In the first three quarters of 2024, the overall development of China's coatings industry showed a steady and progressive trend
Liu Jie, Secretary General of the China Coatings Industry Association, reported at the 2024 China Coatings Industry Information Annual Conference the development report of the coatings industry in the first three quarters of 2024. The Coatings Association predicts gradual stabilization of the Chinese coatings market in 2024, with an increase in agricultural production at about 3% and profit growth essentially maintaining around 5%. Although the report indicates that from January to September, national coatings production was about 26.398 million tons for the same period last year; yet the operating income approximated 298.27 billion yuan, registering a year-on-year growth of about 0.6%; with profit at 19.33 billion yuan, a 3.1% increase from the previous year.
In the first three quarters of 2024, total coating exports from our country were about 244,700 tons, showing a year-on-year increase of 27.80%. Numerous reports have emerged to confirm that the export values were 774 million US dollars-increasing 16.34% on an annual basis - whilst imports rose by an impressive 11% in volume terms, approximately 120,700 tons worth about 1.33 billion US dollars itself-a rise of 14.23% on the year. In terms of the main person business income, China's coatings production growth rate has already started to decline during the first three quarters-slightly increasing in the first half of the fourth quarter-the main business growth in the second and third quarters remained stable, rebounding slightly near the end of the third quarter; however, overall profits saw a considerable decline.
The key downstream industries of the coatings industry, such as ships, containers, photovoltaics, engineering machinery (loading and unloading), and furniture manufacturing, all showed a warming trend; although the real estate industry continued to decline, the decline was large; the growth of coatings sub-industries accounted for a large proportion, among which the furniture industry had the largest increase. "From the raw material purchasing and supply index released by the industry, the price of raw materials did generally fall in the third quarter, which brought about a recovery in overall costs, and also affected the decline in the overall selling price of finished coatings. The industry competition is relatively fierce.
Liu Jie pointed out that the coatings industry should maintain confidence in the market prospects. The series of macro policies issued by the state, the strong fiscal counter-cyclical adjustment, the strong micro-sustainability and the well-implemented policies will play a stabilizing role in the composite coatings industry chain and supply chain. The equipment renewal and consumer goods trade-in policies will also form a strong industrial protection for equipment, machinery, automobiles, ships, electronic consumption, home appliances, architectural decoration and other fields; the development of these fields often benefits some coatings sub-industries. For China The future development trend of the coatings industry, low-carbon and environmental protection will still be an important direction for the future development of the coatings and pigments industry.
In 2024, resin demand is expected to remain above 10% of export volume, especially in specific areas such as functional coating products. The Coatings Association expects that the overall output of the industry will maintain a growth rate of about 3% in the second half of the year, and gross revenue will increase by about 2%. Profits seem to still be affected by the continued reduction of corn resources, basically maintaining an average growth rate of about 5%. The competitive price erosion of some foreign raw materials will depend on international anti-dumping investigations: for example, titanium dioxide exports are relatively weak and price arrangements are deteriorating. Orders for iron oxide pigments were cut off at the end of the year, and a mild recovery should occur after earnings in the fourth quarter.
