The global coatings industry is currently in a critical cycle of green transformation and capacity restructuring. Sustained global urbanization, shifting industrial production to emerging markets, and the rapid expansion of the new energy sector together drive steady growth in rigid demand for core coating categories, including architectural coatings, industrial protective coatings, automotive coatings and marine coatings.
In terms of regional development patterns, mature markets in Europe and America have entered a stock competition phase after years of development. Driven by surging energy costs, relocation of local chemical capacities and increasingly stringent environmental regulations, regional coating supply capacity is gradually shrinking with sluggish market growth. All product lines are upgrading toward high-end, eco-friendly and functional directions, with the strictest environmental and quality standards worldwide.
Benefiting from accelerated urbanization, expanded infrastructure investment and emerging manufacturing clusters, emerging markets such as Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Africa and Latin America maintain rapid growth in coating consumption. They stand as the core growth engines fueling global coatings capacity expansion and the top destinations for international coating production relocation.
Against the backdrop of worldwide carbon peaking and carbon neutrality policies, waterborne coatings, powder coatings and high-solids eco-friendly coatings are gradually replacing traditional solvent-borne coatings. Green and low-carbon production has become a basic market access requirement globally. This compels coating manufacturers worldwide to accelerate production process upgrades and product portfolio iteration, ushering the global coatings industry into a brand-new development era.
China has built the world’s largest, most diversified and most complete supporting industrial system for coatings. It forms a full closed-loop industrial chain covering upstream core petrochemical raw materials (titanium dioxide, synthetic resins, pigments and various functional additives), midstream finished coating production and formula R&D, as well as downstream product application services. Industrial clusters are mainly distributed in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Bohai Rim regions, boasting prominent advantages in large-scale manufacturing, complete supply chain support and engineering services.
In 2024, China’s total coating output reached 35.341 million tons, accounting for over 30% of global total capacity and ranking first worldwide for consecutive years, making China the core production base of the global coatings sector. Affected by domestic real estate adjustment and industrial structural optimization, total output dropped to 34.602 million tons in 2025, a year-on-year decline of 7.1%. Nevertheless, total industrial profits hit RMB 29.25 billion, up 11.5% year on year. The industry features high-quality development marked by 'lower output yet higher profits and green upgrading'.
Nevertheless, the domestic coatings industry faces severe development pressures. Real estate market adjustment has suppressed domestic demand growth for architectural coatings, while the industry’s overall capacity utilization rate remains persistently low. Cutthroat price competition prevails across the market. Meanwhile, tightening national standards for environmental discharge, work safety and energy consumption have pushed up comprehensive production costs year after year, continuously squeezing profit margins.
Externally, numerous countries have erected tariff barriers, product certification barriers and local capacity protection policies. The traditional trade model relying solely on domestic production and finished product exports faces shrinking profit margins and vulnerability to exchange rate fluctuations and trade policy changes. Under such circumstances, establishing overseas physical production bases to realize localized manufacturing, sales and services has become an inevitable strategic choice for coating enterprises to resolve domestic overcapacity, cut comprehensive operating costs, circumvent international trade barriers, get closer to overseas end customers and raise global market share.
The 'going global' journey of China’s coatings industry did not happen overnight. It has evolved gradually from tentative trade to deep overseas cultivation, from product exports to overseas capacity construction, and from individual enterprise expansion to coordinated industrial chain globalization, serving as a microcosm of the global layout of China’s segmented petrochemical sectors. The industry’s overseas expansion can be divided into four distinct phases:
1. Trade-Oriented Overseas Expansion (2000–2010)
This phase featured pure 'product exports'. Enterprises exported mid-to-low-end architectural and industrial coatings manufactured domestically via foreign trade channels, mainly targeting emerging markets in Southeast Asia, Africa and the Middle East. Export volumes remained modest with scattered sales networks, and no overseas physical assets were deployed. Essentially, exports only absorbed surplus domestic capacity, leaving businesses with weak risk resistance.
2. Brand-Oriented Overseas Expansion (2011–2016)
As domestic enterprises gained stronger brand awareness, leading players set up overseas offices, built local marketing teams and constructed regional warehousing hubs. They gradually reduced reliance on single foreign trade agents, proactively carried out brand promotion and technical services near end markets. Export product portfolios shifted from low-end architectural coatings to furniture and industrial coatings, with overseas revenue accounting for an increasing share of total corporate income.
3. Capacity-Oriented Overseas Expansion (2017–2022)
This period marked a pivotal turning point for the industry’s global expansion. The official commissioning of Chenchen New Materials’ Vietnam factory served as an iconic milestone. The industry’s core logic shifted from 'selling products' to 'deploying production capacity'. Localized manufacturing and sales in target markets effectively bypassed tariff barriers, cut cross-border logistics costs and enabled deep engagement with downstream clients, accelerating the rollout of overseas physical investments.
4. Globalized Operation Phase (2023 to Present)
The industry has entered a high-quality development stage featuring coordinated full industrial chain overseas expansion. Instead of scattered single-factory layouts, enterprises widely adopt an integrated development model combining greenfield construction, M&A consolidation, R&D center establishment and end-channel control. They also drive upstream suppliers of titanium dioxide, resins, additives and other raw materials to expand overseas in tandem, gradually forming overseas industrial clusters integrating coatings, raw materials and comprehensive services. Maturing localized operation systems facilitate a fundamental transformation from 'Chinese enterprises going global' to 'globally operated enterprises'.
