing countries have to take strict action to curb the increasing count of the coronavirus cases which leads to the lockdown in several regions. Hence, these factors have led to decline in demand for consumer goods and raw materials for various industries in different regions. This resulted into loss to corrugated packaging manufacturers during the pandemic. The decline in demand for corrugated boxes has led to decline in demand for paper coatings materials.