(April 14, 2026 Industry Overview)
Entering the second quarter of 2026, the domestic silica industry is bidding farewell to the previous growth model of relying solely on capacity expansion and entering a stage of deep structural adjustment under the interweaving of multiple factors such as raw material costs, downstream demand, environmental protection policies and technology iteration. Different from the price fluctuations in previous years, the current market presents the distinctive characteristics of "general products under pressure, high value-added products continue to be in short supply, and the industry pattern is accelerated and concentrated", and the entire industrial chain is undergoing a new round of reshuffle and upgrading from upstream production to downstream applications.

The cost side is still the core variable affecting the operation of the industry. As a key raw material for silica production, the prices of sulfuric acid, soda ash, coal power, etc. have continued to fluctuate at a high level since the beginning of this year, especially sulfuric acid is affected by factors such as tight international sulfur supply and centralized maintenance of domestic devices, and the price has risen sharply year-on-year, directly pushing up the production costs of enterprises. In the face of rising cost pressure, small and medium-sized silica enterprises have been continuously compressed due to their small scale, weak bargaining power, and relatively traditional processes, and some inefficient production capacities have been forced to reduce or even stop production. However, leading enterprises still maintain relatively stable operating rates and profitability by virtue of large-scale production, stable long-term supply of raw materials and a more complete cost control system, and industry resources are rapidly concentrating on leading enterprises.

the downstream demand side shows obvious structural differentiation. The demand for silica in the field of traditional tires and rubber products has maintained steady growth, but the demand structure has changed significantly. With the continuous improvement of the standards of green tires and low rolling resistance tires, ordinary precipitation silica has gradually been replaced by highly dispersed products, and high dispersion silica has become the core procurement category of tire enterprises by virtue of its advantages in improving tire performance and reducing fuel consumption, and the market growth rate is significantly higher than the industry average. At the same time, the rapid rise of emerging application fields such as silicone rubber, coatings, inks, toothpaste, food anti-caking agents, and pharmaceutical carriers has put forward more stringent requirements for the purity, particle size, surface modification and other indicators of silica, and promoted the development of products in the direction of refinement, specialization and high-end. High-end categories such as fumed silica and food and pharmaceutical grade silica have become new profit growth points for enterprises due to high technical barriers and relatively limited supply.

Environmental protection and low-carbon transformation have become the "hard threshold" for the survival and development of silica enterprises. In recent years, domestic ecological and environmental protection supervision has continued to tighten, and policies such as dual energy consumption control and carbon emission control have been continuously increased, and traditional high-energy-consuming and high-emission production processes are facing pressure to be eliminated. On the one hand, it reduces energy consumption and pollutant emissions through waste heat recovery, wastewater recycling, intelligent transformation, etc., and improves the clean production level of existing production lines; On the other hand, it actively develops and promotes new processes such as carbonization and bio-based silicon source preparation, and uses agricultural waste such as rice husk ash to replace traditional mineral raw materials, which not only reduces dependence on fossil resources, but also greatly reduces carbon emissions in the production process, helps enterprises cope with international carbon tariffs and other trade barriers, and enhances the international competitiveness of products.

The logic of industry competition has also undergone a fundamental change. In the past, the competition in the silica market was mostly focused on price and production capacity, and the homogenization of low-end products was serious, and the industry fell into low-price involution. Nowadays, with the upgrading of downstream industries and the improvement of market standardization, the core of competition has shifted to technology research and development, product quality, customized services and green and low-carbon capabilities. Enterprises with core technology and the ability to provide specialized solutions for downstream will gradually get rid of low-end competition and occupy an advantage in the high-end market; Small and medium-sized enterprises that lack technology accumulation and rely on low-end production capacity have gradually withdrawn under the dual pressure of cost and market, and the industry concentration has continued to increase, and the industrial ecology has developed in a healthier and more sustainable direction.

On the whole, the current silica industry is in a critical period of cost pain and transformation opportunities. In the short term, the fluctuation of raw material prices will still have an impact on the operation of the industry, and the market as a whole is mainly stable and partially adjusted; In the medium and long term, with the continuous release of high-end demand, the continuous implementation of green technology and the continuous optimization of the industry pattern, the silica industry will gradually complete the transformation from "large quantity and weak quality" to "double improvement in quality and efficiency", and play a more important role in the new material industry chain.