Ranked Among the World’s Top 20 Industrial Coatings Brands for Seven Consecutive Years — Why Is Xiangjiang Paint So Steady?

The global top industrial coatings brand ranking, now in its seventh year of publication, is the world’s only authoritative brand ranking in the industrial coatings industry. It serves as the benchmark for measuring the strength, scale, and international competitiveness of major global industrial coatings brands. Due to its independence, fairness, and objectivity, the list has gained wide attention and high recognition within the industry and is known as the “weathervane” of global industrial coatings development.

On this prestigious list, Xiangjiang Paint has once again secured a position among the global Top 20 industrial coatings brands, demonstrating to the world the resilience and strength of Chinese brands. So, what has Xiangjiang Paint done right to maintain such a solid industry position? The answer lies in its firm grasp of innovation — the “key variable” — by providing products and services that precisely meet customer needs, keeping pace with the times, and actively building an innovation ecosystem in the coatings industry through comprehensive and in-depth innovation, thereby injecting strong momentum into the development of new quality productive forces.

Innovation and Transformation: Steadily Pursuing High-Quality Development

“Xiangjiang Paint, Reliable Paint” — this slogan is well-known to everyone in the coatings industry. Today, Xiangjiang Paint has built a fully self-controlled industrial chain covering research and development of coatings and resins, manufacturing, marketing, and terminal services. It has become one of the Chinese coatings enterprises with the most complete product portfolio.

The company’s business spans automotive coatings, industrial coatings, heavy-duty anti-corrosion coatings, waterborne coatings, architectural coatings, and specialty coatings. It provides comprehensive solutions for automobiles, equipment, rail transit, aircraft, ships, petrochemicals and power, bridges, home appliances, facilities, construction, flooring, and many other sectors, covering almost every aspect of the national economy.

After 75 years of development, Xiangjiang Paint has grown into a significant force in both the Chinese and global coatings markets. The group currently operates four modern coatings production bases in Hunan and Henan provinces, employs over 2,000 staff, occupies 666,000 square meters of land, and has an annual production capacity of 500,000 tons. Its business covers the entire country and extends into overseas markets.

According to the authoritative rankings released by Tujie (Coatings World), Xiangjiang Paint ranks among the Global Top 100 Coatings Companies (29th in 2025), the Asia-Pacific Top 50 Coatings Companies (10th in 2025), and the China Top 100 Coatings Companies (8th in 2025). The company’s market share and brand influence rank among the highest in China and globally.

In the “2025 Global Top 10 Automotive Coatings Brands” list released by Tujie, Xiangjiang Paint once again secured a position and ranked 8th with sales revenue of USD 445.2 million, making it the only Chinese coatings brand in the global top ten. In the “2025 Global Top 30 Industrial Coatings Brands” list, Xiangjiang Paint again ranked among the Top 20, taking the leading position among all Chinese brands.

What has enabled Xiangjiang Paint to maintain such a stable industry position? The answer is its firm commitment to innovation as the core driver. From its founding, the spirit of innovation and change has been embedded in the company’s DNA. In recent years, Xiangjiang Paint has made technological innovation its core strategy, continuously increasing R&D investment. The company has established a National Aging Resistance Testing Center Laboratory, a Postdoctoral Research Workstation, the Hunan Engineering Machinery Coatings Engineering Technology Research Center, the Henan Vehicle Paint Engineering R&D Center, the Hunan Green Automotive Coatings Engineering Technology Research Center, and many other advanced R&D platforms.

In 2024, the former 100-mu Xingsha old factory of Xiangjiang Paint was transformed into an Automotive Coatings Research Institute. Since its establishment, the institute has rapidly launched high-orientation color paint systems and high-appearance, high-scratch-resistant varnish products tailored for new energy vehicles, while comprehensively advancing the localization of raw materials, steadily increasing the domestic material adoption rate.

In April 2025, the Hunan First High-Performance Anti-Corrosion Coatings Joint R&D Center — jointly established by Xiangjiang Paint Technology Co., Ltd. and Sinopec Hunan Petrochemical Co., Ltd. — was officially unveiled in Changsha. The center will conduct integrated “production-sales-research-application” cooperation to develop high-performance anti-corrosion coatings for the petrochemical industry and solve persistent pain points such as the short service life of coatings on energy storage tanks.

Through continuous technological breakthroughs and product innovation, Xiangjiang Paint has actively promoted industry progress. Examples include key technologies for high-weatherability and high-edge-protection powder coatings for engineering machinery, which effectively solve edge corrosion issues and extend equipment service life; key technologies for high-performance metallic effect aluminum pigments and coatings, bringing domestically produced aluminum pigment automotive coatings to internationally advanced levels; and the undertaking of a major provincial science and technology project on “Key Technologies for Green High-Performance Automotive Electrophoretic Coatings,” resulting in four new products and ten new processes.

Focusing on the coating pain points in engineering machinery, commercial vehicles, and special materials, Xiangjiang Paint invested RMB 27 million in a joint project with universities to develop environmentally friendly fast-drying polyurea anti-corrosion coatings. The company independently developed new polyaspartic primer and topcoat resins that are environmentally friendly, fast-drying, and offer excellent anti-corrosion performance. These products have reached world-advanced levels, solved industry pain points that had persisted for over a decade, and received unanimous recognition from customers.

Guided by the concept of green development, Xiangjiang Paint has overcome multiple technical bottlenecks in green coatings and achieved breakthroughs in high-appearance low-VOC coatings, low-temperature curing coatings, and high-weatherability, stain-resistant, self-cleaning coatings. The company now possesses the most complete green product system in China. Its waterborne coatings, powder coatings, and high-solid coatings are widely used across industries such as automotive, engineering machinery, and high-end equipment manufacturing. Its green transformation has achieved remarkable results, establishing it as a benchmark for the industry.

Leveraging its strong R&D capabilities, Xiangjiang Paint continues to deepen its efforts in both product breadth and depth, maintaining resilience and adaptability in the face of complex market changes. In the engineering machinery sector, as the “Best Cooperation Supplier” for Zoomlion’s Earthmoving Division, the company solved technical challenges related to centralized paint supply systems and robotic spraying, repeatedly validated waterborne coatings, and ultimately improved flow, defoaming, and stability performance. It also developed standardized processes for centralized paint delivery and robotic spraying systems. Currently, leading domestic engineering machinery giants such as XCMG and Shanhe Intelligent use Xiangjiang Paint products.

In the automotive coatings sector, the Xiangjiang Kansai Research Institute launched 25 new products in 2024, covering body coatings, bumper coatings, color paints, and varnishes. Some have already entered mass production and gained favor from major automakers including SAIC Volkswagen, Dongfeng Nissan, and Mercedes-Benz. The company has also accelerated market development for new energy vehicle brands such as BYD, Seres (AITO), NIO, XPeng, and Li Auto.

In recent years, Xiangjiang Paint has provided high-performance coating solutions for major transportation infrastructure projects such as the Xiangluzhou Bridge in Changsha, the Chang-Zhu-Tan Intercity Railway, the Xinglian Road Bridge, and the Changsha Airport expansion project, ensuring the durability and safety of bridges, tunnels, and elevated structures.

In the petrochemical and power sectors, Xiangjiang Paint has delivered customized coating services for projects including the new relocation of Hunan Petrochemical, Sinopec Zhenhai Refining, and PetroChina Jilin Petrochemical. It also provides high-performance industrial coatings and comprehensive anti-corrosion solutions for Datang Power, Qihua Power, China Resources Power, State Grid, China Coal Group, and China Aluminum Group, meeting stringent requirements for corrosion and wear resistance under complex operating conditions.

In urban construction, Xiangjiang Paint supplies high-weatherability and stain-resistant premium environmentally friendly coatings for public facilities in Changsha such as the Workers’ Cultural Palace, stadiums, hospitals, schools, bridges, and tunnels. The company also provides green coatings and supporting services for major real estate and key projects developed by Hunan Construction Investment, China Construction Fifth Engineering Division, Changsha City Development Group, Xiangjiang Group, Changfang Group, and Lugu Group.

Xiangjiang Paint has transformed scientific and technological innovation into the “key variable” for enterprise development and the “greatest increment” for high-quality growth.

Developing New Quality Productive Forces for Greater Certainty and Sustainability

Facing a new round of technological and industrial revolution, Xiangjiang Paint is actively innovating in new technologies, new industries, and new tracks, vigorously developing and applying new quality productive forces. In recent years, the company has seized the high ground of development through intelligent and green transformation.

Automatic batching, automatic filling, and automatic labeling… Xiangjiang Paint has taken the lead in building a full-chain intelligent production system in digital-intelligent manufacturing, completely transforming the traditional image of chemical enterprises. The once labor-intensive production scene has become a footnote to the company’s intelligent development, marking a fundamental leap from “manual” to “digital-intelligent” production.

In May 2024, Xiangjiang Paint’s new intelligent production control center was officially put into operation, elevating the company’s production intelligence and management efficiency to a new level. Through a large central screen, staff can monitor real-time data and live footage of key production links, promptly identifying anomalies or unsafe behaviors.

Thanks to the monitoring, statistics, and analysis capabilities of the control center, raw material consumption and other key data are clearly visible, significantly improving production efficiency and reducing operating costs. Since the implementation of the digital-intelligent system, the company has achieved zero safety accidents, a 100% production plan completion rate, a 30% reduction in comprehensive energy consumption in some bases, and a 45% increase in personnel efficiency.

At the same time, Xiangjiang Paint supports the development of new energy applications, clean sewage diversion, wastewater recycling, solid waste resource utilization, and harmless treatment. The company promotes green design and green procurement, adopts advanced clean production technologies and efficient end-of-pipe treatment equipment, and has established a resource recovery and recycling mechanism to achieve green factory development.

Because of its consistent commitment to green manufacturing and the path of green and intelligent development, Xiangjiang Kansai, a controlled subsidiary of Xiangjiang Paint, had its “Annual 180,000-ton Coatings and 60,000-ton Resin Green Workshop Project” selected for the National Green Manufacturing System Integration Project list in 2016 and was recognized as a National Green Factory in 2018. Xiangjiang Paint Technology Co., Ltd. was also recognized as a National Green Factory in 2020. Additionally, 15 self-developed products, including cathodic electrophoretic coatings, anti-mold premium interior wall paints, and odorless environmentally friendly interior wall paints, have been certified as National Green Design Products.

Based on green technologies and products, Xiangjiang Paint has led or participated in the formulation of more than 20 national and industry green standards, including the Guidelines for Green Factory Evaluation in the Coatings Industry, Technical Specifications for Green Design Product Evaluation – Waterborne Architectural Coatings, Technical Specifications for Green Design Product Evaluation – Cathodic Electrophoretic Coatings, and others. The company has also established its own green product enterprise standards across multiple categories to drive the green transformation of the entire industry.

The ultimate goal of strengthening internal capabilities is to exert greater external force. With its profound digital-intelligent and green innovation strengths accumulated over many years, Xiangjiang Paint has accelerated the formation of new quality productive forces, injected continuous momentum into its development strategy, and maintained strong core competitiveness in the market. This fully demonstrates that Xiangjiang Paint possesses the growth resilience and certainty required for high-quality development amid industry cycles.