Painting firm sees opportunities in China's big urbanization drive

Every day, new homes are being built during China's rapid urbanization. But, for Wee Siew Kim, chief executive officer of Nipsea Group, it is the old homes he cares more about. After all, Asia's leading paints and coatings producer has prioritized a renewal strategy for both interior and exterior walls in the Chinese market.

China has prospered in the past 20 years and a lot of its buildings were built 10 or 20 years ago. These buildings today may not look so new. Indeed in need of a lick of paint. Nipsea Group has showed strong interest in being part of the effort to renew them.

"I think as more people come and live in cities, more and more buildings will be built," Wee said. "If the trend is accepted by everybody, the next trend, coupled to urbanization, is renewal,"

The annual overall revenue this year in the China market would increase by more than 15 percent year-on-year to exceed 10 billion yuan for the first time, he told China Daily.

Wee's confidence comes from the country's continuous economic growth, as indicated by the growing gross domestic product and the country's urbanization drive.

The total production of coatings reached 12.72 million tons in 2012, up 11.79 percent compared with a year earlier. China is the world's largest manufacturer of coatings, official data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.

Nipsea Group, set up as a joint venture by Japanese paint maker Nippon Paint Co and Singaporean Wuthelam Group in 1962, now ranks as one of Asia's leading paints and coatings manufacturers.

It has grown to take charge of Nippon Paint's business in Asia now as well as running businesses in other sectors, such as auto and powder coatings.