Strategies & Analysis
a greater investment in R&D by local
producers. At the moment, local R&D efforts by other than multinational participants are essentially nonexistent.
You can’t ignore the Chinese coating
market. Some estimates have the total
coatings market at 7.1-7.3 million tons
valued at $137 billion with ink production at >500,000 tons. It’s important to
note that although there has been significant growth in waterborne systems much
of paint production remains solvent-based. In total, it represents the world’s
second largest coating market. As I mentioned elsewhere, even today this market
is dominated by solvent-based systems.
In recent years there has been a marked
increase in the switch to water-based
systems both in the architectural and industrial coating segments. The move by
Chinese authorities to reduce air pollution has been one of the major reasons
for such a switch.
China is now the leading global pro-
ducer of automobiles. The 2016 value of
the coatings used in the OEM automotive
market was believed to be about 1.44
billion. Future growth rates are variable
but most experts believe it will exceed 7
percent/annum. Of course, that growth
rate depends on the overall health of
the Chinese Economy which appears to
be in the hands of Xi and the upcom-
ing CPC 19th Congress. Of course, we
can’t forget what is happening in North
Korea. 2017 is proving to be a stressful
and rapid changing environment, some-
thing a little different from prior years.
The bright spot appears to be a potential
option for consolidation of the Chinese
coating market. CW
