Driven by the rapid development of the shipbuilding and ship repair markets, the demand for ship coatings has become increasingly strong

Ship coatings, also known as ship paint, refer to organic polymer materials that are applied to various parts of ships to prevent corrosion by seawater, marine atmosphere and adhesion of marine organisms. Ship coatings are mainly used in various ship manufacturing scenarios such as oil tankers, passenger ships, bulk carriers, container ships, and conventional cargo ships to protect and decorate the outer shell and internal components of the ship.

Marine coatings generally have the characteristics of good adhesion, water resistance, chemical stability, wear resistance, weather resistance, acid and alkali resistance, and long service life. Therefore, they can meet the complexity of the ship’s working environment. According to different coating parts and protective properties, ship coatings can be divided into anti-rust primers, hull surface coatings, fresh water tank coatings, antifouling coatings, special functional coatings, etc. Among them, antifouling coatings are the mainstream products in the current ship coatings market.

As the world’s largest ship producer, my country is currently facing the gradual upward cycle of the domestic shipbuilding industry. As one of the key materials for ship manufacturing, the market demand for ship coatings has continued to grow. According to data from the Shipbuilding Industry Association, my country’s ship order book will exceed 100 million deadweight tons in 2022, and the average annual shipbuilding completion volume will remain at around 45 million deadweight tons.

At the same time, in addition to the new shipbuilding market, ship repair is also another major application market for ship coatings. At present, the scale of ship coatings in the new shipbuilding market accounts for about 80% of the total scale; the scale of the ship maintenance market accounts for about 20%. Under the background of the continuous development of the domestic ship repair industry, hundreds of professional ship repair technical service stations and paint bonded warehouses have been established in coastal provinces and cities in my country. In this context, according to the “China Marine Coatings Project Investment Feasibility Research Report 2023-2028” released by the Industrial Research Center , my country’s ship coatings market will be close to 20 billion yuan in 2022, and the market shows great development prospects.

But at the same time, the development of my country’s ship coatings industry is still facing the dilemma of low localization. Affected by factors such as the late start of the industry and backward production technology, there are only a few domestic companies with large-scale mass production capabilities for ship coatings, such as Three Gorges Paint, Feilu New Materials, Feiji New Materials, Shuangrui Shipbuilding, and Hilong Saineng. New materials, Haiyue paint, etc.

Industrial analysts said that my country’s ship coatings market is still dominated by leading international coatings companies, with major companies including Jotun Group, Hempel, Nippon Paint, AkzoNobel, PPG, Kansai Paint, Zhongtu Chemical, Lipamax, etc., there is huge room for domestic substitution in the domestic market. In the future, with the steady increase in shipbuilding orders and the rapid development of the ship maintenance industry, my country’s ship coatings market demand will continue to increase. With the continued growth in demand, local companies and research institutions will need to increase their efforts in research and development of marine coatings in the future, develop leading products with local advantages as well as cost-effectiveness, technology, and after-sales service advantages, and promote the continuous improvement of localization levels.