Industrial Coatings Market: Resilience Amidst Uncertainty

HZ info，The following analysis will give an overview of the global -industrial coatings market. It provides insights the relevant segments of industrial coatings – by analysing the segment -specific growth drivers and regional growth trends. By Ashish Ladha and Prasuk Jain, Aditya Birla Group.

The industrial coatings market (i.e. OEM and Special purpose -coatings) is stable and mature industry, characterized by high -entry barriers (formulation know-how, strong distribution network and relationships with large customers, high brand recall), asset light but distributed manufacturing set-up and companies with global presence but with ability for local customization.This article aims to assess the growth across select sub-segments of coatings in 2025, based on results announced by major coatings -producers and analyse the underlying growth drivers.

Automotive OEM coatings

The global automotive OEM market is estimated to be ~EUR 18.8 billion[1]. It is a consolidated industry, with top 5 players (i.e., PPG, BASF, -Axalta, Kansai & Nippon) accounting for more than ~75%+ of global -automotive OEM coatings market. As per the forecast by S&P global, published in August 2025, the -production of light vehicles (i.e., passenger cars and light commercial vehicles) is expected to grow by ~0.9% in 2025, driven by strong growth in Asia Pacific, primarily China. LV production in Europe & North -America is expected to decline.

In USA, the recent trade negotiations have resulted in lower than anticipated tariffs on the vehicles imported from the United Kingdom, the European Union, Japan, and Korea). The lower tariff costs, along with automakers absorbing a greater than expected proportion of those tariffs — has tempered the economic fallout of the tariffs, at least in 2025.

Marine coatings

Marine coatings include anti-fouling paints, applied to ship bottoms (i.e. the part that is submerged underwater) to prevent contamination from marine life and anti-corrosion paints, which are applied to the -entire hull (including tank interiors) to prevent iron corrosion. Anti-fouling -coatings are considered as more value-added products as they also aid in -improving fuel efficiency and reducing carbon emissions.

Within marine coatings, there are 2 customer segments: a) New Ship builds: Customers are primarily shipyards. The growth is dependent on the number of new builds, with time lag of ~2-3 years between order receipt and completion of delivery. This -market is -concentrated, with China, S. Korea and Japan accounting for ~95% of shipbuilding in 2025. Coating prices vary depending on ship prices.b) Ship repairs: Customers are mainly ship-owners and shipping lines. Primarily anti-fouling paints are used and the pricing is -relatively stable. Ship repairs/repaints is primarily a function of ship ageing & -distance travelled (or volume of cargo transported). These coatings have market in USA, Europe and South East Asia.

Protective coatings

Protective coatings include coatings and finishes for protection of -metal and structures, related to high value assets such as bridges and stadiums, oil and petrochemical facilities and power generation -facilities. Most of the times, this segment is typically clubbed with the marine coatings segment. PPG’s sales of marine and protective coatings demonstrated strong momentum, with double digit organic growth, driven by higher volume & share gain. CMP’s industrial coatings segment is primarily protective coatings, comprising of heavy-duty coatings for factories, bridges, and other structures and coatings used in construction segment such as flooring and cladding. This segment registered sales growth of ~6% in H1 2025. There was growth in Japan, South Korea, South-East Asia, Europe and US, which was partially offset by the decline in China.

This article is part of the December issue of the European Coatings Journal. The complete piece is available in Europan Coatings 360.

References

[1] PPG Investor Presentation, May 2025

source：european-coatings.com