The Politics of Paint

A Chinese executive has been charged for clandestinely exporting hundreds of gallons of paint coatings to the Chashma 2 nuclear power plant in Pakistan. Xun Wang, a former managing director of PPG Paints Trading ( Shanghai), which is a wholly-owned Chinese subsidiary of PPG Industries, was arrested on June 16 in Atlanta, Ga.

According to the indictment against Wang, in January 2006, PPG Industries sought an export license for the shipments of coatings to Chashma 2.

In June 2006, the department of commerce denied that license application.
Chashma 2 nuclear power plant is owned and operated by Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC), an entity on the Department of Commerce’s Entity List.

Following that denial, Wang and her co-conspirators agreed upon a scheme to export and re-export the high-performance epoxy coatings from the US to Chashma 2, via a third-party distributor in China, without first having obtained the required export license from the department of commerce, the justice department said.

The indictment further states that from June 2006 through March 2007, Wang and other co-conspirators intentionally concealed from PPG Industries that the paint would be delivered to Chashma II.

Specifically, they falsely stated that the coatings were to be used at a nuclear power plant in China, the export of goods to which would not require a license from the department of commerce.

The indictment alleges that, through these means, Wang and her co-conspirators exported three shipments of coatings from the United States to Chashma 2 without the required department of commerce license.

This is another story of one of many loop holes in China/US business relations that ultimately in the end hurts American business. Do you know of any other examples?

In other news, this issue is heading to Singapore in September for the annual Asia-Pacific Coatings Show, which is put together by Quartz Business Media’s The Coatings Group.

For the occasion Coatings World enlisted the expertise of the folks at Orr & Boss, Inc., a U.S.-based, international management consulting firm that specializes in the global specialty chemicals and coatings industries to provide analysis of the Asia-Pacific paint and coatings market.

Scott Detiveaux and Allen Tsaur provide a detailed look at this dynamic and growing region “which has dramatically outperformed the global market in terms of both volume and value growth” especially during the global recession.

Also in this issue,  be sure not to miss A.S. Richardson, global market director for AkzoNobel Aerospace Coatings, who takes us on a tour of the global aerospace coatings market, providing an inside look at aerospace coatings from the perspective of the largest player in this arena.

Tim Wright
Editor