The financial impact of COVID-19 on the coatings industry: Q2 2020

摘要

At the time of writing, it is roughly 5 months since the lockdown began in Europe and most countries in the region have made significant steps towards re-starting their economies. A recent survey of 500 senior UK managers between May and June, undertaken by Nexus Global, revealed that the business confidence of the manufacturing, construction and engineering sector seemed to be broadly neutral (ranked 9th out of 18 sectors); somewhat lower than the law and science/pharmaceuticals sectors, but unsurprisingly significantly more confident than the sport and leisure sector. One surprise in their list was the automotive sector, ranked 5th most confident. The BCF's business confidence survey of the UK paint and printing inks sector, undertaken in June 2020 and reported elsewhere in this issue, described a significant fall in confidence, but it also revealed that there was a significant difference in confidence between companies in the decorative and industrial coatings markets.