Beckers Wins ArcelorMittal’s Innovation Award
Global industrial coatings company Beckers Group today announced that it has won ArcelorMittal’s Paint Supplier Innovation Award (PSIA) in the category Performance, Functionalities and Cost competitiveness. Beckers was awarded for their breakthrough proposal of a new coil coating concept that opens the way to many future innovations and simultaneously offers lower energy consumption and cost efficiency.
The PSIA competition took place for the fourth year in a row; this year’s focus was paint and films and 13 suppliers were invited to compete. The PSIA differentiates from the usual concept of rewarding innovations that are already marketed; instead it looks at the innovation process itself and honors proposals for future innovation. Through this contest, ArcelorMittal encourages innovation work undertaken in partnership with its suppliers to galvanize new product development.
Christophe Perin, Beckers’ VP Coil Coatings South Europe and ArcelorMittals key contact, emphasizes the importance of innovation at Beckers: “Sustainable innovation is at the core of Beckers’ value proposition and key to our long-term development. Three out of 17 submissions for the PSIA Award from seven international companies came from Beckers Group.”
The project Beckers submitted has been in ArcelorMittal’s R&D pipeline for a while, but this is the first time a supplier came up with a complete package and evidence that this breakthrough technology could work. Beckers was awarded unanimously.