With the rapid development of shipbuilding industry in recent years, the marine coating industry has also been revitalized, and has gradually become the key development project of coating enterprises. The market demand of marine coating has also increased with the rise of water. However, in recent years, with the introduction of various laws and regulations on marine ship coating standards and people's attention to energy conservation and environmental protection, ship coatings are undergoing the test of stronger and stronger market competition. If marine coating enterprises want to occupy the high-end market, they still need to explore new territory and explore market segments.

 

Exploring new territory and market segments of Marine Coatings

 

Development status of Marine Coatings

 

Data show that since 2002, the Asian ship coating market has grown steadily, with an average annual growth rate of 6% to 8%. At present, Asia accounts for almost 60% of the global ship coating market, and the corresponding terminals are highly concentrated in Asia. Ship maintenance also requires a large amount of coating. In 2007, the scale of Asian ship coating market was about US $2.69 billion. Therefore, many coating enterprises in Japan, Europe and the United States have extended their tentacles to China in an attempt to take a share. The competition of domestic high-end marine coating market tends to be "white hot", so how should domestic marine coating manufacturers break out of the siege and survive in the cracks?

 

Pressure of laws and regulations and environmental protection on Tu Enterprises

 

The recent implementation of the performance standard for protective coatings on the double sides of marine special seawater ballast tanks and bulk carriers (PSPC) has not only brought great pressure to China's shipbuilding enterprises, but also put forward high requirements for China's shipbuilding coating manufacturers. At present, most of the products of China's shipbuilding coating enterprises are concentrated in the middle and low-end market, which can not fully meet the needs of shipbuilding enterprises. In addition, the introduction of other laws and regulations on marine ship coating standards also forces coating enterprises to upgrade their technology.

 

The world-renowned 2009 Copenhagen climate conference pushed the topic of "low carbon" to a climax. Environmental protection, energy conservation, zero emission and no pollution have become the topics of concern and discussion. At the strong request of the Marine Environmental Protection Committee, the International Maritime Organization has considered and adopted the Convention on the international control of harmful anti fouling systems on ships. The Convention requires that all ships shall not be painted with antifouling paint containing TBT from January 1, 2003; Since January 1, 2008, the surfaces of all ship shells and additional parts shall not contain TBT antifouling paint, or the original antifouling paint containing TBT shall be sealed with a new coating. The ban pushed marine environmental protection and ship coating pollution to the cusp of the storm. Marine coating enterprises are facing great challenges. The production is pollution-free. Green coating has become the only way for enterprises to survive and develop.

 

Explore new territory and explore market segments

 

Compared with multinational ship coating enterprises, domestic ship coating enterprises are slightly inferior in product quality and on-site service. At the same time, a large amount of capital and technology investment has played an important role for international coating giants to seize the Chinese market and enhance market competitiveness. Local enterprises generally attract and maintain customer resources through price advantage. The author of Huicong coating network believes that looking at the current ship coating market, a big price war has become a thing of the past. The market competition mechanism will effectively realize the survival of the fittest. Only through technological innovation and seizing the market gap, can all coating enterprises embark on the broad road of take-off.

 

Due to the serious corrosivity of the marine environment, it has strict requirements in terms of anti-corrosion, anti pollution, low surface energy consumption and so on.  The damage of traditional marine coatings to the marine environment is very serious. This kind of marine coatings enterprises do not have market competitiveness. The sustainable development direction of China's marine coatings in the future is to focus on the development of high-performance and environmental friendly coatings. Coatings with excellent environmental protection performance can not only effectively reduce the consumption of marine fuel, but also prolong the launching time of the ship, reduce the number of maintenance and the possibility of corrosion damage to the draft of the ship. The use of environmentally friendly marine coatings can also reduce the generation of volatile organic compounds harmful to the marine environment. The world's leading marine coating enterprises such as international paint companies have been busy developing the latest, more environmentally friendly, non-toxic and inorganic silicon coatings in recent years. China's marine coating enterprises should also follow up in time. In order to enter the high-end market of marine coatings, China's marine coatings enterprises pay attention to green and environmental protection. Experts suggest that in the production process, marine coating enterprises can adopt thick paste, fast drying, high solid content or solvent-free coatings to achieve the purpose of high efficiency and energy saving; Do not use pigments containing heavy metals such as lead and chromium to reduce the content of organic solvents in the coating;  Do not use organic tin, tar and other harmful substances to meet the requirements of environmental protection.

 

Many international coating giants have a keen sense of smell for discovering the market development trend and also devote a lot of efforts to market development.  Recently, many international coating enterprises have launched powerful underwater coating products, and a new generation of marine coatings has been born and attracted attention. Norwegian AMC company launched a new coating series containing "carbon nanotubes" in 2010. It is said that it has extremely high wear resistance. The smoothness and high hardness of the coating can prolong its service life, so as to prolong its cleaning cycle; Sherwin Williams company of the United States launched Sher release silicon coating in 2009. This coating includes three layers of high elastic components with extraordinary performance, which can reduce fuel consumption by 6% - 10%; Before the opening of the Arctic route, coating giant PPG company launched sigma shield 1200 epoxy coating with good wear resistance and impact resistance, which is suitable for ships sailing in ice area. This low-temperature coating can be used in cold conditions; Hydrox of Belgium completed a three-year research on ecospeed products in 2009. The results show that this novel hull coating has the characteristics of coating in water and can reduce the friction resistance by more than 5%; Hempel has introduced a HempasilX3 based decontamination coating based on hydrogel, which maintains the characteristics of decontamination and drag reduction, and has the same skin elasticity. International paint has launched intersleek 900 fluoropolymer non fouling coating, which uses a surface with comprehensive hydrophilic and hydrophobic properties to prevent the adhesion of marine organisms, thus reducing the chemical and electrostatic adhesion between hull surface and fouling bottom organisms, making these organic adhesives difficult to adhere to the amphoteric surface of the coating, Through careful performance monitoring results, it is confirmed that the fuel consumption has been reduced by 9%.