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Coating leader stresses green on production line
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The much-discussed “sustainable development” of the auto industry in China is no longer just about making greener cars. Increasing awareness is focused on the environmental impact of the production process, leading to a shift in industry policy by coating makers such as Axalta.
Formerly DuPont Performance Coatings, the Philadelphia-based company opened a new plant in Shanghai this month to double production capacity of waterborne coatings.
Such coatings, recently made compulsory for passenger car manufacturers in all new vehicle plants in China, help reduce volatile organic compounds while saving paint materials and improving the efficiency of spray applications, compared with traditional solvent coatings.
In the southern city of Shenzhen, all vehicle finish coatings are now required to be waterborne, another big boon for Axalta, the world’s largest maker of such coatings. Waterborne coatings account for 90 percent of the vehicle coatings market in Europe and 50 percent in the US. Their penetration rate in China is low but on the rise. They are indeed more expensive than solvent coatings, at least at first.
It is not about the cost of the product itself, as is the case with auto parts.
“The concerns are over the necessary upgrades of production equipment,” said Luke Lu, president of Axalta China. “The popularization of waterborne coatings depends very much on industry policy.”
Some of the big state-owned auto plants have already been urged to begin the conversion. To more budget-sensitive customers, high solid coats have been offered as a halfway solution to reduce volatile organic compounds, Lu added.
Despite various routes, the “going green” direction is clearer than ever.
Earlier this year, the Chinese government announced the imposition of a 4 percent consumption tax on paint as an environmental protection measure. Only coatings that contain less than 420 grams of volatile organic compounds per liter are exempt.
“To be effective, sustainability must be about productivity and profitability as much as about the effects on the environment and society,” said Charles Shaver, chairman and CEO of Axalta.
Axalta’s new facility in Shanghai is designed with environmental protection in mind, having highly automated production, zero open-air exposure of raw materials and advanced air filtration systems.
Automotive coating is a fusion of science and design.
Though the color preferences of global car buyers have remained static in recent years — with white still the top choice, followed by black, silver and gray — nuances of hues are always changing.
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