Details on the cause of the shortage:
"Problem is that Xirallic is produced at only one factory in the world — the Onahama plant near the Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear power station in Japan.
Phyllis Carter. Onahama is located about 130 miles northeast of Tokyo and about 35 miles south of the stricken Fukashjima reactor. The Japanese government has told residents within about 20 miles of the reactor to evacuate.
Merck KGaA, sole producer of a paint pigment for automakers such as Ford Motor Co. (F), cannot operate its Japanese factory because it is too close to the nuclear reactor crippled by the earthquake and tsunami.
Merck’s Onahama factory, which produces the metallic paint pigment Xirallic, will take four to eight weeks to restart once company engineers can gain access to the facility, Gangolf Schrimpf, a company spokesman, said."....
Until they get that Nuke plant stable, availability of this pigment is going to be an issue.