Oceania’s paint industries battle different tides and waves

Sydney-based correspondent Barbara Barkhausen charts the recent ups and downs of the Australian and New Zealand paint scenes

The Australian paint and coating market withstood the pandemic downturn comparatively well, despite prolonged lockdowns of major cities, with industrial paint sales and private renovation projects boosting the market. Across the Tasman Sea, New Zealand’s even stricter COVID-19 lockdown regulations have hampered growth; however, companies have used downtime to innovate. Australia, with its population of 25.6M people, is the twelfth-largest market for paints and varnishes across the top 20 developed countries, according to Londonbased market researcher Euromonitor International. Its paint and coating market size, measured by revenue, is forecast to be worth AU$3.6bn (US$2.57bn) for 2022 according to market research company IBISWorld2. This is an expected increase of 1.3% on 2021, although that could be undermined by a projected 6% inflation rate for 2022, predicted by the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Read the full report here: Aus & NZ 2022