By Kerry Cole, Editor of Materials Performance (MP) magazine

The “Economics of Corrosion: Associated Direct and Indirect Costs” symposium will explore how corrosion continues to affect asset performance, operating budgets, and long-term planning across critical industries.

Scheduled for Sunday from 10:00 to 11:30 a.m. local time in Room 360 DE, the session will focus on both the visible and often overlooked financial consequences of corrosion. These can range from direct maintenance and repair costs to indirect impacts such as downtime, lost productivity, and shortened asset life.

Chaired by Barinder Ghai with vice chair Sandra Le Manchet, the symposium brings together perspectives from coatings, galvanizing, and industrial operations to highlight why corrosion management is fundamentally an economic decision as much as a technical one. Presentations will examine infrastructure, transportation, energy, manufacturing, and resource extraction, illustrating how corrosion-related costs accumulate across the asset life cycle.

The session will open with an update on expected service life and cost considerations for protective coatings in both maintenance and new construction. It will address how service-life modeling and realistic maintenance assumptions influence long-term cost outcomes and capital planning.

The next session will examine expected service life and cost considerations for metallic zinc and duplex zinc coating systems. This presentation will compare performance expectations and economic tradeoffs, helping attendees evaluate coating strategies in terms of durability, maintenance intervals, and total ownership cost.

The symposium will conclude with a case-focused presentation on strategic corrosion management in copper mining operations. The session will focus on cost-effective approaches to managing corrosion when using seawater, highlighting how informed material selection and corrosion control strategies can reduce financial risk while maintaining operational efficiency.

Together, these presentations will emphasize emerging trends in corrosion economics, including life cycle cost analysis and risk-based decision-making. Attendees can expect practical insights into how investing in corrosion mitigation — through preventive maintenance, protective coatings, and advanced materials — can optimize resource allocation, extend asset life, and reduce the long-term financial impact of corrosion-related failures.

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