New Thinking in China's Painting Industry

HANGZHOU, China, Oct. 30, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Over the last ten years, the Chinese painting industry has witnessed a rapid rise, with yearly output breaking ten million tons in 2011. And in that period, it has developed with great success, with branding companies expanding on a very large scale. In the "12th Five-Year Plan" period, China has the target of continuing it urban development, while also ensuring its rapid economic development brings high-quality life to consumers. Because of all these reasons, the painting industry has enjoyed great prospects over the past ten years. The monitoring data from China Competition Information show that the domestic annual output of painting reached 5.437 million tons in the first half of 2012, with an increase of 8.49% year-on-year; the painting output in Guangdong comes to 1.0339 million tons in the first half year of 2012, with a year-on-year growth of 9.14%, accounting for 19.01% of the national total output; closely followed by Shanghai, Jiangsu Province and Zhejiang Province, accounting for 13.12%, 11.74% and 8.83% respectively.

However, after a period of rapid development, our Chinese painting industry has entered into a relatively low period, that is the "industrial winter". In our traditional concept, spring is the season for all things to grow, while winter means the period of dormancy. When in 2012, owing to the policy of macro-control implemented from the second half year of 2011, especially the domestic housing market regulation, China's painting industry has begun to go through a period of concussion. And, it can be seen that some painting enterprises have begun to take some measures of financial control, for the fear of the coming "winter". They have cut down budgets or suspended all necessary and unnecessary plans related to marketing and investment. However, these cutbacks have been done in haste.

"Winter" is not a dead end, and it is not beyond hope, but just an adjustment & integration period in the condition of national policy adjustments. This is one period full of unlimited hope. No matter how badly we see the condition of architectural coatings, marine coatings and other Chinese coating industries in 2012, it is still a high-growth industry full of great business opportunities and hope.

And no matter how cold the industry is, there will still appear many high-growth enterprises and new emerging companies with their new business models. How do these enterprises deal with the "winter"? How do they work out their suitable and effective "winter" plans to obtain sustainable growth?

In the face of the current industrial downturn, the mainstream painting companies are all making efforts in their promotion of products. The energy-saving, environmental protection fields are now the main industrial tendency, and industries upgrading to meet this need have been accelerated, all of which help the Chinese painting industry lay a solid foundation and thus enhance competitiveness. With the improving consumption levels and changing of the consumption concept, consumers' requirements have changed from the original single function & single product to multiple functions. And the painting products, with colorful and emotional experiences, which are in line with the green fashion, will surely be more favored by the market.

Much like the four seasons, the Chinese painting industry is also consistent with the periodic law when it comes into the slow adjustment phase after decades of rapid development. The last rapid development has made China become the world's largest production country. In the future, Chinese painting should turn from "quantity' to "quality", which is also pointed out in the "12th Five-Year" Plan for the painting industry. Of course, the bright future has not waited for every enterprise, and the chances will only be ready for those prepared companies.

In this "Winter" period, many painting enterprises are not awaiting their doom, but are active in re-thinking and re-adjusting to be bigger and stronger, with a new way of thinking.

In these years, China's painting enterprises have simplified their traditional models through the e-commerce network technology and innovative financing service by means of comprehensive network platforms, and then built their efficient and convenient trading service system and information service system. It accordingly solves the problems of industry circulation costs and financial pressure, strengthening the interface between the upstream and downstream industries, and then improves the market response capabilities and overall competitiveness with great success. With the in-depth development of the coatings industry, the industry and marketing systems will be undergoing a profound change and then enter into a brand new stage of development.

By the means of information technology and network technology from the point of e-commerce, China's painting industry has optimized the current sales process to improve efficiency, broaden its market, create benefits, and realize the e-commerce transforming from informatization to commercialization. Thus, it will improve the market vitality and then promote the market in the way of a vstandardized, large-scale and efficient development.

It's therefore no surprise that China's professional B2B teams are now thriving. LookChem, a bright star amongst Chinese network operators, has built a professional procurement management system to facilitate the buyers to have purchasing management. It has initiated the first buyer service department, which is to provide professional services; and it was also the first to launch the Custom Synthesis Channel in the industry, in order to provide a convenient channel for custom buyers and sellers to communicate.

LookChem, with a professional products database of nearly 20 million items, is the world's largest chemical products and suppliers information base. With a registered procurement of 100,000 members, it owns numerous well-known buyers from countries all over the world. It has daily visits of nearly 30 million, 80% of which come from international buyers, and it has the leading SEM marketing team to provide the best quality product promotions, 80% of which are ranking the first in Google searching results. It also has the most abundant chemical product procurement resources, with monthly inquiries up to 50,000, 90% of which are from foreign buyers.

Within the Chinese painting industry, there are constantly emerging B2B e-commerce platforms and other information platforms releasing supply and demand information. However, as there are many steps in China's painting industry like production, warehousing, distribution, sales and so on, the scattered e-commerce model could not solve the problem of high costs and could not also meet the demands of bulk trading for customers. Therefore, the chemical industry market is in urgent need for one e-commerce platform that could unify the whole industry market. It is then required to integrate industry resources and demand market, warehousing, logistics and trading funds, and then provide one set of comprehensive supporting services, including upstream & downstream trade, supply chain financing, logistics finance, integrated information consulting services and testing and certification, in order to satisfy the needs of the development of upstream and downstream enterprises in the industry.

The Chinese painting industry is still on the road of innovation and development.

LookChem and other domestic e-commerce platforms also have a long way to go for their better development.

LookChem is a subcompany of Hangzhou Weiku Information & Technology Company.

SOURCE Hangzhou WeiKu Information Technology Co., Ltd.