The 14th Forum on the Development of Green Coatings

On March 27, the 14th “Forum on the Development of Green Coatings and Safe, Eco-friendly Dyes and Pigments” was held in Shanghai. Nearly 200 participants attended, including experts from the national coatings and dyes industry, corporate representatives, and officials from relevant government departments. The forum centered on the theme of “Green Leadership, Collaborative Development.” It focused on the industry’s green transition and pathways for technological innovation, and explored directions for high-quality development in the coatings and dyes sectors.

This forum was grounded in the current state of industry development. It aligned with the requirements of the national 14th Five-Year Plan. The forum addressed the core approach of implementing targeted measures and upgrading quality within the chemical industry. It provided a platform for the coatings and dyes industry to seize development opportunities and tackle the challenges of transformation.

The national 14th Five-Year Plan clearly outlines the direction for the development of the real economy. The plan emphasizes intelligence, green development, and integration. It calls for the traditional chemical industry to eliminate inefficiencies, optimize structures, ensure safety, and reduce carbon emissions. For the fine chemicals sector, the plan advocates targeting high-end markets, addressing weaknesses, increasing value-added, and strengthening innovation. These provisions chart a clear course for the industry’s development.

Current State of the Industry and Key Requirements

The coatings and dyes industry is currently facing the challenge of increasingly stringent environmental regulations. At the same time, the industry is grappling with intensifying market competition. Demand for green products continues to rise, compelling the industry to accelerate its transformation and upgrading.

The industry’s development must adhere to the bottom line of green development. It must implement the “dual carbon” goals. It must promote greening across the entire lifecycle of production and products. It must strengthen scientific and technological innovation. It must focus on greening, intelligent manufacturing, and high-end development.

The industry must deepen the integration of industry, academia, and research. It must accelerate the commercialization of technological achievements. It must enhance collaboration and synergy across the industrial chain. It must improve the supply chain system. It must regulate market order. It must fulfill its social responsibilities. It must strictly adhere to quality and safety standards. It must promote international exchange and cooperation.

Development Plan and Market Trends for the Coatings Industry

The 15th Five-Year Plan for the coatings industry will focus on five key areas: brand development, localization of raw materials, promotion of environmentally friendly products, digital and intelligent upgrades, and collaborative innovation with downstream industries.

The plan’s objectives include cultivating a multi-tiered industry brand system, ensuring self-reliance and control over key raw materials, increasing the proportion of environmentally friendly coatings, driving the industry’s transition from automation to digitalization and intelligentization, deepening collaboration with downstream industries such as the automotive sector, and achieving technological breakthroughs in energy conservation, material conservation, and environmental protection.

By 2025, the total output of China’s coatings industry will maintain steady growth. The industry’s main business revenue will maintain steady growth. The industry’s total profit will maintain steady growth.

The architectural coatings market will see increased segmentation. Demand will grow significantly in areas such as urban renewal, elderly care facility renovations, and energy-efficient housing. Industrial coatings will be driven by equipment upgrades and trade-in policies. Demand for coatings in the automotive, marine, and new energy sectors will experience medium-to-high growth. There is significant room for domestic substitution within the supply chain. Core technologies for key raw materials in sectors such as electronics, offshore engineering, and marine applications will become critical factors in market competition.

Industry Technological Innovation and Product Trends

Demand for coatings in cities of fourth-tier and above is shifting toward repainting. Prefabricated construction is changing the rules of the painting industry. There is a clear trend toward inorganic resins in exterior wall paints. There is a clear trend toward bio-based resins in interior wall paints. Decorative coatings and stone-effect paints are rapidly replacing traditional flat emulsion paints. China accounts for over 60% of the global industrial coatings market. Industry concentration remains low. The sector lacks world-class brands. The high-end market is still dominated by foreign companies. Innovation is the key to breaking this deadlock. The new energy industry is creating new development opportunities for the sector.

Aerogel materials offer exceptional thermal insulation and heat-resistant properties. Aerogels can be widely applied in building energy conservation and industrial insulation. Challenges include long production cycles, high raw material costs, and the difficulty of dispersing superhydrophobic aerogels. The industry is addressing these issues by improving raw materials and formulations. After these improvements, aerogel powder can be formulated into a high-concentration water-based paste. This approach effectively resolves the issue of aerogel powder dusting.

Coatings production faces challenges such as batch-to-batch variations in raw materials, instability in sand mills, and imprecise additive dosing. The industry has proposed systematic solutions. These include batch testing of incoming raw materials, dedicated sand mills for specific colors, color stability testing of finished products, and maintaining stable ratios of composite solvents. These solutions can help enterprises achieve intelligent operations in their color-matching workshops.

The selection of drying accelerators for water-based coatings must meet technical specifications and process requirements. When selecting products, prioritize those with a high cost-performance ratio. For water-based alkyd systems, post-addition methods should be preferred whenever possible. In practical applications, the dosage must be determined through comprehensive consideration. Cost-performance comparisons should be conducted in actual use.

Photochromic materials exhibit multi-stimulus responsiveness. They can be used in fields such as colorimetric/fluorescent probes, information storage, and anti-counterfeiting. They are also applicable in soft robotics, wearable flexible electronics, and drug delivery. Additionally, they can be utilized in disease diagnosis and treatment.

Silicone resins combine the characteristics of organic resins and inorganic materials. Silicone resins possess excellent performance. They can be used in high-temperature-resistant silicone coatings, anti-corrosion coatings, and other fields. They are also used in anti-fouling and anti-graffiti coatings, as well as insulating coatings. In 2024, the global silicone resin coatings market was valued at approximately $8.5 billion. China accounted for 35% of this market, with demand primarily concentrated in the electronics and electrical sectors.

Research on eco-friendly FEVE fluorocarbon resin technology continues to advance. Application technology for “zero-additive” acrylic emulsions in architectural coatings is maturing. These green raw materials provide the foundation for low-pollution, high-performance coating products.

Significance of the Forum and Industry Outlook

This forum has established a high-level platform for exchange within the coatings and dyes industry. It has fostered a shared vision for the industry’s development and charted a clear course toward green transformation and innovative growth. As we enter the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan, the coatings and dyes industry is poised to embark on a new journey toward high-quality development.