Marine paint swells on surge of ship orders

Domestic makers up efforts to meet demand with full production capacity

After two months of watching their production volume drop, marine paint and building material manufacturers in China's eastern region are raising both efficiency and output to drive growth and offset losses caused by shipbuilders' declining production capacity in the second quarter.

By the end of May, China's major shipbuilders held executed orders for 102.2 million dead weight tons (DWT), up 20.2 percent on a yearly basis. These orders were mainly placed by foreign shipowners from Europe, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, said the Beijing-based China Association of the National Shipbuilding Industry, or CANSI.

"Since shipbuilders resumed production in Shanghai in late May and companies in other coastal provinces kept receiving orders to build new vessels, we are currently running at full capacity to produce 20,000 barrels of marine paint on a daily basis, with each barrel containing 15 liters of paint," said Xu Jiwei, director of the operation unit of Jotun COSCO Marine Coatings (Qingdao) Co Ltd, a joint venture between a unit of State-owned China COSCO Shipping Corp Ltd and Norway's Jotun A/S.