LONDON – According to the latest information from IRL in its new Profile of the Chinese Paint Industry, 5th Edition, China has a 6.4-million-ton paint market. With paint production slightly ahead of this figure and imports and exports negligible in comparison, China is increasingly self sufficient in paint and coatings, with the exception of high-tech and specialized types, which China is not yet equipped to produce.

The national market is expected to recover from the economic wobble it experienced in late 2008 with the help of government-sponsored economic stimulus plans. The stimulus emphasizes continued development of rural markets, both in terms of stoking rural consumer expenditure, building better roads to rural communities and targeting rural citizens with small, eco-friendly cars.

The structure of the Chinese coatings market is still highly focused on infrastructural and manufacturing applications, so industrial coatings continue to represent the majority (70 percent) of the market.

The architectural coatings market in China accounts for 30 percent of all national coatings demand (1.92 million tons), making it the largest single segment of the market, but still in the minority compared to the whole industrial finishing sector.