The Asia-Pacific economies are growing
fast, boosting growth in the demand for
many building and industrial materials,
including paints and coatings. The total
market for paints and coatings was 21. 4
million tonnes in 2013, and is forecast
by IRL to increase to 29.2 million tonnes
by 2018; this is equivalent to an average annual growth rate of 6.4% in the
medium term.
China is by far the largest national
market for paints and coatings in the
Asia-Pacific region, followed at some
considerable distance by India and
Japan. The smallest markets are those
of New Zealand and Singapore. While
medium-term growth is forecast to be
low in the more developed and mature markets such as Australia, New
Zealand and Japan, the developing
market of India is predicted to demonstrate growth of over 10% per annum
over the next five years. India still offers significant potential for paints and
coatings market growth, as per capita
consumption remains very low.
The Chinese market is still offering
good medium-term growth of around
6.5% per annum for paints and coatings
suppliers, driven by growth in downstream industries such as automotive,
construction, shipbuilding, petrochemicals and civil engineering. However, this
forecast growth is lower than in previous years as the country is experiencing
slower economic growth, caused by rising
costs of labour, land and raw materials,
and increasing taxes.
The third tier of growth markets comprises the South-East Asian economies
of Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, the
Philippines and Malaysia. These countries are experiencing rising incomes, improving standards of living and increasing
domestic demand, while labour and production costs remain relatively low.
Overall in Asia-Pacific, architectural
coatings account for just less than 50%
of the total paints and coatings market,
although this figure varies considerably
from country to country. India’s high
share of the architectural segment, at
over 80%, reflects the very underdevel-
oped nature of much of the country’s in-
dustrial infrastructure.
Protective coatings and general in-
dustrial coatings (including can and coil
coatings) are the second and third larg-
est end-use segments, respectively. New
Zealand and Singapore are the only two
countries with no consumption of auto-
motive OEM coatings, since they do not
possess any automotive production facili-
ties. Australia’s consumption of automo-
tive OEM coatings is expected to fall to
IRL Releases A Profile of
the Asia-Pacific Paint Industry
