Many adhesives and mortar producers are hoping for a recovery in the market, which is not expected to occur before 2012, and are determined to boost their production capacity, although currently it exceeds demand by far.
Market recovery would mean resumption of construction on the big real estate projects that have been frozen over the past three years, which dragged down a market worth around EUR200 million. Best case scenarios say the market will stagnate this year.
Research company InterBiz Research and Consulting showed that Romania’s adhesives and mortars market fell 8% last year, to EUR220 million, and could stagnate in 2011, under a realistic scenario. Analysts say the decline was lower than initially expected, softened by the growth on the renovation segment.
In 2009 and 2010, the number of producers fell from 55 to 45, with the market still being dominated by companies such as AdePlast, Baumit, Baumix, Ceradez, Duraziv, Hasit, Henkel, Ital Kol, Knauf and Weber, which generate around 60% of the overall sales, according to InterBiz.
Average consumption in developed countries ranges between 100 and 250 kg per capita, depending on the construction technology used by each country, with the exception of the UK and Northern European countries, which use other construction materials. In Romania, annual consumption is about 70 kg per capita.
Representatives of Henkel, one of the leading mortars and adhesives producers, says the mortars and adhesives market (skims, adhesives for ceramic tiles, putty and adhesives for polystyrene) excluding mortars sold in silos, amounts to around EUR137 million, and in 2010 it fell 15% against the previous year. “It’s too early to have an accurate estimate of what will happen this year, because the construction season has only now properly begun,” said Andrei Dumitrescu, sales & marketing manager of Henkel Romania’s Adhesives division. “We hope the decline will be no more than 5% and next year the market will return to growth,” he added.
Marga Calin, marketing manager of Duraziv, says the adhesives and mortars segment declined last year, but no company knows exactly how big the market is “in the absence of realistic surveys”.
“Customers are now interested in the features of the materials on display, in the price-quality ratio. This is precisely what our strategy is aimed at,” said the representative of Duraziv, a company controlled by businessman Daniel Guzu.