(April 16, 2026) Driven by the in-depth advancement of green and low-carbon development strategies and the rapid rise of downstream emerging industries, the domestic silica industry is getting rid of the shackles of traditional production capacity competition and entering a new stage of high-quality development with technological innovation as the core and continuous expansion of application scenarios. Recently, a number of new silica production technologies have been implemented and applied. High-end products have achieved breakthroughs in emerging fields such as new energy, electronics, and biomedicine. The added value of the industry has increased significantly, becoming a growth highlight in the field of new chemical materials.
New production technology implemented, green and efficient become industry consensus
Compared with the traditional precipitation production process, which has problems such as high energy consumption, high pollutant emissions, and low raw material utilization, domestic silica companies have accelerated technological iterations since 2026, and a number of green and efficient production technologies have been industrialized, pushing the industry's green transformation to a new level. Among them, new technologies such as carbon dioxide acidification method and sol-gel method have become research and development hot spots, which not only greatly reduce the consumption of traditional raw materials such as sulfuric acid and soda ash, but also realize the resource utilization of industrial waste.
The reporter learned from the industry association that the carbon dioxide acidification silica production technology independently developed by a leading company in Shandong has achieved large-scale mass production. This technology uses industrial exhaust carbon dioxide as the acidifying agent to replace traditional sulfuric acid. Each ton of product can reduce sulfuric acid consumption by about 0.8 tons, while reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 1.2 tons. The production cost is more than 15% lower than that of traditional processes. In addition, waste heat recovery and wastewater recycling systems deployed by enterprises in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and other places have also been put into use one after another, driving the unit product energy consumption of the silica industry to drop by 8% compared with 2025, and achieving 100% compliance rate for pollutant emissions.
Industry experts said that the implementation of new production technologies has not only alleviated the long-term cost pressure and environmental protection pressure faced by the industry, but also promoted the upgrading of silica product quality, laying the foundation for its entry into high-end application fields. At present, eight domestic companies have realized large-scale application of green production technology, and the proportion of related production capacity in the industry's total production capacity has increased to 23%. It is expected that this proportion will exceed 30% in 2027.
Multiple breakthroughs in emerging fields, demand for high-end products surges
With the rapid development of emerging industries such as new energy, electronic information, and biomedicine, the application boundaries of silica continue to expand, and the demand for high-end functional products has experienced explosive growth, breaking the previous market structure that mainly relied on traditional fields such as tires and rubber.
In the field of new energy, highly dispersed silica is the core raw material of green tires. As the number of new energy vehicles continues to rise, demand is strong. Highly dispersed silica products produced by leading domestic companies have been certified by international tire giants and are used in special tires for new energy vehicles. They can reduce tire rolling resistance by more than 20% and help increase vehicle endurance by 10%-15%. At the same time, breakthroughs have also been made in the application of silica in lithium battery separators and new energy battery packaging materials. A battery-grade silica product developed by a company can improve the heat resistance and air permeability of separators. It has been supplied in batches to domestic leading lithium battery companies.
In the field of electronic information, ultrafine silica is widely used in chip packaging, electronic component coating and other fields due to its excellent insulation and dispersion. The nanoscale silica products developed by domestic enterprises can control the particle size to 5-10 nanometers, and their performance has reached the international advanced level, breaking the technology monopoly of overseas enterprises. The current market share has increased to 18%. In addition, the application of food-grade and pharmaceutical-grade silica in food additives, drug carriers and other fields has gradually expanded, and the average annual growth rate of market demand exceeds 20%.
The industry competition landscape is reshaped, leading companies lead the upgrade
Technological innovation and application expansion have promoted the continuous reshaping of the competitive landscape of the silica industry, and industry concentration has continued to increase. At present, the CR5 (capacity share of the top five companies) in the domestic silica industry has reached 45%, an increase of 7 percentage points from 2025. Leading companies with technology, scale, and channel advantages are accelerating to seize high-end market share.
Recently, a leading domestic silica company announced that a high-end functional silica industrial park with a total investment of 1.5 billion yuan has started construction in Jiangxi, focusing on nano-scale, hydrophobic, and conductive silica products. It is expected to be put into production in 2028. After the production is put into operation, it will add 150,000 tons of high-end production capacity per year, further consolidating the company's leading position in the high-end field. At the same time, due to insufficient technology research and development capabilities and limited investment in environmental protection, small and medium-sized enterprises are gradually at a disadvantage in market competition. Some backward production capacities are being cleared at an accelerated pace, and the industry is gradually developing towards intensive and high-end development.
Industry Outlook: Technology-driven development continues to expand market space
Industry insiders believe that in the next few years, the silica industry will continue to be in a critical period of technological iteration and application expansion. On the one hand, green production technology will be further popularized, processes such as carbon dioxide acidification method and sol-gel method will be promoted on a large scale, and the industry's environmental protection level and production efficiency will continue to improve; on the other hand, with the continued development of emerging fields such as new energy, electronic information, and biomedicine, the demand for high-end functional silica will continue to grow, and the added value of products will further increase.
Industry associations predict that the domestic silica market will exceed 30 billion yuan in 2026, of which high-end products will account for 40% of the market. The industry's average annual growth rate will remain at 12%-15% in the next three years. It is expected that by 2029, domestic high-end silica production capacity will exceed 800,000 tons/year, realizing comprehensive import substitution of overseas high-end products and promoting my country's transformation from a large silica-producing country to a strong production country.
