As the efforts toward \"source substitution\" continue, the shift from liquid to powder formulations in the coating industry is accelerating

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On January 4, 2025, the Annual Conference on Powder Coatings and Coating Industry was held in Wuhan, Hubei. Wu Xiangping, secretary-general of the Coatings and Painting Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society, noted that in 2024, as efforts to achieve substitution at the source continue, the coatings and painting industry is entering a new era of green development, with an increasing number of emerging fields turning their attention to powder coating. 　　Wu Xiangping explained that currently, demand in the real estate market is at a low point. Meanwhile, the trend of transitioning from paints to powders has led to a significant increase in demand for powder coatings in industries such as construction machinery and new energy (automobiles, photovoltaics, and energy storage). At the same time, it has become imperative to address VOCs issues. The coating industry has gradually reached a consensus on adopting the principle of \"using powder instead of water, water instead of oil, and increasing the solid content when using oil\", thereby promoting gradual adoption of source substitution by large, medium, and small enterprises. This has also forced coating factories to use powder coating, accelerating the shift from liquid to powder formulations. 　　According to statistics from the Coatings and Painting Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society and the National Coatings Industry Information Center, in 2024 China’s sales volume of thermosetting powder coatings was approximately 2.65 million tons, representing a year-on-year increase of 6.6%. Overall, most powder coating manufacturers saw an increase in net profits in 2024, primarily due to reduced cost pressures resulting from falling raw material prices, which led to an improvement in their overall gross profit margins. Overall, the powder coating industry is still in a growth phase, but the stage of extensive growth has largely come to an end. 　　Di Zhigang, chief expert at CNOOC Changzhou Coating and Chemical Research Institute Co., Ltd. and chairman of the Coatings and Painting Committee of the Chinese Chemical Society, pointed out that the further implementation of major initiatives such as new-type urbanization, urban renewal, and marine conservation and development is expected to create a domestic market worth trillions of yuan, thereby providing more growth opportunities for the powder coating industry. 　　Hu Jie, deputy secretary-general of the Chinese Chemical Society, said that the 15th Five-Year Plan explicitly calls for the development of emerging pillar industries, accelerating the growth of strategic emerging industry clusters such as those in new materials, and emphasizes the need to improve the quality and level of key industries in order to strengthen the position and competitiveness of sectors like chemicals in the global industrial division of labor. This points the way for the structural optimization and technological self-reliance of the powder coating industry. In the future, the powder coating industry should further play a bridging role between research, industry, academia, and application, facilitate the transformation of more scientific and technological achievements into practical use, and promote the high-quality development of the industrial chain.