(May 8, 2026) Entering May 2026, the domestic silica industry is undergoing profound structural changes driven by the triple factors of the new environmental protection policy, high costs, and upgraded downstream demand. The industry bids farewell to extensive production capacity expansion. Green and low-carbon process innovation, high-end product import substitution, and downstream application scenario expansion have become the core development lines, and the market structure is accelerating reshaping.
1. The tightening of environmental protection policies has forced a green reshuffle of industries, and low-carbon projects have been intensively implemented
Recently, the domestic zero-carbon factory construction policy has been implemented, dual energy consumption control and environmental emission standards have been upgraded again. Multiple ministries and commissions jointly issued guidance details for the low-carbon transformation of the manufacturing industry, clearly restricting non-gas phase method and non-carbon dioxide acid process silica devices, and phasing out ordinary-grade silica devices below 15,000 tons/year. Under the strong constraints of policies, the traditional acidification process production model with high energy consumption and high emissions is unsustainable, and the industry is accelerating its transformation towards green, low-carbon and solid waste recycling.
A number of tens of billions of green and low-carbon projects have been implemented intensively. In early April, Zhongke’s hydrogen-rich 200,000 tons/year carbon dioxide acidification silica project was announced in Changle County, Weifang, Shandong. The total investment is 1.02 billion yuan and it will be constructed in three phases. The investment in the first phase is 360 million yuan. After completion, it will have an annual output of 60,000 tons of silica. It is expected to be completed and put into production in February 2027. This project adopts advanced carbon dioxide acidification process, which can significantly reduce waste water and waste gas emissions, and is in line with the industry's green development trend. At the same time, Sanming Fengrun Chemical and other companies have invested tens of millions of yuan in technological upgrading of production lines, eliminating outdated coal-fired equipment and upgrading to environmentally friendly equipment such as gas hot blast furnaces, in response to new regulations on the structural adjustment of the chemical industry in Jiangsu and other places.
2. High costs and fluctuations promote refined operations in the industry, and prices rise steadily
Since 2026, the price of silica core raw materials has continued to fluctuate at a high level. The prices of industrial soda ash, quartz sand, and electricity and gas have remained high. In particular, the price of sulfuric acid has skyrocketed, hitting a new high in the past 20 years. As of early April, the benchmark price of sulfuric acid had increased by more than 150% from the low in 2025, directly pushing up the cost of silica production.
Under cost pressure, the industry's profit logic has undergone a fundamental change, and companies have given up on price wars in the low-end market and turned to a refined operating model of cost reduction and technological innovation, product differentiation, and deep channel development. In response to rising costs, domestic silica companies in major production areas such as Fujian, Shandong, and Jiangxi have raised prices by a total of 800 yuan/ton from March to April. The current mainstream quotation is 6,300-7,000 yuan/ton, an increase of 12%-18% from the end of 2025. The latest market data on May 7 shows that the market price of rubber-grade precipitation silica is about 5,800 yuan/ton, and the price of ultra-fine silica reaches 6,200 yuan/ton. The overall price remains stable and rising.
3. The expansion of downstream demand drives high-end transformation, and import substitution accelerates across the board
In the second quarter of 2026, the downstream application market of silica will fully expand, extending from the traditional rubber tire field to high-end fields such as industrial coatings, daily cosmetics, electronic sealing, and silicon-based composite materials. In the rubber tire industry, the global "green tire" trend has driven a surge in demand for highly dispersible silica, which can effectively reduce tire rolling resistance and save fuel consumption. In the coating industry, silica is used as a rheological additive to solve the problems of paint sagging and settling, and market demand continues to grow.
The explosion of downstream segmentation scenarios has promoted the transformation of silica from ordinary filling raw materials to high-end functional new materials, and the process of import substitution of high-end products has been accelerated across the board. Previously, international chemical giants such as Evonik and Solvay accounted for more than half of the global high-end market share. Now, leading domestic companies have increased investment in R&D, broke through overseas technical barriers, and achieved technological breakthroughs in high-end product fields such as high dispersion, nanoscale, and surface modification. Among the global number of silica patents in 2025, Chinese applicants accounted for 41.7%, ranking first in the world. At the same time, domestic exports of fumed silica continue to grow, with export destinations shifting from traditional Southeast Asian markets to the Middle East, Africa and South American markets.
4. Industry development prospects
Currently, the silica industry is in a critical period of green transformation, high-end upgrading, and pattern reshaping. In the short term, tighter environmental protection policies and high-cost operations will continue to force the clearance of low-end production capacity, further increasing industry concentration; in the medium and long term, continued growth in demand in downstream green tires, new energy, high-end coatings and other fields will drive the silica industry to develop in a high value-added, green, low-carbon, technology-intensive direction.
According to industry data, the global silica market is expected to exceed US$10.5 billion in 2026 and is expected to reach US$13.5 billion by 2030, of which green tire applications will account for more than 55%. As the technological innovation capabilities of domestic enterprises continue to improve, there is broad room for high-end silica import substitution, and it is expected to occupy a more important position in the global market in the future.
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