Shortage of pavement-marking paint looms

Provincial ministries of transportation and road crews in Alberta and Saskatchewan are planning to make major adjustments during this summer’s construction season, due to a North American shortage of pavement-marking paint.

“From a Saskatchewan perspective, based on the discussions we have had with our supplier, we should be good until the end of June,” said Doug Wakabayashi, spokesperson for the Ministry of Highways and Infrastructure in Saskatchewan.

“As we get further into the summer months, it may take longer to resupply. It usually takes one week to pull and order. This could go up to three weeks or a month.”

Key components, used to make the paint, are in short supply.

The Saskatchewan ministry uses about 1.3 million litres of traffic marking paint each year on roads.

This represents about 50,000-55,000 kilometres of striping and another 32,000 pavement signs.

“We are using what we have in inventory right now and some of this could be from last year,” said Wakabayashi.

“If we do run into a shortage, we have options. We will prioritize new construction, where there are no pavement markings, and then the highest volume roads, in terms of repainting.”

North Carolina-based Chemark Consulting Group Inc. recently produced a study on the U.S. Paints & Coatings Industry, which identifies the two main causes creating the shortage of both alkyd solvent-based and water-based paints.

“MMA (methyl methacrylate), an acrylic resin used in highway paint and titanium dioxide (TiO2), which provides the bright white colour and the reflectivity for safety, are both in short supply,” said Dr. Phil Phillips, managing director of Chemark.

“About two weeks ago, China decided they would not export TiO2 to North America, because they needed the chemical for their own domestic market.”

Dupont and Huntsman have 85 per cent of the North American market share.

The Chinese, who entered the North American market a few years ago, had 15 per cent of the market share.

In addition to this problem, Phillips said the suppliers of MMA, which include Dow Chemical and Arkema, shut down several production lines for maintenance.

This was due to the collapse in the housing market and the deep recession in the U.S.

Alberta is already feeling the pinch.

Contractors, working on Alberta provincial highway maintenance and construction contracts, have already experienced delays in paint delivery, which has subsequently delayed the completion of some projects.

“The department is working with the contracting industry to manage late or short deliveries as they occur, and planning ahead as much as we can with the information available,” said Steve Otto, director of the highway operations section with Alberta Transportation.

“If it becomes certain that we will not be able to get enough paint (at any price) for this summer’s work, we’ll concentrate on new pavements and review our priority for repainting the rest of the network.”

The primary use for both MMA and TiO2 is architectural coating.

The acrylic water-based emulsion system dominates the architectural coatings market with 70 per cent of market share.

Acrylic water-based traffic paint represents about 92 per cent of the market.

“Both sides of the market got hit with unforeseen demand as a result of increased economic activity (about 80 per cent) and stimulus spending (about 20 per cent),” said Phillips.

“In the area of MMA, one manufacturer, Lucite, which had 15 to 20 per cent of the market, decided not to come back at all.”

These shortages should affect every paint manufacturer in North America.

Otto said most of the paint used on provincial highways comes from Ennis Traffic Safety Solutions.

The supplier sent a letter to Otto’s department in late April, that said there is a world-wide shortage of raw materials in the paint manufacturing industry.

“On Wednesday of the week, May 5th, we were advised by Dow Chemical that they have claimed force majeure on MMA which is another feedstock in acrylic resin production affecting waterborne traffic paint,” said John Anderson, global director with Ennis Traffic Safety Solutions.

Dow Chemical advised the company in late April, right before its last price announcement, that its monthly allocation would be cut by between 15 per cent and 20 per cent.

“This morning the realities of this increased tightening has resulted in another reduced allocation of 22 per cent less product here in the month of May,” he said. “Please keep in mind this is 22 per cent from the already reduced volume.”

According to Anderson, Dow said the reduced allocation, driven by this latest crisis, should only last four weeks, but he is prepared for the shortage to last much longer.