Accounting for only 10% of the market share, when can domestic Marine coatings enterprises break through the dilemma?

China's vast sea area and rich Marine resources provide favorable conditions for vigorously developing Marine undertakings. In the 1980s, with the migration of the world shipbuilding industry to East Asia, China's shipbuilding industry gradually became a more important part of industrial manufacturing, and formed the industrial layout of the Bohai Sea area, the Pearl River Delta and the Yangtze River Delta. Marine coatings along with the ship manufacturing industry has a substantial growth, in 2005, the new shipbuilding coatings and ship repair coatings totaled 673,000 tons, China reached about 210,000 tons. Until now, the market share is rising year by year, and once became the world's first shipbuilding country.

In recent years, the demand for Marine coatings has increased by 30% per year, and Marine coatings account for a considerable part of Marine coatings. There are many manufacturers of Marine coatings in China, such as Shanghai Kelin, Qingdao Haijian, Ningbo, Guangzhou Paint Factory, etc., which developed earlier after the reform and opening up, Shanghai Haisheng, Jiangsu Lanling, Changzhou Special, Wujin Shipbuilding, Zhoushan Paint, etc., and joint ventures include Shanghai International, Shanghai Zhongtu, Tianjin Kansai, Shenzhen Haihong, Jodun Ocean, Shima (Kunshan) Co., LTD.

The rise of these Marine coating plants has promoted the development of Marine coatings in China.

In recent years, about 75% of orders in the Asian shipping market have come from China. The rapid growth of the Asian shipbuilding industry will undoubtedly help promote the orderly development of the Marine coatings industry.

Although the market demand has gone up, the domestic Marine coatings independent brands and technologies have a significant gap with international foreign brands. Some Japanese coating companies are optimistic about the development potential of the Chinese market and have begun to shift their business focus to the Chinese market. In addition, the US and European paint manufacturers are also moving closer to Asia, which makes the competition within the industry more intense. At present, 80%-90% of the Marine coatings market share in China has been seized by foreign brands, almost monopolizing the entire high-end Marine coatings market, and the market share of Chinese Marine coatings brands is only about 10%.

Domestic independent brands with a certain scale and strength, such as Hilong Holdings, Shuangrui ships, etc., most of the focus on the low-end Marine paint market, and the sales volume is small, and the foreign mainstream Marine paint brands are in a weak position in competition.

At present, the domestic Marine coating industry mainly has the following problems:

1. The depth of ship painting production design is not enough, and the concept of shell outfitting integration is not strong;

2, the degree of mechanization and automation of ship painting technology and equipment is not high, resulting in high standards of rust removal and painting, and the problem of implementation is more serious;

3, pretreatment quality and workshop primer performance need to be improved;

4, ship production management needs to be strengthened, due to other types of construction caused by coating film damage and the problem of multiple painting is very serious.

The gap between domestic and foreign aggression has widened

Nowadays, many internationally renowned Marine coating manufacturers have set up factories in China. Especially since 2019, many foreign enterprises are more optimistic about the Chinese market and have turned their strategic development vision to China, bringing fresh blood and challenges to the domestic Marine coatings market.

The reporter learned that in recent years, foreign-funded chemical enterprises have invested in construction projects and laid foundations in China, with an investment amount of more than 70 billion yuan. Akzonobel, PPG and other large enterprises have taken the lead in investing in China.

At present, Akzonobel has more than 7,500 employees in China, accounting for 17% of Akzonobel's global workforce, making China the largest market for Akzonobel in the world in terms of "number of employees". In 2020, Akzonobel's Greater China sales accounted for approximately 16% of Akzonobel's total global sales revenue, and China is Akzonobel's largest market in the world.

In June last year, Akzonobel held the opening ceremony of the "Marine and Protective Coatings R&D Laboratory" at the Shanghai Technology Center, which will further enhance and integrate Akzonobel's R&D and innovation capabilities.

Denmark's Hempel, Britain's Intellectual Property, Norway's Jorton, Britain's Earle, Japan's Kansai and Shimadzu (now PPG) have invested and set up factories in Shenzhen, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Ningbo, Tianjin and Kunshan.

At the time of repeated epidemic and continuous price increase, domestic and foreign enterprises are staging a fierce Marine coatings market battle, and the Asian Marine coatings market is the main battlefield of the partition war without smoke. This for the domestic ship brand, worry coexist.