For a few years now, the market availability of paint has been decreasing, leading to scarcity and shortage of paint.
The paint companies are not left out as their production rate keeps reducing daily. The Rust-oleum paint production company is also one among the companies undergoing a reduced paint production rate.
For a few years now, the company has been unable to meet the market demand for certain reasons. Now, why is this so?
This shortage resulted from a break in the supply chain due to the 2020 Coronavirus pandemic, which led to a pause in paint production. The scarcity and increased cost of some raw materials to produce paint and raw materials like petroleum. Some natural or artificial disasters have also led to the shortage of rust-oleum spray paint.
What Happened to Rust-oleum Paint?
A lot has been happening recently in the rust-oleum paint industry of recent.
Apart from the decrease in paint production, which makes market demand higher than supply, the company faces a sanction from the National Advertising Review Board.
A rust-oleum paint production industry competitor, Sherwin Williams, challenged the National Advertising Review Board that the claim for Ultra-Cover 2X Spray Paint does not offer a two times coverage of other paints as claimed by the company in the advertisement of the product.
The National Advertising Review Board(NARB) has referred the matter to the Federal trade commission for further discussion of the product.
The emphasis is that the Rust-oleum industry has made a false claim about what its products can do. And as we know, people can make claims, but it only takes a consumer to know if it’s true.
Also, the rust-oleum industry is shutting down some of its paints and coatings facilities manufacturers in New Jersey and Oklahoma.
Okla., Tulsa, Netmark, N. J will also close for the primary time. In addition, the employees of the facilities that are to be closed have lost their jobs.
The company also announced in an email that the employees in the company’s headquarters in Vernon Hills would also be affected.
Paint shortage has led to the unemployment of some of the employees of the facilities to be shut down. However, people hope the shortage won’t last for long.
Why Is There a Shortage Of Rust-oleum Spray Paint?
The recent shortage and scarcity of paints and coatings have gotten consumers looking for paint in stores but cannot find them.
Even the available ones are at a higher price to consumers. Even the cost of labor for painting a house gas increased.
This shortage is due to certain factors that have led to the shortage of paints in the market.
#1. Inflation in Prices
The pricing inflation in the world’s economy has played a significant role in the increase in the cost of products.
As a result, manufacturers find it hard to purchase products for their products due to high prices, which causes the scarcity of the products in the market.
#2. Corona Virus Pandemic
The 2020 Corona Virus pandemic disrupted supply chains for many manufacturers, and the Rust-oleum paint production industry wasn’t left out.
The company had lost a lot of production days during the Covid-19 lockdown, and during the lockdown, some paints that were previously available could not make sales.
The pandemic has been bad for all manufacturers, the economy, and the market. However, prices of commodities increased during the pandemic.
They had another increase after the pandemic, and till now, the market price of many commodities is still increasing.
#3. Unavailability of Products
The shortages of some products necessary for producing paints and coatings like chlorine, blue paint, glass bottles, and candy canes also contributed to the shortage.
For example, the scarcity of blue paint is caused by the unavailability of the additives used for making pigments for the hue in blue spray, which has dramatically affected the production of paint.
The shortage of petroleum, a primary raw material for making paint, has also decreased the production of paints.
In addition, due to the winter, there have been difficulties in refining petroleum which leads to the reduced production of paint and coatings as the paints are made based on the number of resources (petroleum) available.
Also, the material used in manufacturing cans for packaging paints and coatings is costly and scarce.
Therefore, suppose the quality of these cans has a reduction due to the expensive nature of the materials.
In that case, this may lead to the company losing its customers for producing low-quality cans, and thus, the company will have to increase the cost of paints.
#4. Climatic and Man-Made Disasters
Climate and artificial disasters also played a significant role in the paint shortage. Like the case of the freeze experienced by Texas in 2021 reduced the production of petroleum, one of the products needed to make paints.
In addition, in March 2021, a fire that causes is still unknown occurred at a polymer plant in Germany.
Over the summer, wildfires across Canada caused by dry weather destroyed the linseed crop, among the ingredients needed to make paints.
These disasters led to scarcity and an increase in price because producers will add the price of those produced and available to the market. These factors led to the shortage of rust-oleum spray paints in the market.
As a result, the market demand rate for spray paint becomes higher than the supply rate, thus leading to an increase in the price of the available spray paints.
How Long Will the Paint Shortage Last?
After the pandemic, prices of commodities in the market kept increasing daily; even to date, the prices are still increasing.
Some market strategists have said that the price of commodities will increase at a significantly higher rate after the pandemic. And we all saw the drastic increase in price and decrease in availability.
Though we do not know when the shortage of paint will last with the daily increase in the price of petroleum and other products coupled with the unavailability of these resources, the shortage of paint doesn’t seem to end soon.
So we hope it will end soon. An increase in climatic hazards such as wildfires also threatens a possible end of the shortage of paints. Natural and artificial disasters also will prolong the unavailability of paints.
Natural disasters like earthquakes, freezes, floods, and others tend to pause the production of specific resources and raw materials for manufacturing paint and other products.
Presently the United States is facing a scarcity of paints which is not likely to end soon due to the inflation of prices and increase in prices of products and commodities.
Therefore, the prices of paint are high; the price for labor for your home and the price of labor for putting on the wall is high.
This makes people ask if paint can be affordable to families below the poverty line in the next few years.
The pandemic caused a massive break in the supply chain that’ll take a couple of years to return to its regular supply rate, but this will only happen if there is a decrease in the cost of purchasing several products in the market.
We all should understand with the manufacturers that the prices of materials used in producing these paints are high, so there is a need for an increase in the price.
Rust-oleum Paint Alternatives
The fact that rust-oleum is one of the best paint-producing companies around the world shows that they have a lot of competitors who have similar products as paint and are trying to outsell rust-oleum paints and coatings in the market today.
Some of the competitors of rust-oleum paint and coating production companies are :
- PPG
- Axalta
- Valspar
- Sherwin Williams
- BEHR
- Flex shot
- Benjamin Moore
- JOTUN
Some ordinary spray paints available in the market are alternatives to rust-oleum spray paint.
| Paint Name | Uses | Water or Solvent Based |
|---|---|---|
| Pintyplus Spray Paint | For crafting | Water-based |
| Liquitex Spray Paint | Fine art | Water-based |
| Montana Colors Spray Paint | Fine art, graffiti, home decor. | Water-based |
| Evolve Agua Spray Paint | Canvas work, street art, graffiti, sculptures. | Water-based |
| Designer Accent Spray Paint | Permanent dyes for fabrics | Water-based |
| Molotow Spray Paint | Substrates, craft projects, automotive work | Water-based |
| Ironlak Sugar Acrylic Spray Paint | Art, home decor, stencils | Wate/alcohol based |
| Loops Colors Graffiti Spray Paint | Murals, graffiti, and arts | Solvent-based |
| Krylon Spray Paint | For metal substrates, plastic, plastic foams, wood | Solvent-based |
Conclusion
The shortage of rust-oleum spray paint results from the unavailability of products and some occurrences.
The high prices of available paints are also a result of these shortages, creating a scarcity of paints.
People who still have the old stock tend to sell it for a higher price because the company does not manufacture plenty of the paints, and consumers need them.