INTRODUCTION

As an important segment of industrial coatings, coil coatings, by definition, are the coating systems applied to the surface of flat metal coils or sheets of steel or aluminum that are widely used in various end use industries. These include construction, automotive manufacturing, home appliance manufacturing, and many other industrial areas.

Coil coating products were first manufactured and used in the US in the 1930s, while the Chinese coil coating industry was started in the 1980s. Following the continuing prosperity of China’s economy, especially the construction industry, demand for pre-coated steel sheets grew quickly, thus driving a rapid growth of coil coating production in the past 10 years. Today, China’s total production volume of coil coatings has passed 400,000 tons, occupying over 50% of Asia’s output and more than 30% of global output.

In this article, Daydream will give a brief introduction of the Chinese coil coating market, if you need more information linked to coil coatings and their related industries, please contact contact@daydream.eu, yusi.chen@daydream.eu, jean-louis.cougoul@daydream.eu.

MARKET OVERVIEW

With China’s urbanization process continuing to advance, the prosperity of the real estate industry brings a large demand for construction materials, which is the main application field for pre-coated metal sheets. During the years of 2007 to 2017, the total output of coil coatings in China increased from 152,000 tons to 507,000 tons, with a CAGR of 13.5%. The production value has reached about 8.62 billion RMB.

In 2015, affected by the downturn of the construction industry and capacity reduction policy in the steel industry, the production volume of coil coatings decreased by 8.4% compared with 2014.

The following two figures display regional distributions of the coatings and coil coatings industries. Both distributions are in accordance with regional economic levels. Developed regions, like Eastern China and South Central China, take up close to 80% market share, while less developed regions occupy smaller shares.

  • For total coatings production volume, East China, South Central China and North China take up an 85% share of the market while other regions account for only 15%. The top 3 provinces for coatings production in 2016 were Guangdong (3.87 million tons), Jiangsu (2.27 million tons) and Shanghai (2.11 million tons).
  • As for coil coatings, because most production lines of pre-coated steel sheets are concentrated in East China, the coil coatings production volume here accounts for the most – over 50% market share, and mainly in Jiangsu, Shanghai and the Zhejiang provinces.

There were about 240 over-scale sized enterprises [1] in China’s coil coating industry by the year of 2013, including 3 state-owned, 52 foreign-funded and 185 private enterprises. Most of these enterprises are located in East China. Foreign-funded enterprises occupy only 22% by number but 31% share by sales value. What’s more, high-end coil coating products are mainly from foreign enterprises.

Most of the Chinese coil coating manufacturers are concentrated in the construction market, while international companies such as Nippon Paints, Valspar and Becker Industrial dominate the home appliance market. Some large Chinese producers like Shanghai Zhenhua have also started to supply coil coatings to home appliance manufacturers.

[1] Over-scale sized enterprise: company with annual sales revenue above 20 million RMB per year

By 2016, there were 2044 over-scale sized enterprises in China’s coatings industry, in which the top 200 take up 62% of total sales value. Among all of these coatings enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises occupy only 10% by number but 26% share by sales value due to their dominance in high-end coatings products market.

COIL COATING CLASSIFICATION

Usually coil coatings can be classified into primers, backing coats (also called backer) and topcoats by the paint layer. The table shows the main types of coating material for each layer coating.

  • For primers, epoxy-types and polyurethane-types are both commonly used
  • For backing coats, polyurethane-types make up the majority, with small parts of epoxy-types and others
  • For topcoats, the polyester-types are most commonly used, occupying about 60% market share, followed by polyurethane, PVDF and plastisol

APPLICATION

Pre-coated metal is used in a variety of products. It can be formed for many different applications, including building panels, metal roofs, wall panels, home appliances, garage doors, automotive panels and parts, office furniture, HVAC, foodservice equipment and cooking tins, and beverage cans. The list continues to grow, with new industries making the switch from post-painted to pre-painted processes each year.

According to a new market report from Technavio, construction is the largest market for coil coatings globally, accounting for about a 76% share, and will be the most important market to promote the development of the global coil coating market. As for the Chinese market, the share of the construction market is estimated to be 80% – 90%. Due to the Chinese government’s heavy investment in infrastructure construction and the “One Belt and One Road” project in the future, construction will still be the main application for coil coatings.

The home appliance manufacturing industry is another large potential market for coil coatings. More and more Chinese home appliance manufacturers turn to use pre-coated metal, pushing an increase of demand for appliance-used coil coatings.

 

FUTURE TRENDS

In the 13th Five Year Plan of the coatings industry, the total coatings output is estimated to reach 22 million tons by the year 2020, with a CAGR of 5%. If calculated by the share of coil coatings in total coatings volume in 2015, about 2.5%, the coil coatings volume will be 550,000 tons by 2020.

Environmentally friendly coil coatings, functional coil coatings, and more high-level coil coatings will get more attention and development, including:

  • Environmentally friendly coil coatings like waterborne coatings, powder coatings, high solid content, UV-cured coatings
  • Fluorocarbon, high durable polyester (HDP), silicone modified polyester (SMP) coil coatings
  • Functional coil coatings, including self-cleaning coatings, cool roof color coatings, conductive coatings and antibacterial coatings
  • Decorative finish paint and non-heavy-metal primers
  • High-level coil coatings for home appliances and green HDP coil coatings for construction

In addition to more and more applications in construction, home appliances and the automotive industry, coil coatings will also be commonly applied in other industrial fields.

REFERENCE

  1. China Coating Industry Association, http://www.chinacoatingnet.com/index.html
  2. National Bureau of Statistics of the People’s Republic of China, http://www.stats.gov.cn/
  3. China’s coating industry yearbook, 2015
  4. Gong YZ, Xiao RH, Sun Y. Market status and trend of coil coatings in China. Coating Technology & Abstracts, 2011
  5. Coil coating – principle, market and applications.
  6. The 13th Five Year Plan of Coating Industry, 2016