(April 24, 2026) On April 24, combined with the latest industry data and global market dynamics, under the guidance of domestic industrial policies, continuous breakthroughs in domestic technology and the restructuring of the global supply chain, the domestic silica industry is accelerating its breakthrough through overseas technology monopolies and market barriers, achieving a leap from "scale expansion" to "quality leadership" in the global industrial chain competition, and the global voice of domestic silica continues to improve, becoming an important growth point for the high-quality development of the domestic chemical industry.
At present, the global silica market presents a pattern of "high-end concentration, low-end dispersion", European, American, Japanese and South Korean enterprises have long occupied a dominant position in the global high-end silica market with their core technology advantages, mainly focusing on high value-added products such as electronic grade and pharmaceutical grade, while the domestic traditional silica industry has long been dominated by low-end general products, facing problems such as insufficient high-end supply, core technology bottlenecks, and weak international competitiveness. However, in recent years, with domestic policy support and increased R&D investment of enterprises, this pattern is gradually being broken.
At the policy level, domestic policies continue to introduce favorable policies to escort the high-quality development of the silica industry. Recently, the competent authorities have included silica in the "Key Development Catalogue of High-end Inorganic Silicon Materials", increased support for high-end product research and development and green production capacity construction, and provided tax exemptions, financial subsidies and other support to enterprises using low-carbon processes and producing high-end products. At the same time, strict environmental protection control and industry standards have forced low-end backward production capacity to be cleared, promoting the transformation of the industry to green, standardized and high-end, and creating a good policy environment for domestic silica to break through.
In terms of market competition, as of April 24, the supply and demand pattern of the domestic silica market has continued to be optimized, and the pace of domestic substitution has been accelerating. The domestic silica production capacity has accounted for more than 70% of the world, not only meeting the demand of the domestic market, but also exporting a large number of overseas. As a high-end category, domestic enterprises have gradually broken through the bottleneck of core technology through independent research and development and industry-university-research cooperation, realized the localization of electronic and food-grade products, and broken the long-term monopoly of foreign enterprises. At present, the market share of domestic gas-phase silica has increased to 35%, an increase of 8 percentage points over the same period last year.
In terms of price, affected by the fluctuation of global raw material supply and the optimization of domestic production capacity, the price of domestic silica has maintained a stable operation, and the cost-effective advantage is highlighted. As of April 24, the average price of general-grade silica for precipitation method is 6,080 yuan/ton, and the average price of special grade for rubber is about 6,500 yuan/ton, which is 20%-30% lower than the price of similar products in Europe and the United States; the price of domestic high-end fumed silica is 28,000-31,000 yuan/ton, which is 15%-25% lower than that of imported products, and has strong price competitiveness in the international market.
In terms of global market layout, domestic silica exports continue to heat up, and export areas continue to expand. According to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs, from January to April 2026, domestic silica exports will increase by 19.6% year-on-year, of which the export volume of high-end products will increase by 27.8% year-on-year.
It is worth noting that domestic silica still faces some challenges in the process of breaking through: core production equipment is partially dependent on imports, there is still a gap between the refined indicators of high-end products and the international advanced level, and the brand influence in overseas markets is insufficient. In this regard, domestic enterprises are increasing R&D investment, focusing on breaking through problems such as the localization of core equipment and product refinement and upgrading, while strengthening overseas brand promotion and enhancing the international popularity of domestic silica.
Industry experts said that the current global supply chain restructuring provides important opportunities for domestic silica, and the domestic industry has multiple advantages such as scale, technology and cost. With the increase in policy support and continuous breakthroughs in core technologies, domestic silica will further break overseas monopolies and realize the transformation from "Made in China" to "Made in China".
Overall, since 2026, the domestic silica industry has been accelerating its high-quality leap under the multiple drives of policy guidance, technological innovation, and market competition, and its position in the global industrial chain has continued to improve. In the short term, the market will maintain stable operation, and the pace of domestic subsistence will continue to accelerate; in the medium and long term, with the release of high-end production capacity and the expansion of overseas markets, domestic silica is expected to become the core leading force of the global silica industry, injecting strong impetus into the transformation and upgrading of the domestic chemical industry.
