Investments in China
“Following the environmental protection policies stipulated
by the Chinese government, we estimate that waterborne coat-
ings use on newly built vehicles in China will increase from 40
percent of new builds to more than 60 percent within the next
five years,” said Vincent Robin, PPG vice president, automotive
coatings, Asia Pacific. “PPG is well positioned to help automak-
ers in China increase their use of waterborne coatings products
and technologies. For example, the B1:B2 premium compact
process is an innovative waterborne coatings technology that
enables our customers to eliminate the primer layer and reduce
the total cost of painting a car, as well as the total weight of the
vehicle for fuel efficiency.”
In addition to the capacity expansion, the new development
and application center is equipped with advanced, state-of-the-
art equipment to simulate the automatic car painting processes
in a shop, which is another example of introducing PPG’s best
practices to China, Robin added.
“Innovation, sustainability and color expertise have long
been strengths at PPG,” said Mike Horton, PPG president, Asia
Pacific. “The expansion of our capacity to manufacture wa-
terborne coatings marks a crucial step toward our sustainable
development. We will continue to capitalize on the favorable
investment climate and geographic advantages of the Tianjin
Binhai New Area and to develop and produce more premium
technologies and sustainable products for the Chinese and glob-
al automotive markets.”
With automotive coatings plants in Tianjin and Wuhu and
a resin plant in Zhangjiagang, PPG serves a wide range of au-
tomotive coatings customers in China including well-known
global automakers and leading domestic manufacturers.
PPG Industries recently opened a new manufacturing fa-
cility for the production of heavy-duty equipment coatings in
Tianjin, China. The Tianjin site also has installed equipment to
help reduce VOC emissions and preserve the local environment,
the company reported. With annual capacity of approximately
9,000 tons, the new plant will produce industrial coatings for
China-based manufacturers of heavy-duty machinery, such as
agricultural, construction and mining equipment. “Demand
for premium coatings products in various industries and by
local and multinational companies operating in China contin-
ues to grow rapidly,” said John Richter, PPG vice president of
operations, coatings, Asia Pacific. “We are pleased, and this
investment demonstrates our continuing business and environ-
mental commitment to the region and toward meeting the ex-
panding customer demand.”
Along with the Tianjin plant, PPG has a research center and a
powder coatings plant in Suzhou to help improve local product
development, supply-chain efficiency and technical service. The
new manufacturing operation in Tianjin improves the regional
capacity of PPG’s industrial coatings.
The overall Tianjin coatings operation was the first PPG
coatings plant built in China, and it has developed into PPG’s
largest coatings production base in the world. The factory currently supplies automotive OEM coatings and industrial coatings to the China market.
Suppliers Invest in China
There has been a flurry of investments in China by suppliers to the
paint and coatings industry. BASF is building a new Ultramid polymerization plant with a capacity of 100,000 metric tons per year
in Shanghai, China. The new plant is planned to start up in 2015.
“As part of our long-term strategy, we aim to locate production
close to our customers in the Asia Pacific region, so that we can better support their growth, operate more efficiently and collaborate
more closely. BASF intends to grow two percentage points above
the market in Asia Pacific and maintain our commitment to environmental protection as well as ensuring a positive contribution to
society for a sustainable future ,” said Albert Heuser, president and
chairman Greater China and Functions Asia Pacific.
“The demand for polyamide products in the engineering plas-
tics, fiber and film industries will grow strongly, particularly in
China,” said Hermann Althoff, senior vice president of the Global
Polyamide and Intermediates Business Unit. “The investment en-
ables us to participate in this growth and supply our Asian cus-
tomers with locally manufactured high performance products.”
The BASF wholly-owned plant will be built at the Shanghai
Chemical Industry Park in Caojing which is also home to a
world scale facility for integrated isocyanates, operated by
BASF and partners. bAt this location, BASF also has production
plants for polytetrahydrofuran (PolyTHF) and polyisocyanate
(Basonat) for the coatings and furniture finishing industry and
precious metal solutions for automotive catalysts.
BASF operates Ultramid polymerization plants in
Ludwigshafen, Germany; Antwerp, Belgium; Freeport, Texas
and São Paulo, Brazil. The production of polyamide for film,
textile and carpet fiber as well as for engineering plastics applications is integrated into BASF’s global Verbund structure with
polyamide intermediates (i.e. adipic acid, anolon, caprolactam),
chemical raw materials (i.e. ammonia, cyclohexane, sulfuric
acid), energy, by-product recovery, logistics and other services.
BASF has recently announced plans to invest €90 million to
set up a world-scale production plant at the Shanghai Chemical
Industry Park in Shanghai, China. The new plant will produce
high performance resins and electrocoat (e-coat). The start-up of
the production line is planned for the second half of 2015. The
plant will help to address the increasing demand for high quality
coatings solutions in growing industries, notably the automotive
industry, in Asia Pacific.
“The continued investment in our infrastructure and capacity
demonstrates our strong commitment to supporting our customers’
growing business in the automotive market in Asia Pacific, particu-
larly in China,” said Peter Fischer, senior vice president, Coatings
Solutions Asia Pacific. “With the new plant in place, we will respond
to customers even quicker and further enhance our efficiency of lo-
gistics and supply of advanced coatings products.”
This new resin and e-coat plant will be located adjacent to an-
other new BASF automotive coatings plant which broke ground
in early 2013. The close proximity of these two plants will allow
for more synergies and efficiency, the company reported.
Resin is a key intermediate used in the production of various
types of coatings. The new facility will supply resins with the