Jotun targets hospitals, higher

The company last month saw signs of a slowdown in its orders from the steel industry, which contributes 85 per cent of its revenue, managing director Pornchai Phaungsuwan said.

"The company's powdercoating order volume this month dropped to 400 tonnes from the average 500 tonnes per month, due to a slowdown in the steel industry," he said.

Jotun is approaching hospitalfurniture manufacturers to use its powder coatings, which protect against bacteria. Moreover, the company will hold a seminar to give information about powder coatings to hospitals.

"Hospitals are a new market that we will penetrate next year. The healthconscious trend is more popular, and our product can serve this because the powder coating is a dry coating that is suitable for businesses associated with health," he said.

He said the company needed to seek new markets to keep its sales growth, adding that in the past nine months it had enjoyed sales growth of 12 per cent year on year, higher than the expected growth of 9 per cent.

The company targets sales revenue of Bt720 million this year, up 12 per cent from last year. The 12percent sales growth this year will be contributed by the market's high steel demand in the past nine months.

The company has set a salesgrowth target of 6 per cent next year.

The company will also increase sales volume in China to 10 tonnes a month next year from 23 tonnes a month at present. Though China is not the major market, the demand for the company's powder coating has increased.

China's aluminium industry needs more powder coating to paint its premium aluminium products for export to the European market.

Pornchai added that demand for the company's products in Australia, one of its main markets, had grown only slightly.