Ranking | World's Largest Automotive Coatings Brand: Annual Revenue Exceeds RMB 34 Billion, Ahead of Axalta and BASF

By country, the U.S. accounts for three spots on the list, while Germany, Singapore, the Netherlands, Japan, South Korea, China, and India each hold one. This distribution closely mirrors the global automotive industry’s geographical layout: major automobile-producing countries provide indigenous coatings brands with a natural testing ground and customer base, giving them an edge in technological iteration and service responsiveness. BASF of Germany ranks third on the list, with sales revenue reaching USD 3.709 billion and a market share of 14.49%. On October 10, 2025, BASF announced the sale of a 60% stake in its automotive OEM coatings, refinish coatings, and surface treatment businesses—valued at EUR 7.7 billion—to The Carlyle Group and the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA). The transaction officially closed on June 30, 2026, and the newly independent company commenced operations on July 1, 2026, under the new name “Surventis.” Public records indicate that the company is headquartered in Münster, Germany, and operates over 30 production and R&D facilities worldwide—including the world’s largest integrated coatings manufacturing base. Its portfolio includes well-known brands such as Chemetall®, Glasurit®, and R-M®, covering three core business segments: surface treatment, OEM coatings for mobility, and automotive refinish coatings. Its service network spans more than 140 countries and serves over 42,000 customers. Axalta holds second place. Its business is divided into two divisions—High Performance Coatings and Transportation Coatings—serving four end markets: refinish, industrial, light vehicles, and commercial vehicles. It supplies products and services to over 220 assembly plants for light- and commercial-vehicle manufacturers—including nine of the world’s top ten automakers—and serves approximately 96,000 body shops across more than 140 countries and regions. Last year, its automotive coatings sales reached USD 3.891 billion, representing a 15.20% market share. Breaking it down further: the High Performance Coatings division generated USD 2.051 billion from automotive refinish coatings—a 5.2% year-on-year decline; the Mobility Coatings division achieved USD 1.840 billion in sales, up 1.1% year-on-year—of which light-vehicle coatings contributed USD 1.438 billion (up 2.3%), while commercial-vehicle coatings brought in USD 0.402 billion (down 3.1%). Axalta entered China in 1984, offering automotive OEM coatings, refinish coatings, powder coatings, insulating coatings, and other industrial coatings. In 2025, its sales in China totaled USD 614.04 million, up 5.8% year-on-year—driven primarily by increased vehicle production among its customers. Its Chinese clients include Voyah, BYD, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, FAW-Audi, Lexus, and General Motors. Notably, Axalta is advancing a USD 25-billion merger with AkzoNobel. To satisfy regulatory review requirements globally, however, AkzoNobel will divest its European automotive refinish coatings business. PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) has ranked first globally for seven consecutive years, with sales revenue totaling USD 5.239 billion (approximately RMB 34.9 billion), down 3.67% year-on-year; its market share stands at 20.46%.

Two Major Coatings Giants Merge: Who Will Be Left Out of the Next Round of Competition?

Introduction: On August 5, the proposed merger between AkzoNobel and Axalta was approved by overwhelming majorities at both companies’ special general meetings. Assuming all subsequent regulatory approvals and other closing conditions are satisfied, the parties expect to complete the merger by late 2026 or early 2027. Upon completion, AkzoNobel shareholders will hold approximately 55% of the combined company, while Axalta shareholders will hold about 45%. According to the 2026 Industry Report published by the authoritative industry media Coatings World, AkzoNobel’s coatings business generated USD 12 billion in sales in 2025, while Axalta’s同期 sales amounted to USD 5.1 billion. Once finalized, the merged entity’s annual sales will exceed USD 17 billion—surpassing long-standing industry leader PPG and securing second place globally in the coatings industry. Thus, the ranking of the world’s top five coatings companies for 2026 is reshuffled as follows: Rank Coatings Company Annual Sales (USD) 1 Sherwin-Williams ~USD 18 billion 2 AkzoNobel + Axalta (post-merger) USD 17 billion 3 PPG USD 15.9 billion 4 Nippon Paint USD 11.8 billion 5 BASF ~USD 5 billion The newly merged AkzoNobel + Axalta group will command a globally distributed business footprint, world-class R&D infrastructure, and a diversified product portfolio—effectively dismantling the previous fragmented competitive landscape characterized by multiple strong players without clear hierarchical differentiation. Looking further ahead, this merger may signal that the global coatings industry is entering a new consolidation cycle. MantaRay Chemical specializes in the chemical industry. For more chemical industry insights, follow us. Original article title: Major Restructuring in the Coatings Industry: Entering an Era of High-Quality Competition Large-scale corporate mergers do not necessarily mean all companies must pursue scale expansion. Quite the contrary: the future coatings industry may witness a more pronounced polarization. 1. The coatings industry is entering an era of “bigger and finer” At one end stand increasingly large, integrated coatings conglomerates. These enterprises operate global manufacturing facilities, maintain multiple product platforms, possess large-scale procurement systems, and deploy cross-regional R&D capabilities—enabling them to serve multinational automakers, industrial groups, and large-scale infrastructure projects. Their advantages lie in scale, supply-chain integration, and globalization. At the other end are increasingly specialized niche players. Examples include firms focusing exclusively on high-temperature coatings, electronic-material coatings, battery coatings for new-energy vehicles, low-VOC resin systems, aerospace specialty coatings, or specific functional additives. Yet they must achieve exceptional depth in their chosen technical domain. For small- and medium-sized coatings enterprises, the most perilous position may no longer be small size—but rather attempting to do “a little bit of everything,” without achieving true irreplaceability in any area. Because the heavyweight merger of these two industry leaders will not only reshape the top-tier competitive landscape but also act as a pivotal catalyst for global coatings industry consolidation—accelerating industry-wide upgrades, concentrating resources toward industry leaders, and gradually phasing out smaller enterprises with outdated capacity, weak technology, and insufficient core competitiveness. 2. Foreign investors are not “withdrawing”—they are “shifting tracks”

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