1. Glass fiber yarn: rapid growth in production
In 2022, the total output of glass fiber yarn in China reached 6.87 million tons, up 10.2% year-on-year. Among them, the total output of pool kiln yarn reached 6.44 million tons, an increase of 11.1% year-on-year.
Influenced by the sustained high profit level of the industry as a whole, the domestic glass fiber capacity expansion boom started again in the second half of 2021, and the capacity scale of the pool kiln project under construction to be put into operation reached 1.2 million tons in the first half of 2022 alone. In the later period, as the demand continues to shrink and the market supply-demand imbalance, the momentum of rapid expansion of industry capacity is initially eased. Nevertheless, 9 pool kilns will be put into operation in 2022, and the scale of new pool kiln capacity will reach 830,000 tons.
For ball kilns and crucible yarn, the production of glass balls for domestic wire drawing in 2022 is 929,000 tons, down 6.4% year-on-year, and the total production of crucible and channel drawing glass fiber yarn is about 399,000 tons, down 9.1% year-on-year. Under the multiple pressures of continuous rise in energy prices, low market demand for building insulation and other markets, and rapid expansion of industrial spinning pool kiln capacity, ball kiln and crucible capacity scale shrank significantly. For the traditional application market, ball kilns and crucible enterprises rely on small investment and low cost to compete in the market gradually lost the advantage, how to reshape the core competitiveness of the majority of small and medium-sized enterprises must face and choose the problem.
As for high-performance and special glass fiber yarn, in 2022, the total output of domestic alkali-resistant, high-strength, low dielectric, shaped, composite, native color and high-silica oxygen, quartz, basalt and other types of high-performance and special glass fiber yarn (excluding high modulus and ultra-fine glass fiber yarn) is about 88,000 tons, of which the total output of special pool kiln yarn is about 53,000 tons, accounting for about 60.2%.
2. the glass fiber products: each market gauge continues to grow
Electronic felt products: In 2022, the total output of various types of electronic cloth/felt products in China is about 860,000 tons, up 6.2% year-on-year. From the end of the third quarter of 2021, the laminate industry by the new crown epidemic, chip shortage, poor logistics, as well as microcomputers, cell phones, home appliances retail and other electronic products demand weakness and other factors, the development of a new round of adjustment period. 2022 in automotive electronics, base station construction and other market segments, driven by the steady development of the industry, the early industry large-scale investment in the formation of new production capacity gradually released.
Industrial felt products: In 2022, the total output of various types of industrial felt products in China is about 770,000 tons, an increase of 6.6% year-on-year. Glass fiber cloth products industry applications involve building insulation, road geotechnical, electrical insulation, thermal insulation, safety and fire prevention, high temperature filtration, chemical anti-corrosion, decoration, insect screens, waterproofing membrane, outdoor shading and many other fields. 2022 China’s new energy vehicle production increased by 96.9% year-on-year, water conservancy, public facilities, road transport, railroad transport and other infrastructure investment to maintain a 9.4% Growth rate, environmental protection, safety, health and other areas of investment in a steady increase, driving the production of various types of glass fiber industrial felt products grew steadily.
Felt products for reinforcement: In 2022, the total consumption of various types of glass fiber yarn and felt products for reinforcement in China will be about 3.27 million tons.
3. glass fiber reinforced composite products: rapid growth of thermoplastic products
The total production scale of various types of glass fiber reinforced composite products was about 6.41 million tons, an increase of 9.8% year-on-year.
The total production scale of glass fiber reinforced thermoset composite products was about 3 million tons, down 3.2% year-on-year. The downstream markets of water pipeline network and auto parts market performed well, but the markets of building materials and wind power remained sluggish. Affected by the termination of offshore wind power subsidies and the recurrence of the epidemic, the new installed capacity of wind power in 2022 fell 21% compared with the same period last year, a sharp drop for the second consecutive year. During the “14th Five-Year Plan” period, China will actively promote the development of wind power bases and clusters in the “three northern” regions and the eastern coastal areas, the wind power market will continue to steadily expand. But this also means that the wind power field technology iteration speed up, the wind power with glass fiber yarn, wind power with composite products and other higher technical requirements. At the same time, the current layout of wind power enterprises gradually extended to the upstream raw materials and parts manufacturing, wind power market will gradually enter a new cycle of growth in reducing costs, improving quality and increasing efficiency, and will face full market competition.
The total production scale of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite products is about 3.41 million tons, with a year-on-year growth of about 24.5%. The recovery of the automotive industry is the primary factor driving the rapid growth of the output of glass fiber reinforced thermoplastic composite products. According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers, China’s total automobile production will reach 27.48 million units in 2022, up 3.4% year-on-year. In particular, China’s new energy vehicles have achieved rapid development in the past two years, and have ranked first in the world for eight consecutive years. 2022 new energy vehicles continued to grow explosively, with production and sales of 7.058 million and 6.887 million units respectively, up 96.9% and 93.4% year-on-year. The development of new energy vehicles has gradually shifted from policy-driven to market-driven new development stage, and driven the rapid growth of various thermoplastic composite products for automobiles. In addition, the proportion of thermoplastic composite products in the fields of rail transportation and home appliances is increasing, and the application fields are widening.
Post time: Mar-02-2023