Development overview and current situation of the silica industry in 2023: The production of silica reached 3.797 million tons
China Report Hall Network News: Silicon dioxide can be divided into two types: precipitated silica and gas-phase silica. Currently, the market is mainly dominated by precipitated silica. Silicon dioxide is widely used in the tire and rubber industry, with tires occupying the largest market share. The following is the current development status of the silica industry in 2023.
Analysis of market size and production of silica
Silicon dioxide can be classified according to manufacturing methods, including precipitation method silicon dioxide and gas-phase method silicon dioxide. More than 90% of China's silica products are precipitated silica. The price advantage of precipitated silica is obvious, with a market share of over 90% in the domestic market. It is widely used in rubber, tires, footwear, rubber and plastic products, as well as silicone rubber, coatings, cosmetics, toothpaste, feed and other industries.
At present, from the perspective of enterprise scale, Chinese precipitation method silica production enterprises are developing towards scale, large-scale, and centralized development. According to relevant data on the development status of the silica industry, there are 16 enterprises with a scale of over 50000 tons, with an annual production capacity of 1.771 million tons, accounting for 71.12%; The production reached 1.2915 million tons, accounting for 78.9% of the total. There are 17 enterprises with a scale of 20000 to 50000 tons, with the largest number and an annual production capacity of 501000 tons, accounting for 20.12%; The production reached 236700 tons, accounting for 14.46%.
With the rapid development of industries such as green tires and silicone rubber, as well as continuous breakthroughs in precipitation based silica technology, coupled with national policy support, the overall production capacity, output, and demand of the industry are showing an increasing trend. In 2021, the market size of China's silica industry reached 12.193 billion yuan, an increase of 1.05 billion yuan from 2020, a year-on-year increase of 9.5%. The current development status of the silica industry is expected to reach 13.348 billion yuan in the Chinese silica industry market by 2022. In recent years, China's silicon dioxide production has been increasing year by year. In 2021, China's silicon dioxide production reached 3.471 million tons, an increase of 315000 tons from 2020, a year-on-year increase of 10.0%. In 2022, China's silicon dioxide production is expected to reach 3.797 million tons.
Analysis of the Current Situation of Silicon Dioxide Market
According to the average selling prices of various categories of silica in the public search market, silica for different uses can be classified and ranked according to the average selling price of the products, which can be divided into low-end, mid-end, and high-end markets. The market space for high-end daily chemical applications of silica exceeds 500000 tons, and it is still in the early stage of volume expansion, with significant growth potential in the future. The industry in the daily chemical industry is scattered, and targeted layout of products and channels is crucial. Faced with thousands of segmented fields of food, medicine, and cosmetics and their product functional requirements, companies without sufficient product research and development capabilities and channel development capabilities will find it difficult to develop.
At present, the consumption of precipitated silica in China is still mainly composed of rubber products and animal medicine feed with relatively low prices and added value. The development status of the silica industry mentioned that in 2020, the consumption of silica in the rubber industry (including footwear, tires, and other rubber products) and animal medicine feed accounted for 86.71% of the total, and the main production capacity of precipitated silica was also concentrated in this application field. The consumption of special purpose silica such as coatings and toothpaste accounts for less than 14% of the total.
With the adjustment of the consumption structure of the silicon dioxide industry, the market demand for low-end (shoe and bicycle tires, motorcycle tires) silicon dioxide will continue to decline, and production enterprises with low technological content and small scale will be eliminated. The market sales of high dispersion silicon dioxide production enterprises with strong research and development capabilities and leading products will further expand. Thus achieving the optimization and upgrading of product structure within the silica industry.
Overall, with the continuous advancement of supply technology and the encouragement of relevant national policies, the industry's production capacity and output of silica have shown a continuous growth trend.
