As the global supply chain shortage continues, there’s another reason blue is a good choice. Paint manufacturers are in desperate need of color.
Chief Executive Officer Thierry Vandlancker from global paint company Akzo Nobel N.V. claims that blue is quickly becoming a difficult shade to find.
“There is one basic color tint that is extremely difficult to get,” he said in an interview Wednesday with Bloomberg News After publishing third-quarter earnings. “It’s creating complete chaos.”
The Netherlands-based company is also having trouble getting tinplate. Tinplate can be used to make metal containers. To fill paint orders, the company was shipping empty containers across countries. The company also stopped deliveries to some exterior paints due to the inability of the additive that makes them waterproof.
For months, paint manufacturers have warned that their products which include hundreds of chemicals and other ingredients would be more expensive and in shorter supply due to pandemic delays.
Akzo Nobel claimed that shortages and higher prices are likely to continue until the middle of 2022.
Vanlancker said he isn’t quite sure why raw material manufacturers are having trouble as demand continues to rise to pre-pandemic levels.
“There isn’t really a reason why this big panic is happening,” According to the CEO. “This should be a transient situation that could take six to nine months to get back to normal, but there is no fundamental reason why there would be a lasting supply and demand imbalance.”