Advance the Localization of Automotive Coatings in China

HZ Info, during the 2026 Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, Hong Jie, a CPPCC National Committee member and Chairman & President of SKShu proposed that core raw materials such as high-performance resins and specialty additives for automotive coatings be included in national key R&D programs.

Hong Jie, Chairman & President of SKShu

He encouraged coatings enterprises to extend into the R&D and production of core raw materials, promote the technological upgrading of the domestic automotive chain, and foster the formation of an independent and controllable industry chain ecosystem encompassing "raw materials – coatings – complete vehicles."

The automotive industry is a crucial pillar of the China economy. In 2025, China's annual production of new energy vehicles exceeded 16 million units, and the number of chargingsurpassed 20 million. Currently, China has led the world in automobile production and sales for many consecutive years. Chinese brands have achieved remarkable results in the fields of new energy and intelligence, demonstrating strong industry development momentum.

Hong Jie pointed out that automotive coatings possess both decorative properties and key functionalities such as corrosion resistance, weather resistance, and chip resistance, making them essential supporting materials for automobiles. The lag inlocalization is not only detrimental to cost reduction and efficiency improvement for domestic auto brands but also directly impacts the autonomy and controllability of the automotive industry's supply chain. Accelerating the localization of the entire automotive coating industry chain is a matter of urgency.

As a pillar industry of the national economy, the automotive sector features a long industrial chain; the security of its supply chain directly relates to the overall development landscape. In critical material fields like automotive coatings, foreign brands monopolize over 90% of the market. Reliance on foreign core technologies has become a prominent shortage restricting the security of the industrial ecosystem.

Currently, the localization of automotive coatings faces three major challenges:

High Market Entry Barriers: OEMs have long certification cycles and high testing costs, lacking risk-sharing mechanisms, making it difficult for domestic coatings to enter mainstream supply systems.

Weak Pilot Scale-up Capability: Insufficient industry-university-research collaboration and a lack of professional pilot-scale innovation platforms hinder the effective transformation of laboratory technological achievements into industrial mass production.

"Bottleneck" in Core Raw Materials: Key raw materials like high-performance resins, specialty additives, and pigments have long relied on imports. Most domestic enterprises remain at the coating formulation level, resulting in weak technological competitiveness.

In automotive industry core areas, such as the Yangtze River Delta and Pearl River Delta, national-level pilot-scale innovation centers for automotive coatings should be established under a model of "government guidance, enterprise leadership, and industry-university-research collaboration." By replicating simulated coatings production lines 1:1, these centers would provide a standardized verification environment for domestic coatings, bridging the "last mile" from R&D to mass production and promoting the formation of an independent and controllable industry chain ecosystem of "raw materials – coatings – complete vehicles."