On Accelerating Development of Waterborne Coatings in China   

By Li Xilin, Wu Bin, Coatings, Adhesives & Specialties, Bayer MaterialScience

In recent years, the world has witnessed the booming economy in China. In general, China's coatings industry has achieved big success just like the prosperous economy. Nevertheless, China's waterborne coatings industry takes a road less traveled. Although waterborne coatings are commonly used in Europe and America, their market share in China's coatings industry still remains in single digit percentage.
    As buzz words in China, "Environmental Protection" and "Green" reflect not only a change in consumer perception, but also a result of active national or governmental promotion. Here we would like to review China's waterborne coatings industry to find out what hinders its development.

Strengths and weaknesses of waterborne coatings

Analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of existing waterborne coatings is needed in order to review their development in China. Only by fostering strengths and reducing weaknesses can we truly find a way to boost the waterborne coatings market in China. We will evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of waterborne coatings in terms of environmental protection, performance and cost.
    Environmental protection: The biggest strength of waterborne coating is environment-friendliness. By replacing solvents with water, about 4 million tons VOC in atmosphere will be directly reduced annually. VOC emitted into the atmosphere will result in photochemical reactions and form low-level ozone which will damage the atmospheric environment. High concentration of low-level ozone is fatal to human beings. Exposure to high VOC concentration for a long period will also lead to occupational diseases in coating operators.
    Performance: With years of technological development, waterborne coatings in China have made big progresses in terms of performance. In many applications, the performance of coatings produced with water-based PUD by Bayer MaterialScience can match solvent-based products.
    Cost: Cost is definitely a weakness of waterborne coatings. In the coatings industry, waterborne products are far more costly than solvent-based ones. However, from the perspective of overall cost, those responsible for their employees and society as a whole are willing to invest in solvent recovery system, exhaust devices, fire protection system, employee protection facilities and so on to minimize the harm done by solvent. But waterborne coatings system can actually help them reduce those costs significantly. On the whole, there is no big gap between waterborne coatings and solvent-based coatings in terms of costs.

Defective policies and legislations hinder the development of waterborne coating in China

Policies and legislations have played a crucial role in the development of waterborne coatings in Europe and America. Many environmental incidents in mid-last century, such as frequent photochemical smog, raised the awareness of environmental protection in Europe and the US. A series of stringent policies and regulations were successively launched there and many coatings manufacturers had to implement industrial upgrade and utilize waterborne coating systems. Therefore, we hope China's policies and regulations may point to a correct path for its waterborne coatings industry.  Currently, only one policy related to waterborne coatings is under review and await approval. Therefore, defective policies and legislation still significantly hinder the development of waterborne coatings in China.
    Without the guidance of related policies, some manufacturers' short-termism increases the difficulty in developing waterborne coatings in China. Investing in waterborne coatings does not yield short-term economic returns. But undoubtedly waterborne coatings have big potential in China's coatings market in the future. If one fails to follow this trend, he will fall behind others in the long-term development. One has to keep a balance between short-term returns and long-term development to achieve success.
    Investment in promoting the material to consumers is insufficient. Consumers fail to fully understand the benefits of waterborne coatings due to inadequate promotion. Consequently, they are unwilling to pay for these costly waterborne products.

Three simultaneous measures to accelerate the development of waterborne coatings in China

All of the abovementioned reasons have contributed to the bumpy development of waterborne coatings in China. Coating manufacturers fail to attach importance to the development of waterborne products due to defective policies and legislation; their short-termism leads to limited investment in fostering the waterborne coatings market. Consequently, end consumers have not been successfully persuaded to purchase waterborne products. In this vicious circle, end users' negative behaviors and attitudes have an impact on the judgment of policy makers and manufacturers towards waterborne coatings. Nevertheless, we may make efforts in the following aspects to create a virtuous circle and accelerate the development of waterborne coatings in China.

*Promote the launch of national and industrial standards for "waterborne coatings"

Accelerating the improvement of waterborne coatings standards is a key to promote the development of waterborne coatings in China. If relevant standards are not launched, some technically underdeveloped companies will not be urged to actively produce waterborne coatings. Moreover, without relevant compulsory standards, most downstream small or middle-sized companies will not try to replace existing coating systems.
    Generally, the standards in the coatings industry are launched in two ways: one is the top-down approach. That is to draft and launch relevant standards at the request of national or governmental authorities. Particularly when serious incidents happen, they will give an order to launch relevant standards and regulations. For example, the related VOC regulations were only launched after the occurrence of photochemical smog in Europe and America; the regulations on melamine in milk powder were issued only after the "Sanlu Milk Powder Incident" in China.
    The other approach is from down to top. The technical commission for standardization firstly drafts and submits standards for hierarchical review and approval. Generally, this approach will be taken when technologies are mature enough, and both manufacturers and the market have an urgent need for new standards. Whatever approach is adopted, coatings manufacturers shall be the core drive to promote the launch of national and industrial standards for "waterborne coatings". Relevant governmental authorities shall fulfill their duties to launch related standards; additionally, every coatings manufacturer has the obligation to make their voices heard by relevant governmental authorities and standardization commission.
    As a coating raw materials supplier, Bayer MaterialScience has participated in the revision of related regulations. The company also jointly signed a petition with dozens of companies to reduce the harmful substance "free TDI monomer" in coatings, which was approved by the technical commission for standardization. In that process, it has found many partners with a common goal. Together, they would like to shoulder the responsibilities for the environment and society, promote the development of waterborne coatings in China and establish a channel to communicate with relevant governmental authorities. For example, Bayer Materi