What Is the Coating Industry Facing as Raw Material Costs Continue to Rise?

Recently, many customers have raised a common question during discussions: “Can the price be reduced further?" However, under the current market conditions, the answer to this question is becoming increasingly pragmatic.

01 Price Increases Are More Than Just “Higher Material Costs"

From oil to chemicals, from metals to transportation, costs across the entire industrial chain are rising systematically. For the coating industry, the cost structure involves chemical raw materials, metal powders such as zinc and aluminum, energy consumption, as well as environmental and compliance-related investments—all of which are highly correlated with upstream commodities.

When international energy prices fluctuate, these fundamental materials are often the first to be affected. As a result, coating companies are not facing an increase in the price of a single raw material, but rather a simultaneous rise in the overall cost structure. This trend is persistent and brings greater pressure.

02 “Dual Pressure" on the Manufacturing Side

Within the industrial chain, coating processors are typically positioned in the midstream. On one hand, they must absorb cost pressures from rising upstream raw material prices; on the other hand, they face continuous pricing demands from downstream customers. This places companies in a typical situation of “dual pressure."

Costs are increasing, yet prices cannot be fully passed on. Under such circumstances, blindly pursuing lower prices often leads to reduced process stability and fluctuations in product quality. Ultimately, these issues will feed back to customers themselves, affecting product consistency and reliability.

Junhe® LBGE3115 Step-Type Three-Layer Box Furnace

03 Shifting Competitive Focus

Against the backdrop of ongoing cost fluctuations, the competitive logic of the industry is quietly evolving. More and more companies are realizing that relying solely on price advantages is difficult to sustain in the long term. What truly determines competitiveness is efficiency and stability throughout the production process.

For example, how to improve coating consistency and reduce rework rates; how to minimize material waste and enhance utilization efficiency; and how to reduce dependence on labor through automation while enabling mixed-model production on the same line. These capabilities are increasingly becoming the new core competitive factors.

04 Shift in Customer Focus

In real projects, it is increasingly evident that customer priorities are shifting—from “one-time pricing" to “long-term operating costs." Rather than focusing solely on quotations, more customers are paying attention to the performance of production lines over extended periods of operation.

For instance, whether equipment requires frequent adjustments, whether model changes necessitate downtime, whether coating stability is controllable, and the level of reliance on manual labor. These factors often have a greater impact on overall operational efficiency than the initial price, and ultimately determine long-term costs.

05 From Local Optimization to System Optimization

In response to these changes, Junhe has placed greater emphasis on system-level optimization when serving customers, rather than focusing solely on individual equipment or isolated processes.

Through flexible design, mixed-model production can be achieved on the same line; through cycle-time optimization, waiting time is reduced; and through process improvements, material utilization is enhanced. At the same time, unnecessary process redundancy is minimized while still meeting performance requirements. Although such optimizations may not be immediately noticeable in the short term, they often deliver more stable and sustainable cost advantages over long-term operation.

While rising raw material costs may persist for some time, for the industry, this represents not only pressure but also an opportunity for adjustment and upgrading. The shift from price competition to capability-driven competition, and from local optimization to system-level optimization, is becoming an increasingly common direction.

For enterprises, the real focus should not only be on current pricing levels, but on the efficiency, stability, and sustainability of the entire production system.

If you are also exploring ways to optimize coating costs, improve production line efficiency, or enhance process stability, we welcome further discussion.