(May 8, 2026) In the second quarter of 2026, the domestic silica industry faced the continuous upward pressure of the triple cost of raw materials, energy and logistics, and the prices of industrial quartz sand, soda ash, sulfuric acid and natural gas remained high, which brought a significant squeeze to the profits of midstream and downstream production enterprises. In this context, the entire industry no longer relies on the traditional model of production expansion and price increase, but instead sets off a new upsurge of process technological transformation, recycling, energy conservation and cost reduction.
Many silica manufacturers regard technological transformation as the key to breaking the situation, focusing on optimizing the production process of sedimentation method, and implementing green production solutions such as wastewater recycling, waste heat recovery and reuse, and solid waste resource treatment. Through the automatic upgrade of the production line, manual intervention is reduced, the quality of product batches is stabilized, and the energy consumption and raw material loss per unit product are reduced, and the production cost is compressed from the source.
Many companies have also adjusted their product structure, cut off low-margin general-purpose silica production capacity, and concentrated their production capacity to focus on ultra-fine nanoscale, surface hydrophobic modification, and special functional high value-added categories, so as to hedge the pressure of raw material price increases with product premiums. The industry has gradually formed a new business idea of "low-end control capacity, mid-end stable share, and high-end profit improvement".
At the same time, industry associations take the lead in promoting industry self-discipline, avoid malicious low-price competition in the low-end market, guide enterprises to quote rationally, schedule production on demand, and stabilize reasonable profit margins in the market. Industry analysis pointed out that in the future, the competition in the silica industry will no longer compete for production capacity and low price, but to compete for process technology, energy-saving level, and product customization capabilities.
