Coating industry recovering, says Census Bureau

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The U.S. Census Bureau Current Industrial Report for Paint and Allied Products shows that the industry’s recovery continues, although the year-over-year gains from 2009 were relatively modest.

Total shipments of coatings in 2010 amounted to 1.153 billion gallons worth $18.024 billion, a rise of 5.87 percent in gallons and 7.7 percent in value over the 2009 figures.  However, this percentage increase is lower than it otherwise would have been, since in the 2010 report, Census revised its 2009 figures for both value and volume upwards by over 3 percent (the most significant adjustment was made in architectural coatings, where the previously reported 2009 volume of 617 million gallons and value of $8.02 billion were revised upwards to 643 million gallons and $8.6 billion).

Architectural coatings were 652 million gallons (up 1.42 percent over the revised 2009 figure of 643 million gallons) and $8.78 billion in value (up 2 percent over revised 2009 value of 8.6 billion).  OEM coatings shipments were 330.6 million gallons and $5.3 billion, up 15.7 percent in value and 18.6 percent in dollars over the revised 2009 figures, and special purpose coatings were 170.5 million gallons with a value of $3.94 billion, up 6.2 percent and 7.6 percent, respectively, over the revised 2009 figures.

Miscellaneous allied paint products shipments were $1.29 billion, a rise of over 8 percent from the $1.19 billion shipped in 2009.

Note that Census has announced that the 2010 report is slated to be the final Current Industrial Report for the coatings industry. The Census Bureau is planning to discontinue all the existing Current Industrial Reports it compiles on a variety of manufacturing industries and agricultural commodities.

To download the 2010 MA325F report on Paint and Allied Products, go to http://www.census.gov/manufacturing/cir/historical_data/ma325f/index.html