Foreign chemical giants rush to the Chinese automotive refinish market

On December 11, chemical giant BASF teamed up with TGPM to build a high-end automotive refinishing skill center in Foshan, providing one-stop service for the different needs of the entire automotive refinishing value chain. The Chinese market has become BASF's third largest market in the world.

Car paint is a variety of technical coatings and added value in industrial coatings, representing the technical level of a national coatings industry. With the rapid development of China's auto market, the automotive coatings market is also showing a flourishing life, naturally attracting the attention of foreign chemical giants, and they have entered the Chinese market through various forms of cooperation. Up to now, the world's top automotive coating brands have all settled in China, which has a strong impact on the domestic automotive coatings industry. PPG, Axalta, Akzo Nobel, BASF, Sherwin-Williams, Nippon Paint, Kansai Paint and other large-scale coatings companies all have established production bases in China. In recent years, the “paint giants” have targeted the Chinese automotive refinishing market and entered the Chinese market through various forms of cooperation. For example, on March 28 this year, Japan Kansai Paint Waterborne Automotive Refinish Coatings held a signing ceremony for automotive refinishing strategic partners in Shanghai, and released AI artificial intelligence coloring and waterborne automotive refinishing products on behalf of automotive refinishing technology. In November of this year, DuPont of France and FAW Mazda Automobile Sales Co., Ltd. held a signing ceremony in Changchun on the automotive refinishing cooperation project. According to the contract, DuPont will become the only supplier of FAW Mazda's designated automotive refinish coatings - that is, the 102 specialty stores authorized by FAW Mazda in China will use the DuPont automotive refinish CENTARI series.

Of course, as the global chemical giant BASF is not idle, as a BASF with nearly 80 automotive refinishing skills centers around the world, it has seven automotive refinishing skills centers in China. This time, together with Guangdong Shilihe Automobile Industry Group Co., Ltd. (Shilihe), the establishment of BASF-Shili and Automotive Refinishing Skills Center is enough to demonstrate its determination to accelerate the market in China. In response, Peter Fischer, senior vice president of Asia Pacific at BASF Coatings Systems, said: "The new Skills Center confirms BASF's determination to continue investing in production bases, training facilities and training capabilities in this growing market in China. Innovation and driving high-performance growth are two of BASF's strategic principles, and that's why we have worked together and established a skills center in Foshan."