Weather or not…

Our EMEA colleagues' appearance at the Middle East Coating Show from 4/16 – 4/19/2024 was almost a washout – quite literally. The metropolis experienced historic rainfall of 164 liters per square meter during this period, making it anything but easy to get to the exhibition center. However our team overcame the challenges and inspired visitors with the theme of "Power up Your Formulations with CFRP dispersing agents".

With more than 10,000 square meters, 5000 visitors and 350 exhibitors from more than 24 countries around the world – the Middle East Coating Show is THE coating industry's biggest trade fair in the Middle East and North Africa region. This year, it celebrated its thirtieth anniversary and once again offered the perfect platform for manufacturers, raw material suppliers, distributors, buyers and technical experts in the coatings industry. Our colleagues from EMEA Resins and Additives, together with their distribution partner BCI, were represented at the trade fair and presented groundbreaking solutions for functional packaging coatings.

Our on site team actively exchanged business growth ideas with local customers, distributors and interested parties. The focus was very clearly on one innovation: so-called controlled free radical polymerization – CFRP for short.

The technology enables the production of high-quality special dispersing agents that take the performance and sustainability of coatings to a new level – and achieve undreamt-of improvements in efficiency for our customers.

The highlight of the trade fair stand

Our colleagues presented these dispersing agents at their trade fair stand – including the latest development from the CFRP range: Efka^® PX 4360.

Efka^® PX 4360 offers efficient stabilization of organic pigments and carbon black while at the same time offering outstanding compatibility with a wide range of solvent-based industrial resin systems. Thanks to its robust stabilization and broad compatibility with resins, Efka^® PX 4360 is suitable for use in resin-free pigment concentrates (RFPC). Manfred Jorna, Senior Technical Sales Manager Additives and responsible for the Middle East region, was invited to give a live demonstration of this new product and our CFRP technology at the Business Presentations Hub during the show, receiving very positive feedback from the audience and visitors at the booth.

Much more than you'd think

Visitors also had the opportunity to discover other products that offer them clear competitive advantages: Heat-sealable varnishes for BOPP films based on Joncryl^® HSL 703, heat seal lacquers for polystyrene cups based on Joncryl^® HSL 9032 and barrier coatings for alternatives to polyethylene based on Joncryl^® HPB 4012, for example.

In other words: Coatings manufacturers learned in a striking manner that our wide range of additives, dispersions and resins don't just focus on water-based construction paints. They are equally geared towards solvent-based industrial applications. 

Conclusion

The trade fair appearance was a resounding success despite the exceptionally bad weather conditions. The team made a wealth of interesting contacts with processors and ink makers in the functional packaging coatings sector. Appropriate dispersing agents were profitably promoted, individual follow-up actions were discussed – and not a single visitor was left out in the rain.