The position of Asia-Pacific coatings industry continues to strengthen

The 2022 Asia-Pacific International Coating Industry Development Conference, co-sponsored by China Coating Industry Association and Puyang Municipal Government and hosted by Puyang Industrial Park, was held live online on Nov 2. At the meeting, a number of industry experts said that due to the impact of the novel coronavirus outbreak and geopolitical conflicts, the global paint industry has suffered serious shocks, and there are great uncertainties in the paint market in Europe and North America, and the market forecast is not optimistic. The Asia-Pacific region continues to become an important growth pole of the world's paint industry, and the Chinese paint market continues to become an important growth point.

"We expect the total European paint market to decline 4 per cent this year and to be flat or down 1 per cent next year." Marten van der Meer, senior consultant at Orbo Consulting Co., said rising inflation and interest rates are likely to lead to a downward trend in the real estate sector in Europe and the United States, with implications for construction related coatings such as decorative coatings, industrial wood coatings and winding coatings. In addition, the energy crisis in Europe due to geopolitical conflicts may force some energy-intensive enterprises, such as chemical manufacturers, to stop production, which will also have a great impact on the global market.

In contrast, the Asia-Pacific paint market is developing rapidly. Sun Lianying, president of China Coating Industry Association, pointed out that at present, the output value of coatings in the Asia-Pacific region has exceeded 46% of the global share, and the output accounts for about 60% of the world, far ahead of other regions. Yoshiko Norizuki, director of the International Department of the Japan Paint Association, also said that the industry is recovering from the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Paint production in Japan has not yet returned to pre-pandemic levels, but total sales have exceeded the same period in 2019 due to an increase in unit prices.

"China's annual production of coatings has reached more than 38 million tons, an increase of 110 times compared with 1978. Since 2009, our country has become the first production and consumption country of paint, has ranked the first place of paint production in the world for 13 consecutive years. At present, China's production of coatings has accounted for one-third of the global total, making the Asia-Pacific region an important growth pole for the development of the world's coatings industry." Said Li Shousheng, president of China Petroleum and Chemical Industry Federation.

The latest list of the top 30 Coatings in Asia Pacific released by Orbo Consulting Co. Ltd. also confirms this point. There are 12 Chinese paint companies in the list, 1 more than the previous period, among which the highest ranked Sankishu Paint Co., LTD. (the sixth), with a total sales volume of $1.7 billion in 2021, an increase of 27% compared with 2020, is one of the fastest growing paint companies in Asia.

Pang Guanglian, deputy secretary-general of the Petrochemical Association, noted that the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP), which came into force in January, has amplified the effect of the country's paint exports. From January to August this year, China exported 148,000 tons of paint, up 5.6% year on year; Imports were 127,000 tons, down 4.3% year on year; The export is 9.9 percentage points higher than the import. The annual export of coatings is expected to exceed 220,000 tons, which is expected to set a new record. From January to August, the export of paint was $566 million, up 15.7% year on year; Imports were $1.052 billion, down 4.4 percent year on year; Exports exceeded half of imports and grew 20.1 percentage points faster than imports.

Pang suggested that the paint industry should grasp the development opportunity brought by RCEP, strengthen regional opening and cooperation, carry out overseas layout, integrate resources to improve the quality of domestic paint, comprehensively improve the international competitiveness of Chinese paint products, expand the international market share and influence of Chinese paint.