Powder Coatings for Home Appliances in 2011: Rising Prices

Due to the close to zero VOC (volatile organic compound) emissions, environmental protection requirements, and high cost performance, coating efficiency, and safety, powder coatings are widely used in the production of refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, and small household appliances. in. At present, epoxy polyester powder coatings with epoxy resin and polyester resin as main film-forming substances are most widely used in household appliances.

After years of development, powder coatings can not only protect metal surfaces but also play an important role in decoration, corrosion resistance, and high temperature resistance. However, in recent years, due to factors such as rising prices of raw materials, the price of powder coatings has fluctuate constantly, which has caused great difficulties for the entire machine manufacturers.

The price is on the upward trend

A few years ago, when the global financial crisis struck, sales in the powder coatings industry stagnated, and as raw material prices have shrunk, powder coating prices have also fallen to the bottom. But soon, under the influence of policies such as “Home Appliances Going to the Countryside” and “National Infrastructure Expansion” that drove domestic demand in China, the powder coating market was able to recover rapidly. “In 2009 and 2010, the powder coating market for home appliances has achieved rapid growth.” According to a person in charge of a powder coating production company, it is expected that the sales volume of powder coatings for home appliances will continue to grow steadily in 2011.

Since the end of 2009, the price of raw materials used to make powder coatings has been rising in the fluctuating state. According to industry insiders, the price of epoxy resin, polyester resin and other products has been rising all the way. In the first half of 2010, there have been three sharp fluctuations of more than 10%, which poses a great challenge to powder coating companies.

It is understood that most of the recent powder coating companies have started to raise prices. Since March 1, 2011, AkzoNobel has raised the price of all powder coatings sold in the Chinese market by 10% to 20% for different product types. Akzo Nobel's responsible person for powder coating said that since the second quarter of 2010, the prices of all raw materials for powder coating production have been continuously rising. Although AkzoNobel internally absorbed some of the impact of rising raw material prices, the company had to adjust the price of powder coating sales due to further accelerated raw material prices and no signs of slowing.

Valspar also raised the prices of powder coatings twice at the end of 2010 and early in 2011, a total of about 20%.

Wu Yuhang, enterprise management department of DuPont Huajia Chemical Co., Ltd. also told reporters: "From the beginning of this year to the present, the price of the company's powder coating has increased by 5% to 20%."

Wu Yuhang believes that the current high prices of powder coatings on the market are mainly due to the rise in crude oil prices, the increase in exports of powder coatings driven by the recovery of foreign economies, and the hype of domestic distributors. With the price of powder coatings soaring, the products are likely to have a slow-moving phenomenon, which in turn aggravates the market competition of powder coating manufacturers. Therefore, in the second half of this year, the market price of powder coatings may fall slightly.

Tu Yufeng, head of household appliances business at Tiger Powder Coatings (Taicang) Co., Ltd., said that the current price of tiger powder coatings has not yet risen. Since the upward trend of raw materials for powder coatings, the price of petroleum, has not weakened, the prices of powder coatings in the industry will not rule out the possibility of further increase.

New technologies continue to emerge

It is understood that there are currently 1,500 to 2,000 powder coating manufacturers in China, and the overall production capacity of powder coatings in the Chinese market is excessive. The scale of enterprises is small, and the investment in technology research and development is not enough. Most of them are based on other people's formulas and do not have their own intellectual property rights. Domestic powder coating companies generally occupy low-end and middle-end markets with low-quality and low-price products.

Foreign powder coating brands have strong strength in China. At present, large-scale powder coating companies in China mainly include AkzoNobel, DuPont Huajia Chemical Co., Ltd., Tiger Powder Coatings, Valspar, and PPG. In recent years, the capacity of these companies has continued to expand. In the second half of 2010, AkzoNobel's Wuhan Powder Coatings Factory was officially opened. The company's current annual production capacity of powder coatings is 4,000 tons, which is also the sixth powder coating factory AkzoNobel has established in China. It is reported that tiger powder paint had just moved into a new factory early this year. The plant is designed for annual production capacity of 15,000 to 16,000 tons, which is double the production capacity of the old factory. The company's goal is to have three factories in China in the next 3-4 years, with an annual production capacity of 40,000 tons.

According to report, at present, in the face of increasing demands on the production cost, product appearance and performance of the household appliances industry, major powder coating manufacturers have launched targeted products and solutions.

Akzo Nobel’s official said: “The fluctuations in raw material prices in the upper reaches have a major impact on our business, but we have provided customers with solutions that reduce the cost of use by minimizing the coating thickness of powder coatings in home appliances production. The person in charge also believes that effectively reducing the coating thickness of powder coatings is currently the best energy-saving and emission reduction solution. “Because the powder coatings have almost zero VOC emissions, if we can effectively reduce the coating thickness, we can reduce the overall amount of organics used.”

Dubang Huajia Chemical Co., Ltd. related technical personnel also said that in recent years, in the home appliance market, the company launched a thin coating powder can not only reduce the amount of powder used, and excellent performance, even if some metal parts need to be bent, it will not affect the coating Film properties. In addition, some powder coatings have also been improved in performance, such as corrosion resistance and high temperature resistance. "In addition, as more and more galvanized sheets are used by home appliance companies, we have also introduced powder coatings suitable for this type of sheet."

Tu Yufeng said: "Tiger powder coatings used in the home appliance industry is dominated by second-generation bonding metal powders. Tiger powder coatings have created the second-generation metal powder bonding technology with the best metal effect and the most stable performance in the industry. Compared with the first-generation metal-powder bonding process, this process technology can greatly increase the adhesion and bonding ratio of the base powder and the metal pigment, and make the pigment distribution more uniform, thus conquering the powder particles. In the process of storage and transportation, the problem of easy separation of the pigment and the base powder, so as to achieve a more uniform metal color performance.In addition, the use of tiger powder coating process, all the scattered paint can be recycled and reused, thus saving cost."

In addition, Tiger Powder Coatings can also provide a variety of unique products, such as high-efficiency antibacterial powder coatings, high-temperature powder coatings, super wear-resistant powder coatings, super-leveling powder coatings, powder coatings for glass, and Oil type powder coating, easy-to-clean powder coating and crack effect powder coating.

In addition to performance, the color expression of powder coatings also significantly enhances the aesthetic appearance of home appliances. Andrea Codecasa, global electrical market manager at AkzoNobel, stated: “In the past, people roughly classified home appliances as white goods or black home appliances. The general consumers are concerned about the functions of these products, and aesthetics are only secondary considerations. However, This situation has changed in recent years, and today's consumers are starting to regard home appliances as a part of interior design. Therefore, it is hoped that home appliance manufacturers can provide products with more color choices."

It is understood that color development is the primary goal of AkzoNobel, AkzoNobel's aesthetic center develops the most common, fashionable and popular colors of the next year every year. In powder coating applications, Akzo Nobel is not only keeping up with the trend of color, but also working with the customer's design department to develop a paint color suitable for customers to highlight its personality.

PerNimer, Akzo Nobel's global design manager, said that this year's popular colors will be more refreshing, and at the same time, an optimistic and hopeful spirit will be distributed.

For the color selection of home appliances, Tu Yufeng said that Tiger Powder's second-generation bonding metal powder can provide a variety of color options for different home appliances. For example, the color of the current washing machine has been expanded to silver, silver, champagne, and other colors, and it has developed to multi-color painting directions such as red, sky blue, and color changing effects.