Coatings & plastics under pressure.(Chinese chemicals)

Despite Chinese premier Wen Jiabao's forecast of China achieving its 2009 target of 8% growth, made at the recent World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, there are major concerns about the impact of the global downturn on China's chemical sector. According to Rodger Yang, a chemicals, materials and food consulting analyst with consultancy Frost & Sullivan, while the slowdown has not affected Chinese banks to the same degree as in the Western economies, or had an impact on China's domestic demand, there has been a negative effect on the Chinese economy in the short terra. Chemical sectors like paints and coatings and plastics, and their key customers in the automotive and consumer electronics sectors (C&I 2008, 23, 24) have been hit hard.

China is currently the world's second largest paint and coatings market, after the US. The Chinese National Bureau of Statistics says total production in H1 2008 was 3.2m t, showing an 11.8% increase over H1 2007. Total paint and coatings shipments were estimated at …