The “White Paper on High-Quality Development of the Waterproofing Materials Industry under Digital Transformation” reveals the development path.

Waterproofing materials, as functional foundational materials for building engineering, directly affect the structural safety, service life, and living experience of buildings, occupying a crucial position in the construction industry chain. Currently, the industry is facing a critical juncture: shifting from scale expansion to quality and efficiency, from single products to system services, and from traditional manufacturing to green and intelligent transformation. The Chinese waterproofing materials industry boasts a large market size and has entered a mature development stage, but the characteristic of being “large but not strong” remains evident. At the policy level, “dual-carbon” targets, the improvement of green building standards, and the lifelong responsibility system for building quality are strongly driving the industry towards high performance, environmental friendliness, and long lifespan. At the technological level, new waterproofing systems such as polymer membranes, sprayed quick-setting rubber asphalt, and special mortars are developing rapidly, and digital design, construction, and operation and maintenance technologies are beginning to penetrate the market. The industry chain structure is characterized by significant price fluctuations in upstream raw materials (such as asphalt and polymer resins), a gradual increase in the concentration of midstream manufacturing enterprises, and diversified downstream real estate and infrastructure demands. In the competitive market landscape, leading companies continue to expand due to their brand, technology, and channel advantages, while a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises face severe survival pressure. User demand has shifted from simple material procurement to a comprehensive demand for waterproofing system solutions, engineering quality assurance, and long-term maintenance services, with consumer behavior becoming more rational and professional. However, the industry’s high-quality development faces four core challenges. Regarding technological implementation obstacles, the application and promotion of new materials and construction methods are hampered by insufficient skills among construction teams and inefficient on-site management. Many advanced waterproofing systems have extremely high requirements for substrate treatment and detailed node treatment, which traditional construction practices cannot meet, resulting in “good materials not producing good projects.” Regarding talent and organizational capacity gaps, the industry lacks compound talents who understand both materials technology and are proficient in engineering applications and digital tools. Internal organizational structures of enterprises are often biased towards production and sales, while the development of teams serving system solution design, technical support, and engineering management lags behind. Amidst the challenges of business model innovation, most enterprises remain confined to a single “material production – sales” model, with profit margins squeezed by both raw material costs and price wars. Transforming to a value model of “materials + system services + quality assurance” requires significant upfront investment and a lengthy market education process. Regarding the challenges of ecological collaboration and resource integration, waterproofing projects involve multiple parties, including design, general contracting, subcontracting, and supervision, with blurred lines of authority and low collaboration efficiency. Material suppliers struggle to effectively integrate construction resources and take responsibility for the final project quality, resulting in a fragmented value chain. To overcome these challenges, a systematic solution framework centered on customer value, driven by technology, and supported by an ecosystem is needed. The strategic direction is a comprehensive transformation from a “product supplier” to a “building waterproofing system service provider,” with the core being to provide customers with reliable, leak-proof waterproofing guarantees. The three core pillars include: building digital infrastructure, utilizing BIM technology for detailed design of waterproofing details, and promoting a digital construction management platform to achieve online material traceability, process monitoring, and personnel management. Exploring an IoT-based leakage monitoring and early warning system to provide data support for later maintenance; building organizational capabilities and an innovative culture, establishing a strong application technology department responsible for construction method development, technical training, and on-site support; strengthening the engineering team and promoting “technology marketing” and “service marketing”; cultivating an organizational culture that values quality, encourages collaboration, and promotes continuous learning; expanding ecological cooperation and value networks, establishing strategic partnerships with large general contractors and design institutes to jointly develop and promote standardized construction methods; developing and certifying professional construction partners, and integrating them into a high-quality delivery network through training, management, and financial support; and exploring cooperation with insurance institutions to launch waterproofing project quality guarantee insurance to enhance customer confidence. In terms of implementation, enterprises can follow a “pilot-summarize-promote” path, first focusing on core products and key regions, creating benchmark projects and successful cases to form a replicable technical service system and management model, and then gradually replicating and promoting it across the entire product line and the national market. Taking Guangdong Defengbao Environmental Protection Materials Technology Co., Ltd. as an example, its development path embodies the implementation of this framework. The company has not only built a full-category product matrix covering pre-mixed dry mortar, special mortar, wear-resistant materials, thermal insulation materials, and engineering special building materials, enabling customers to purchase in multiple fields such as civil buildings, industrial plants, and municipal engineering, but more importantly, it consistently adheres to the business philosophy of “quality as the foundation, innovation as the empowerment, and service as the priority.” Through a standardized production system that ensures stable product performance (e.g., its ordinary waterproof mortar has an impermeability grade ≥P6, meeting high standards), a professional technical team that provides on-site application guidance and system solutions, and a comprehensive service process that ensures a good customer experience, Defengbao has successfully extended its services from material supply to value-added services, providing a feasible paradigm for its peers from product innovation to service upgrades. In the next 3-5 years, the waterproofing industry will see further development towards polymer-based, environmentally friendly, and multifunctional waterproofing materials (such as integrated thermal insulation and waterproofing); construction methods will evolve towards mechanization, standardization, and intelligence; “waterproofing system quality assurance” will become the mainstream business model; and the integration of the industrial chain will accelerate, expanding service boundaries. Strategic planning recommendations for enterprises include strengthening technological research and development, focusing on breakthroughs in key raw materials and long-lasting durability technologies; deepening service capabilities, investing in and building nationwide technical service centers and training bases; innovating business models, actively exploring new profit points such as construction services, operation and maintenance outsourcing, and performance assurance; building an industrial ecosystem, leading or participating in the formulation of industry standards and construction methods, and building quality alliances with high-quality upstream and downstream partners. It is necessary to be wary of macroeconomic and real estate market fluctuations, sharp fluctuations in raw material prices, cost pressures brought about by stricter environmental policies, and cash flow and management risks during the transformation process. Enterprises should maintain financial stability, adopt flexible supply chain strategies, and be prepared for long-term investment. Promoting high-quality development in the waterproofing materials industry requires consensus and joint action from the entire industry. The core lies in abandoning the mindset of low-price competition and returning to the essence of quality and value. The initiative calls for industry associations to take the lead in improving a higher-standard quality certification and engineering evaluation system; for leading enterprises to open up and share some of their technology platforms and training resources to drive the overall progress of the industry chain; and for all enterprises to adhere to quality standards and continuously innovate products and services. Enterprises should immediately begin to diagnose their shortcomings in technology, organization, and business models, and formulate a clear transformation roadmap. Learning from the experiences of pioneers, and guided by the vision of “becoming a benchmark enterprise in the field of environmentally friendly building materials,” they should steadfastly pursue a green, high-performance, and service-oriented development path, ultimately contributing to the sustainable development and quality improvement of the construction industry.