The financial crisis in 2009 made China's fiberglass industry enter the low point of development. In 2010, the industry was just beginning to recover, but it was also hit by international trade protectionism. Anti-dumping investigations, including those of the European Union, followed suit.
In recent years, several domestic glass fiber leading companies have pursued the expansion of expansion to increase their own scale to reduce costs, improve their competitive advantages and occupy higher market share. They have, however, paid less attention to the development of downstream applications and have not spent much effort on research. Produce more products of different specifications used in different market segments (more than 5,000 downstream products in China, more than 30,000 in foreign countries), homogenization of products, low added value, making China's glass fiber products to the traditional materials market The alternative process has been slower than that of foreign countries and has indirectly led to an increase in domestic demand that has been weaker than foreign countries. On the other hand, the concentration of China's downstream fiberglass products (represented by FRP) is very fragmented, and there is no strong leading enterprise to integrate the market and lead the development of deep-processed products. Therefore, in the glass fiber industry chain structure, China and the developed countries in Europe and the United States have formed different industrial patterns. China's roving industry is growing, and the deep-processed products industry is weak, and foreign countries are just the opposite. We believe that in the context of China's slowing down of the substitution rate for overseas roving industry, it will prompt domestic enterprises to shift their horizons to the deep-processing products industry with higher added value, actively develop new application areas, further expand the industrial chain, and increase profits. In addition, in the current era of energy saving and emission reduction concept, the polymer fiber materials with higher modulus than elasticity have the characteristics of light weight, high strength, corrosion resistance, etc. Both in the transportation and construction fields are in line with the low-carbon and environmental protection economy. As a result of the general trend of development, the driving force behind the downstream industry's development of demand for glass fiber will be faster and stronger than in the previous decade.
Glass fiber is mainly used in construction, transportation, electrical and electronic, wind power, automobile, shipbuilding and other fields, among which the demand for glass fiber in the first three industries accounted for 31%, 26%, and 15% of the total demand for glass fiber, respectively. The demand for glass fiber in the industry is also rapidly increasing. In the downstream industry of glass fiber, the demand in traditional fields such as construction and transportation has been boosted by national infrastructure investment; new application fields, such as various engineering materials, environmental protection materials, etc., will also follow the automobile, new energy, etc. The industry has gradually recovered.
Low-carbon economy will promote the rapid development of fiberglass industry
Zhao Honghan, an expert in glass fiber and fiberglass, pointed out that the emphasis was placed on the close relationship between the energy conservation and emission reduction of glass fiber industry and the development of a low-carbon economy. The relationship between the content of low-carbon economy and the fiberglass industry is as follows.
1. Low unit energy consumption and significant substitution effect
The glass fiber ton energy consumption has dropped below 0.8 tons of standard coal. From the level of strength per cubic meter of strength and energy consumption per cubic meter, glass fiber is only 40% of steel and 10% of aluminum. The foreign research report believes that in the next 10-20 years, glass fiber substitutes for traditional materials such as steel, aluminum, wood, PVC, etc., will lead the global glass fiber industry output value from the current 8 billion US dollars to 40 billion US dollars.
2. Insulation of building and industrial facilities
In the consumption structure in 2008, the proportion of buildings and infrastructure accounted for 27%. It was mainly used for roof waterproof material base materials, external wall insulation systems, and road and railway roadbeds. In all types of external wall insulation systems, almost all of the glass fibers are used. For example, the most widely used polystyrene and polyurethane boards in foreign countries must be reinforced with glass fibers. Glass wool can be used directly as wall insulation. “The United States imports about 800 million U.S. dollars worth of glass fiber and its products every year. The three most imported products are non-woven glass batts for insulation materials, glass fiber rovings (including glass wool) and their products, and other non-woven glass. Fiber insulation materials, accounting for about 45% of total imports.†Industrial facilities accounted for 24%, mainly used for various types of storage tanks, pipelines and industrial facilities insulation. In the exchange, a downstream company said that it is preparing to invest in a glass fiber insulation material plant to produce insulation materials for the steel and cement industries.
3, reduce vehicle weight, reduce fuel consumption
Automobiles and ships account for 25% of the total, and the use of glass fiber for cars and ships can reduce weight and thus reduce fuel consumption.
4. Rapid increase in wind turbine blade usage
Wind power accounted for about 5% of the total, which rose to 10% in 2009 and doubled.
"Twelfth Five-Year Plan" and Development of Environmental Protection Standards
The guiding ideology of the “12th Five-Year Plan†of the glass fiber industry is “from the direction of developing the kiln and kiln, shifting to perfecting the kiln technology, and developing the glass fiber product processing industry, and exerting the existing capacity of the kiln and kiln. Limit backward production capacity." There are three main aspects: First, we will not encourage new production capacity to stabilize production capacity at 3 million tons. Second, we will vigorously develop the glass fiber deep-processing industry and promote the application of glass fiber. Third, we will eliminate energy-saving emission reduction and environmental protection standards. Lagging production capacity limits the development of small businesses.
Overall, after experiencing the anti-dumping baptism, the expansion of industry capacity was frozen, and foreign production capacity and domestic outdated production capacity were severely hit. Energy-saving, emission-reduction and downstream industries are transferred to China, ensuring the long-term growth of glass fiber. If major projects exceed expectations in the next two years, anti-dumping of glass fiber is inevitable in the fight between the big three foreign companies and the domestic giants. It cannot hinder the demand in the domestic downstream market. This will bring new opportunities for the development of China's glass fiber industry.