(May 15, 2026) The demand for silica in the field of traditional tires and rubber has stabilized, while the rapid rise of emerging industries such as new energy, electronic adhesives, high-end rubber and plastics, and pharmaceutical and daily chemicals has driven the demand for functionalized silica to continue to rise, becoming the most potential growth direction in the industry.

For a long time in the past, the domestic silica market was highly dependent on the tire reinforcement market, with a single product structure and serious homogenization. With the rapid expansion of new energy vehicles, photovoltaic industry, and lithium battery materials, high specific surface area, high dispersion, hydrophobic modification, and ultra-fine nanoscale silica have been widely used in photovoltaic sealants, lithium battery separator coatings, thermal conductive fillers, rubber and plastic anti-aging additives and other scenarios, and the amount has increased year by year.

At the same time, the pharmaceutical, food, and cosmetics fields have strict requirements for the purity, particle size, and heavy metal indicators of silica, and high-purity silica is used as anti-caking agents, thickeners, polishing aids, etc., with a significant market premium and a profit margin much higher than that of traditional rubber-grade products. In the pesticide preparation industry, nano silica can improve the utilization rate of agents as a sustained-release carrier and dispersion additive, and the demand continues to increase under the promotion of green plant protection policies.

At present, many silica companies have begun to adjust the focus of R&D and production, reduce low-end general production capacity, increase investment in surface modification, particle size control, and functional customization technology, and shift from simple production of raw materials to providing formulated and customized material solutions.

The industry view points out that the core growth point of the silica industry in the future is no longer the traditional rubber market, but the field of diversified new materials. Deeply cultivating functional and specialized products and docking with high-end downstream new material industry chains will be the key path for enterprises to break through growth bottlenecks and achieve high-quality development.

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