Although the industry has taken water-based coatings as the future development direction, solvent-based coatings still occupy a certain market share with a "comparative advantage". However, the road ahead of traditional solvent-based coating companies is getting narrower and narrower.
1. As raw materials rise and other cost factors impact, comparative advantage will be replaced by competitive advantage
In the past six months, upstream chemical raw materials have begun to soar. TDI skyrocketed from 10,000/ton at the beginning of last year to 50,000/ton. The core raw material TDI of the traditional solvent-based coating curing agent has increased several times, and it may not be able to be ordered. In addition, various factors (including the introduction of new transportation policies, the soaring transportation costs of traditional solvent-based coatings, stringent environmental inspections, and organic solvent production plants with high production risk factors) have also "pressed" traditional coating companies to transform. )
In the past, the traditional coatings industry gave full play to its "comparative advantages"—that is, traditional comparative advantages such as cheap labor and raw material resources, and gradually realized capital accumulation. However, with the changes of the times, this advantage has been gradually reduced by technology, Capital, brand, management and other new competitive advantages are replaced. Today, when raw material costs and labor costs are becoming increasingly prominent, traditional coating companies that have lost their advantages have also experienced development bottlenecks.
2. The original "Thirteenth Five-Year" plan puts a ban on water paint, which has become a general trend with environmental protection advantages
First of all, the highly anticipated "13th Five-Year Plan" puts forward clear directives on environmental protection. The total emissions of volatile organic compounds nationwide have been reduced by more than 10%, and paint companies with serious organic emissions have become the focus of remediation. In addition to the introduction of environmental protection coatings VOC standards, the collection of paint consumption tax and pollution discharge fees, some pilot areas have halved the consumption tax on companies that have good pollution control, and have doubled the consumption tax on companies that have bad pollution control. This is a great impact on traditional solvent-based coatings companies. That said, the impact is undoubtedly huge.
On the contrary, this is undoubtedly a big benefit for new environmentally friendly water paint companies: firstly, environmentally friendly water paint does not require TDI and organic solvents as raw materials; secondly, it will not be due to the environmental protection department's control of these seriously polluting raw materials. And there is a shortage of supply. With its superior environmental performance, water paint has become a major development direction and trend in the coating industry in the future.
3. Either transform or eliminate? ! The coating industry will usher in a new wave of environmental protection
Recently, after Shenzhen, Huizhou has released relevant content on the prohibition of solvent-based coatings in its "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan for Energy Conservation and Emission Reduction", which has attracted the attention of people in the coatings industry. Huizhou has also been interpreted as the second implementation. "Paint ban" in the city. The specific content is as follows:
1. Government projects, including municipal projects and government-invested projects, will prohibit the use of solvent-based coatings and adhesives;
2. All exterior wall decorations of real estate, including those outside government projects, are forbidden to use solvent-based coatings;
3. In the automobile maintenance industry, gradually promote the transformation of the production line of water-based paint.
This sends two important messages to the coatings industry, which is likely to become a new trend in the implementation of environmental protection policies:
First, urban paint bans are no longer individual cases, and solvent-based paints will be more and more restricted in more places in the future;
Second, government projects in various regions are likely to gradually abandon solvent-based coatings.
Obviously, under this situation, traditional solvent-based coating companies urgently need to transform and upgrade, and develop high-performance, multi-functional, energy-saving and environmentally-friendly coatings. Otherwise, with the deepening of environmental protection inspections and national supply-side reforms in 2017, they will face the risk of being eliminated due to serious pollution and backward production capacity.