Nippon Paint has finalised its purchase of the majority of Rohm and Haas Company’s (ROH) Automotive Coatings business, and will launch a new company called NB Coatings to serve North American customers.


NPC purchased the wholly-owned Rohm and Haas business in North America and Rohm and Haas’ 50% share of the companies’ joint ventures, Morton Nippon Coatings (MNC) in North America and Nippon Bee Chemical (NBC) in Japan.


The second joint venture, NBC, will remain under the same company name.


“This purchase and introduction of NB Coatings unites the decade-long partnering organisations under one strategy to create a leading position in the North American plastic automotive coatings market,” Nippon Paint said in a statement.


John Culbertson, former vice president of Rohm and Haas and business unit director for automotive coatings, will assume the position of NB Coatings president.

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“Judging by the success of our previous joint ventures with Nippon, I have great confidence for the future of NB Coatings,” said Culbertson. “Our combined strategic focus and market leadership in paint on plastic will strengthen [our] customer offerings for our North American customers and OEMs, and continue to build upon Nippon’s strong relationships with Japanese OEMs.”


NPS said the businesses acquired collectively represent a leading position in the global automotive plastic paint market with strong positions in North America, Japan, China, Taiwan and Korea. The predecessor company to the Rohm and Haas business, Bee Chemical, was originally founded in Chicago in 1945 and has been collaborating with NPC in this market since the 1960s with the first joint venture established in Japan in 1971.