Coatings World - May 2016

Environmentally Friendly Coatings Will Outpace
the Development of the Whole Coatings Industry

by Arnold Wang China Correspondent

Based on a report released by China National Coatings Industry Association, China’s total coatings output was 17.2 million tons in 2015, increased by 4.2 percent over 2014. The association estimated that China’s total coatings output in 2016 will be 18 million tons, which will only be a 5 percent increase over 2015. Apparently relatively slow, which is less than two figures, but stable growth will be the new phenomenon for China’s coating industry in the near future. The thirteenth five years plan for the China coatings industry mention that environmental friendly coatings varieties will consist of 57 percent of total coatings output in China by 2020. With the government pushing China’s whole economy towards environmentally friendly, coatings varieties with low VOC or no VOC will outpace the whole coatings industry’s development in China.

Domestic demand will provide
new growth opportunities

The trend of China’s real estate market still has a major impact to the coatings industry.

In February, 2016, the value of China’s total export is 821.8 billion yuan, decreased by 20. 4 percent over the same month of last year. With external demand continuously decreasing, domestic demand in China becomes more and more important in support of the continuous growth of the Chinese economy. And the Chinese real estate industry is still one of the pillar industries, which has significant implications to many related industries, including coatings and adhesives. In the first two months of this year, China sold a total of 112.4 million square meters of houses and apartments, increased by 28.2 percent compared with the same period of last year. Among this number, the total area of residential houses and apartments grew by 30. 4 percent, and the total area for office building grew by 11 percent. The recovery of the real estate industry seems to be on

With the government pushing China’s whole economy towards environmentally friendly, low-VOC or zero-VOC coatings will outpace the whole coatings industry’s development in China.