Sales of water-borne paints for industrial use in China to grow 20-30 percent annually

Sales of water-borne paints for industrial use in China will grow 20-30 percent annually in the future driven by environmental policies and rising consumer awareness, said a report released today at the ChinaCoat 2017.

China has been accelerating the use of water-borne paints to help protect the environment and people’s health because they contain less volatile organic compounds – many of which are toxic – than oil paints.

While almost 90 percent of paints used on house walls have been water-borne in China amid consumers’ awareness on health protection, “growth potential remains huge in industrial areas such as furniture and construction,” Sandy Chen, project director at Martec, a US-based market consultancy, said.

The report highlighted that China’s sales of water-borne paints for wood furniture will grow 30 percent year on year to 200,000 tons by 2020.

Global chemical giants such as Dow, AkzoNobel, and Wacker are increasing production of water-borne paints in China following the surging demand. Dow will open a coating plant in Sichuan Province next year while Wacker will establish a laboratory in Shanghai by the end of 2018 to work on advanced coatings.

“While markets such as Europe are becoming saturated, China will post more significant growth,” said Yoke Loon Lim, Dow’s president for China. “Demand will be robust from infrastructure, automobile and buildings.”

ChinaCoat 2017 is an international exhibition for the coating technology industry.