An aerial view of the manufacturing base of Zhejiang Yutong New Materials. [Photo/the official news website of Taizhou]

Zhejiang Yutong New Materials, a Taizhou-based company in East China's Zhejiang province, has entered the aviation coatings sector. The company is a leading player in the ship coatings industry. It has become the first domestic company to receive the Civil Aviation Administration of China's approval for the design and production of civil aviation chemical products, the company said on Jan 17.

Aviation coatings must withstand extreme temperature variations and high-speed airflow, with performance requirements far exceeding those of ordinary industrial coatings. Due to the high technical barriers, this sector has long been monopolized by a few international giants, leaving China heavily dependent on imports.

Despite these challenges, the market remains vast and promising. Yutong's CEO, Zeng Chao, said that by the end of 2024, China's civil aviation fleet exceeded 4,000 aircraft, with around 600 requiring exterior refurbishing each year. With the acceleration of domestic large aircraft production and the rise of the low-altitude economy, the aircraft maintenance market is expected to grow rapidly in the coming years.

Yutong began its aviation coatings project in late 2019. The company's research and development team has faced the challenge of achieving a balance between multiple properties such as flexibility, impact resistance, corrosion resistance, chemical resistance, and aging resistance.

Despite these challenges, Yutong is confident that its aviation coatings outperform international products in key areas while reducing costs by at least 20 percent.

The company has already applied its coatings to drones in China's aerospace sector and has received approval for use on mainstream aircraft models such as the Airbus A320, Boeing 737, and the domestically produced C919.