The domestic liquid electrostatic spraying industry in 2026

In 2026, the domestic liquid electrostatic spraying industry will enter a critical phase defined by fierce competition for existing market share and in-depth structural upgrading. While the sector will undergo comprehensive industry-wide readjustment, technological innovation will emerge as a far more prominent growth driver. The core momentum of the industry will fundamentally shift from blind scale expansion to two key pillars: strict environmental compliance and targeted technological transformation & product substitution.

Market Size and Growth Trends

In 2025, the Chinese liquid spray gun and spraying equipment market reached an estimated size of RMB 14.86 billion, marking a 4.4% year-on-year increase. This growth rate represents a notable slowdown compared to the previous five-year period, signaling that the entire liquid electrostatic spraying industry has officially entered a phase of deep structural adjustment.

A clear structural differentiation is reshaping market demand: traditional solvent-based spraying equipment is facing continuous shrinking market demand, while electrostatic spray guns and high-speed rotary cup sprayers purpose-built for water-based paints are seeing explosive growth. In 2025, shipments of water-based-paint-compatible spraying models surged by 28.9% year-on-year, with the industry-wide average paint utilization rate climbing to 68.5%.

The existing installed base also unlocks massive replacement potential: 34.7% of currently operational spraying equipment has been in service for more than 8 years. It is projected that approximately RMB 4.15 billion in equipment replacement demand will be released across the 2026–2028 period, creating steady market momentum for compliant, high-efficiency spraying solutions.

Competitive Landscape: Foreign Leaders Dominate High-End, Domestic Brands Accelerate Mid-Range Breakthroughs

The global and domestic spraying equipment market presents a distinct two-tier competitive pattern. In the high-end precision spraying equipment segment, international industry giants including Nordson, Graco, and Wagner leverage their mature precision control algorithms and advanced sealing technologies to capture around 42.1% of the high-end market share, maintaining relatively high gross profit margins.

In the mid-to-low-end market, leading domestic spraying equipment manufacturers such as Guangdong Hongda and Shanghai TuNai hold approximately 21.1% of the total market share. Their core competitive advantages lie in cost-effective product performance and fast, localized after-sales services, and they are rapidly expanding penetration into high-growth niche sectors including new energy vehicle manufacturing and custom furniture production.

Industry concentration continues to rise: the top five market players collectively account for 63.2% of the total market share. As the industry average gross margin has dropped to 28.4%, the core focus of competition has shifted away from blind price wars toward building full-lifecycle service capabilities for end customers.

Technology Trends and Downstream Application Scenarios

Technological evolution is redefining industry standards: intelligent atomization and adaptive control systems are becoming mainstream configurations for new spraying equipment. Intelligent spray guns equipped with closed-loop feedback mechanisms can push paint utilization efficiency above 85%, while models integrated with AI visual recognition and automatic positioning functions already make up 34.7% of total new shipments.

The industry is also making targeted breakthroughs on long-standing core pain points. For the unique properties of water-based paints — high viscosity and fast-drying characteristics — low-pressure high-atomization (HVLP) technology and anti-clogging spray gun design have become the top R&D priorities for leading manufacturers. Full-scale domestic substitution still relies on further maturity of the local supply chain for critical components, including tungsten carbide nozzles and high-performance sealing parts.

Downstream application markets are showing clear differentiated growth trajectories:


New Energy Vehicle Manufacturing: As the largest incremental growth source for the spraying equipment industry, the penetration rate of intelligent electrostatic spray guns in newly built production lines has reached 87.6%, with a projected compound annual growth rate of approximately 19.4%.


Furniture and Wood Products: Driven by tightening environmental protection policies, the penetration rate of water-based paints in this sector has exceeded 72%, directly driving a 14.8% year-on-year increase in demand for specialized electrostatic spray guns.


Consumer Electronics Production: With the industry’s strict requirements for nanoscale coating uniformity, the adoption rate of piezoelectric micro-spraying technology has reached 53.4%.

Policy Environment, Supply Chain Challenges and Business Model Transformation

Rigid environmental compliance requirements are reshaping industry entry thresholds. Starting from 2025, mandatory online VOCs monitoring systems must be installed and connected to the national environmental supervision platform. The official energy consumption threshold is set at ≤0.85 kWh per square meter of spraying area. Enterprises that fail to meet these standards will face heavy fines or mandatory production shutdowns for rectification.

Key supply chain risks remain prominent: import dependence on core components such as fluororubber seals and high-precision pressure sensors is still at a relatively high level. Geopolitical uncertainties and global logistics fluctuations have extended international delivery cycles, forcing most forward-looking spraying equipment brands to adopt dual-source procurement strategies to ensure stable delivery.

The entire industry is undergoing a fundamental business model restructuring. The traditional model of selling standalone spraying equipment is evolving into an integrated "product + service + data" ecosystem. New service offerings including predictive equipment maintenance and digital equipment leasing platforms are recording an average annual growth rate exceeding 40%, effectively easing the capital pressure faced by small and medium-sized spraying enterprises.

Overall, the Chinese domestic liquid electrostatic spraying industry has fully moved past the era of extensive, scale-driven growth. The most promising future market opportunities lie in three core directions: high-performance water-based paint adaptation technologies, full localization of core spraying components, and customized spraying solutions tailored for high-end application scenarios such as new energy vehicle production lines.