Marine coatings: China largest market

The Chinese marine coating market is almost monopolized by foreign enterprises and joint ventures, domestic enterprises only hold a market share of less than 5 %.

Source: Fedor Bolba-Fotolia.com

With the largest output of shipbuilding, container and port equipment as well as the most cross-sea bridges in the world, China is the largest marine coating market. However, the Chinese marine coating market is almost monopolized by foreign enterprises and joint ventures, domestic enterprises can only be engaged in the business of coatings for small military ships and hold a market share of less than 5 %, according to the recently published report "Global and China Marine Coating Industry Report, 2010-2011” by Research in China. All the top six marine coating manufacturers, namely AkzoNobel's International Paints, PPG, Hempel, Jotun, Kansai, and Chugoku, have joint ventures in China, with Chinese enterprises offering cheap labor and foreign enterprises providing advanced technologies. In 2010, the Chinese shipbuilding industry took the lead in the world with new orders of USD 36.3 billion, accounting for 38 % of the global market, followed by South Korea with 37 %. However, the shipbuilding market has seen a reversal recently. As of the end of September 2011, South Korean shipbuilding industry increased its new orders to USD 4.36 billion, while Chinese shipbuilding industry saw its new orders plummet to USD 1.35 billion, less than 40 % of the new orders in the same period of 2010. The backwardness of Chinese marine coating industry resides in the weakness of basic industries. Epoxy resin (especially high-performance epoxy resin), a raw material of coating, is in short supply in China.