Background
In recent years, China has seen remarkable growth in its coating market. According to China’s State Statistics Bureau (see chart 1), the annual production of coatings has grown steadily since 2007, increasing from 5.9728 million tons in 2007 to 18.9987 in 2016. Moreover, the production of coatings in the first half year of 2017 reached 9.641 million tons, with a growth rate of 10.5% compared to the same period last year.