Since the beginning of 2026, international geopolitical conflicts have continued to escalate, and international crude oil and energy prices have fluctuated violently. This situation has triggered a sharp increase in the prices of core raw materials in the coating and waterproofing industries.
From leading companies such as Oriental Yuhong, 3Tree Trees, and Beixin Waterproofing, to regional companies such as Zhujiang Chemical, Tianjin Yushen, and Jingxi Waterproofing, they have intensively issued product price adjustment letters, with increases generally ranging from 3% to 20%. A “tide of price increases” linked to the entire industry chain is accelerating.
The direct driver of this round of price increases is the uncontrolled rise in the prices of upstream raw materials.
Guangdong Zhujiang Chemical admitted in a price adjustment letter on April 7 that the prices of titanium dioxide, resins, emulsions, additives, solvents, etc. have risen sharply, and some categories have even experienced periodic supply shortages. The cost of logistics, transportation and production energy consumption has increased. The company has been unable to absorb the cost pressure through optimizing the supply chain, improving efficiency, etc., and decided to increase the price of all products by 3% to 20% starting from April 10.
West Nihide Waterproofing directly disclosed the astonishing increase in core raw materials in the price adjustment letter: asphalt increased by 39%, modifiers increased by 62%, and PET film increased by 42%.
Tianjin Yushen Waterproofing also pointed out that the prices of major raw materials such as asphalt, SBS, and emulsion have risen sharply and some upstream supplies are unstable, which has affected normal production.
From a cost structure perspective, the main raw materials for waterproof materials – asphalt, SBS modifier, polyester tires, emulsions, etc. are all downstream products of crude oil.
Since the end of February, the war in the Middle East has continued to escalate, shipping in the Strait of Hormuz has been blocked, and international crude oil prices have fluctuated violently. After a transmission period of about a month, cost pressures have been concentrated from the end of March to the beginning of April.
This transmission chain is also obvious in the coatings industry: rising crude oil prices have pushed up the prices of petrochemical products, and key raw materials such as resins and solvents have experienced extraordinary rapid increases, directly pushing up the procurement costs of coatings companies. This is also the core reason for the simultaneous price adjustments of international coatings giants such as Nippon Paint and PPG.
The start of this price increase wave is not accidental.
As early as early March, the three major leaders, Dongfang Yuhong, Beixin Waterproofing, and Keshun Co., Ltd., took the lead in sounding the price increase clarion call and implemented the first round of price adjustments around March 15. The increase was generally between 5% and 10%.
However, the ink of the first round of price adjustments has not yet dried, and cost pressure continues to rise, forcing companies to raise prices again.
From March 19th to 23rd, the four leading companies, Dongfang Yuhong, Beixin Waterproofing, Keshun Co., Ltd., and Sankeshu Waterproofing, intensively issued secondary price adjustment letters, with the increase further expanding to 8% – 12%.
Immediately afterwards, regional companies such as Shenyu Waterproofing, Joyoung Waterproofing, and Hongyuan Waterproofing followed suit, and the asphalt products of some companies increased by as much as 20%.
In the field of coatings, in addition to Zhujiang Chemical, many well-known companies such as Nippon Paint, PPG, AkzoNobel, Jotun, Carpoly, Zhanchen, and Bardez have also recently issued price adjustment letters.
On the surface, the soaring price of raw materials is the direct driver of the price increase, but through the price adjustment letters of many companies – “to ensure product and service quality”, “maintain market order” and “protect the long-term interests of customers”… it can be seen that this is not just a passive cost transfer, but also implies the strategic intention of the industry’s leading companies to actively break the low-price competition dilemma.
Previously, the waterproofing industry was trapped in a vicious cycle of “low-price bidding – shrinking profits – declining quality”. Some companies were willing to sacrifice product quality in order to seize the market, leading to the proliferation of “non-standard” products, seriously damaging the interests of end users and stifling the industry’s innovation momentum.
From the first price increases of Keshun and 3TREES in January, to the collective actions of Dongfang Yuhong, Beixin, and KeShun in early March, to the rapid follow-up of Karen, Dayu, and 3TREES, leading companies are sending a clear signal to the market with continuous and consistent price increases: rejecting low-price competition at the expense of quality, and instead using price leverage to guide the industry back to the right track of quality and value.
This cost-driven and leader-led price increase is profoundly reshaping the competitive landscape of the waterproofing and coatings industries.
Relying on their scale advantages, brand premiums and supply chain bargaining power, leading companies can more smoothly transmit cost pressures downstream, while at the same time relatively reducing raw material cost increases through large-scale procurement, long-term negotiated prices and other methods.
However, a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises are trapped in the dilemma of “losing money if they don’t increase their prices, and losing orders if they increase their prices”.
Their bargaining power is weak and they cannot effectively transmit cost pressure to downstream. They also lack capital reserves and scale advantages, making it difficult to withstand the profit squeeze caused by rising raw material prices.
From a more macro perspective, this price increase is a necessary pain for the industry to move from extensive expansion to high-quality development.
For the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, abandoning the obsession with low prices and returning to the logic of quality and value is the core confidence to cope with the new normal of costs and survive the industry reshuffle.
