On April 2, the White Paper on Water Refinish Technology and Application in China was issued in Beijing. As the first “White Paper” of China's automotive coatings industry, it describes what content it will bring to the automotive coatings industry. Here, reporters from China Auto News sorted out readers with first-hand information on the spot.
Environmental protection, the eternal theme of the Chinese automobile industry, As a global leader in automobile production and sales, the low-carbon environmental protection and sustainable development of the Chinese automobile industry has become an important part of the sustainable development of the Chinese economy. Based on this, all aspects of the automotive industry are invariably the same. To increase research and development and upgrading, automotive coatings industry is no exception.
When it comes to the environmental protection and sustainable development of the automotive coatings industry, water-based paints are an inevitable part. In recent years, the national and local governments have been vigorously advocating environmental protection reforms, and they have continuously introduced environmental protection policies to improve Volatile Organic Compounds (VOC). Volatile Organic Compounds) limit the standard, promote pollution treatment in the coating industry, and the best solution for reducing coating VOC emissions is the application of water-based paint.
The Origin of the White Paper
As a coating with water as a solvent or dispersion medium, the water-based paint is distinguished from traditional solvent-based paints by up to 80% VOC content, and the water-based paint VOC content is only 10%.
At present, Western European countries have adopted laws and regulations to force the popularization of water-based refinish lacquers. The water-based rate of repair paints has reached almost 100%, and the conversion rate of water paints in North America has reached about 40%. Compared to these areas, water-based lacquer applications in China are Product cost issues and construction challenges, promotion has only just begun. Statistics show that in 2017 China's 4S shop and auto repair shop using water-based paint less than 10,000, and the total number of repair shops occupying the jet cleaning business is less than 5%.
Although development has been relatively slow so far, automotive painters have not given up their efforts. According to statistics, the consumption of water refinish paint in 2017 was only 2.8 million liters, accounting for only 3% of total refinish paint consumption, but its growth rate was far Higher than the speed of refinish paint, and this growth rate will have a greater increase in the future.
'History as a mirror, you can know the rise and fall: In order to be able to understand the loss of people's mirror. 'Although the current China's auto water refinish paint has achieved certain development, but at present for the industry as a whole does not have a complete data reference, to be able to Enhancing the industry’s understanding of water-based refinishing technologies and applications to promote the sustainable development of the automotive refinishing industry. On April 2nd, China Coating Industry Association and Axalta Coating Systems, one of the largest suppliers of automotive coatings, jointly launched The "White Paper on Water Refinishing Technology and Application in China".
'We hope to use Axalta's technical and market application advantages and resources in the field of water-based refinish paint, and assist industry associations in making a summary of this field, and do some forward-looking predictions and assessments of the next phase of development. Wu Chunping, vice president of Axalta Coating Systems and president of Greater China, said.
China Water Refinisher Development History
According to the analysis of the “white paper”, the development of water-based refinish paint in China can be divided into three phases. Since 2013, it has really entered the market growth period, and the main motivating factor for its development is the environmental protection policy and the VOC emission limitation standard.
In the past two to three years, China has promulgated and implemented a series of policies and regulations that restrict solvent-based coatings and encourage the support of water-based coatings. In addition, the implementation of the strictest environmental protection law in history has greatly promoted the process of “oil-to-water” in the automotive industry in China. It is foreseeable that in the next few years, the use of water-based refinish paint will increase rapidly due to the popularity of VOC emission-reduction policies and the improvement of enforcement.
At the same time, as an important decision-maker in the purchase of water-based refinish paints, OEMs have played a crucial role in the promotion of the water-based refinish paint market.
Development trend forecast
The advantages of waterborne refinish paint are obvious to all, but in the promotion process of waterborne refinish paint, there are also problems such as high costs, high training costs for spray painters, and high input costs for construction equipment. Therefore, the promotion speed is slightly slower. Based on this factor, According to the analysis, after more than 20 years of development, the water-based paint itself has environmental-responsive characteristics, and its comprehensive performance index is better than that of solvent-based paints, and its product cost is widely used, and local production should gradually be scaled up. reduce.
The length of the future 'oil-to-water' conversion cycle will depend on the willingness and action of major market participants, including the policy orientation of the government, associations and related management departments, the promotion of vehicle manufacturers and automotive coatings companies, and the application of waterborne coatings technology. Upgrades, interactions with water-based spray mechanics, industry integration, etc., work together to promote the application of environmental-responsive waterborne coating technology in China.
As for the future changes in the operating companies, the “White Paper” points out that since multinational companies have relatively mature experience in the color formulations, technologies, and service systems of water-based paint technologies, it is difficult for local companies to surpass them in the short term. The paint market will remain the dominant market for multinational paint suppliers. With the continuous expansion of the water refinish paint market and the intensified competition, the refinish paint market will generally exhibit multinational companies' penetration from the high-end market to the mid-range market. Local brands will be low-end. To the high-end to enter the development trend.
According to the “white paper” forecast, the average annual growth rate of China's water-based refinish paint will reach 20% after 2018. In the long run, water-based paint is expected to achieve the highest proportion of 30% of refinish paint consumption.