The development direction of water-based coatings has attracted much attention from all walks of life. Whether it is the supplier of raw materials, the manufacturer of coatings, or the applicator of coatings, from consumers to enterprises, and from enterprises to the government, different voices have been issued in various fields. Each viewpoint has its basis or conditions. The viewpoint of this paper is expressed by Ms. Chen Danyu.

 

Three necessary conditions for the development of Waterborne Coatings

 

Chen Danyu studied at Kellogg School of business administration in the United States. He has worked in the United States for many years and engaged in new product development and brand management in several top 500 multinational companies. Now he is the marketing director of huajinsi company, a supplier of water-based coatings raw materials.

 

Waterborne coatings are a hot spot in China's coating industry. The lack of development of water-based paint is also an indisputable fact. On the forum, QQ group and coating website, there are discussions on water-based paint where coating people gather. A few months ago, in the QQ group of water-based coating technology of huajinsi company in the United States, a senior water-based coating engineer once lamented: "if the performance of water-based paint can reach the level of oil-based paint, water-based paint will have hope in China." Engineers' constant pursuit of coating performance is an excellent quality. However, in my opinion, the so-called performance defects of water-based paint are not the core of the problem of water-based paint in China. In a sense, analyzing the problem of water-based paint in China is like seeing a patient. For example, a diabetic patient will suffer from overeating and weight gain. If you go on a diet and take diet pills only when you see obesity, the patient's condition will not recover. Analysis of water-based paint market is the same. In order to develop China's water-based coating market, we must go beyond the appearance and go directly to the root of the problem of water-based coating development.

 

Three necessary conditions for the development of waterborne paint. The successful development experience of water-based paint in European and American markets shows that the success of water-based paint needs three necessary conditions: consumers' requirements for environmental protection, the government's legislation on organic volatiles, and the investment of coating raw materials and coating enterprises in environmental friendly coatings. Further, the three are closely linked: consumers' requirements for environmental protection promote the government's legislative behavior on VOC, and the government's VOC legislation forces the coating industry to invest in the environment-friendly coating industry, driving the transformation of the whole industry from solvent based coating to water-based coating. This "trilogy" is the key to the success of European and American water-based paint.

 

The requirement of "trilogy" in water-based paint market depends on the particularity of water-based paint. Under normal market conditions, most products are determined by both supply and demand sides, driven by consumer demand, and enterprises broaden the market. However, this process from demand to supply is not applicable to water-based paint. Fundamentally, water-based paint is not only a substitute for solvent based paint, but also a very special substitute: it is an environmentally friendly substitute. The appearance of waterborne paint is not because it is cheaper, harder and stronger than solvent paint, but because it has low VOC (organic volatile matter) content and is more environmentally friendly. This is precisely the key to the problem. If water-based paint is a cheaper, harder and stronger substitute, the market competition mechanism can easily complete the product upgrading process. For example, after the emergence of CDs and DVDs, tapes and videotapes quickly disappeared. The trace is an example. However, despite decades of research and development, water-based paint still can not fully reach the level of paint in performance and cost. The main advantage of waterborne paint is its low VOC content. In China, this is often advertised as protecting the health of painters. In fact, in terms of the development history of water-based paint, the greater significance of water-based paint in the world is its protection of air quality. Solvent based paint is the second largest source of organic volatiles after automobile exhaust. In the guidelines for volatile organic compounds regulations issued by the Hong Kong Government in December 2009, the Hong Kong government pointed out that "volatile organic compounds are the main element and premise to promote the formation of ozone and smoke. Specifying the emission of volatile organic compounds will help alleviate the problem of ozone and smoke pollution in Hong Kong, so as to protect the health of the public."

 

The nature of water-based paint environmental protection has brought a very complex problem: consumers pay for the purchase of water-based paint, but the real beneficiary is the whole society that can enjoy clean air. In this case, the formation of water-based paint market must require government action. Why do you say that? Here, we need to understand an economic concept called "externality".  For example, it seems that sewage is discharged. Water is public property. For a printing and dyeing factory, directly discharging sewage into public water source is the most cost-effective and economical method, because it is not responsible for public water source. So is VOC. For coating users, the most important thing is the performance of the coating. The level of VOC is relatively unimportant, because they do not need to pay for the impact of VOC emission on air quality. In other words, if it is completely through market behavior, consumers will support solvent based paint and resist water-based paint because of the pursuit of paint performance. Of course, for consumers who paint by themselves, the protection of water-based paint on the body will be a consideration. However, just relying on the advantages of water-based paint to protect the health of paint applicators can not lead to the success of water-based paint in a large area. The resistance of painters in the Chinese market to water-based paint is a clear proof. At the same time, for coating manufacturers, it is a huge cost to transfer from oil to water. Only in the aspect of architectural coatings, the cost of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to completely convert the oil-based formula to the water-based formula is expected to be $200 million. No paint manufacturer is willing to invest US $200 million in developing products that are not popular in the market. On the one hand, customers don't buy water-based paint. On the one hand, manufacturers are unwilling to invest in the research and development of water-based paint. Where there are external problems, the market function fails, and the public interests can only be protected through government actions. This is true of sewage management.  The same is true for VOC management.