Glass products are a general term for daily necessities and industrial products processed with glass as the main raw material.
They are widely used in construction, daily use, medical treatment, chemistry, home furnishing, electronics, instrumentation, nuclear engineering and other fields.
1. Status quo of the glass market
Glass is an amorphous inorganic non-metallic material, which is generally made of a variety of inorganic minerals as the main raw material and a small amount of auxiliary raw materials.
According to the “In-depth Research on the Current Situation and Development Prospect Analysis Report of China’s Glass Products Industry (2022-2029)” published by Guanyan Report.com, my country’s overall glass production has shown steady growth in recent years due to improving downstream demand. The data shows that in 2021, the output of flat glass will exceed 1 billion weight boxes, reaching 1.02 billion weight boxes, a year-on-year increase of 8.4%; the output of insulating glass will be 159.137 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%; 12.2%.
The raw materials of glass mainly include quartz sand, borax, boric acid, barite, barium carbonate, limestone, feldspar, soda ash, etc. Among them, the cost of soda ash accounts for the largest proportion, reaching 54%.
Soda ash, also known as sodium carbonate, has a chemical formula of Na2CO3, also known as soda and soda ash, and is a white powder. Soda ash is actually a salt substance, and it is called soda ash because its aqueous solution is weakly alkaline. In recent years, the output of soda ash in China has not fluctuated much, the apparent consumption tends to be stable, and the capacity utilization rate of the industry fluctuates between 85% and 90%. Data show that my country’s soda ash output will be 29.133 million tons in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 3.4%.
2. Market Status of Glass Products Segmentation
Since the reform and opening up, the influx of international leading enterprises in the same industry has brought advanced production technology, quality control methods and technical level to China’s glass products industry. Under the leadership of the international advanced technology level, China’s glass products industry has achieved rapid development, and has made great progress in production technology, technology research and development, quality control, etc., and the market has achieved great development. The data shows that in the first half of 2021, the business income of China’s glass products manufacturing industry was 55.728 billion yuan, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 15.88%; the realized profit was 2.566 billion yuan, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 39.60%; the main business income profit margin was 4.60%.
Among them, in the first half of 2021, there were 476 companies in China’s daily-use glass products manufacturing industry, and the main business income was 18.986 billion yuan, a cumulative increase of 8.71% year-on-year; the total profit was 632 million yuan, a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 19.41%; the main business income profit The rate is 3.33%. The glass packaging container manufacturing industry has a total of 284 enterprises, and the main business income is 33.172 billion yuan, a cumulative increase of 25.79% year-on-year; the total profit is 1.732 billion yuan, a cumulative year-on-year increase of 122.24%; the main business income profit margin is 5.22%. There are 44 enterprises in the glass instrument manufacturing industry. The main business income is 1.683 billion yuan, a cumulative decrease of 25.74% year-on-year; the total profit is 147 million yuan, a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 9.17%; the main business income profit rate is 8.73%. There are 41 enterprises in the glass insulation container manufacturing industry. The main business income is 1.886 billion yuan, a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 5.16%; the total profit is 56 million yuan, a cumulative year-on-year decrease of 27.21%; the main business income profit margin is 2.97%.
1. Glass for daily use
Daily-use glass mainly refers to glass used for packaging of daily necessities, household appliances and other industries. Since the 1970s, benefiting from the widespread use of kilns and automatic forming equipment in the domestic daily-use glass industry, the output has continued to grow. Especially since the beginning of the 21st century, with the maturity of production technology, the advantages of raw materials, resources and market have been highlighted, and the output has shown a trend of rapid growth. Up to now, the output of daily-use glass in China has leapt to the first place in the world. According to the data, according to statistics, as of January-November 2021, the output of daily-use glass products in China was 7.475 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 13.47%.
Although my country’s production of daily-use glass is relatively large, due to China’s large population, there is still a large gap between China’s per capita glass consumption and developed countries. It is expected that with the continuous improvement of the living standards of Chinese residents, the continuous growth of residents’ per capita disposable income, and the continuous improvement of people’s demand for healthy, beautiful and high-quality household products, the consumption potential of China’s daily-use glass market will gradually show.
2. Medical glass
Pharmaceutical glass is glass specially used for pharmaceutical packaging, generally referring to glass bottles and containers. According to international standards, pharmaceutical glass can be divided into three types: borosilicate glass, neutral glass and soda-lime glass.
Medicinal glass is a kind of pharmaceutical packaging. In recent years, the market of China’s pharmaceutical packaging industry has expanded steadily and has exceeded 100 billion yuan. The data shows that the market size of China’s pharmaceutical packaging industry will reach 125 billion yuan in 2020, a year-on-year increase of 8.04%; it is estimated that by 2021, the market size of China’s pharmaceutical packaging industry will reach 134.3 billion yuan.
As one of the important components of pharmaceutical packaging, the market size of the pharmaceutical glass industry is also growing with the expansion of the pharmaceutical packaging market. However, during the period from 2015 to 2020, the scale of the pharmaceutical glass market fluctuated and climbed. Specifically, since the market broke through 20 billion yuan in 2015, China’s pharmaceutical glass market has continued to stabilize at more than 20 billion yuan. Affected by the epidemic in 2020, the pharmaceutical glass market will be 23.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.3%, and the overall industry growth will slow down.
At present, soda lime glass and low borosilicate glass are mainly used in China, and the proportion of medium borosilicate glass is low. It is expected that low-borosilicate pharmaceutical glass will still retain a large market space for a long time in the future, and medium-borosilicate pharmaceutical glass will still undergo a long substitution process. This is because as one of the main consumer groups of medicines and health care products, the increase of the elderly population is bound to stimulate the rapid growth of the pharmaceutical industry, and also brings a huge market space for medical packaging materials. With the advent of various new drugs, the pharmaceutical packaging industry has ushered in a new opportunity for development.
As one of the important components of pharmaceutical packaging, the market size of the pharmaceutical glass industry continues to grow with the expansion of the pharmaceutical packaging market. With the continuous introduction of relevant industry policies such as consistency evaluation, pharmaceutical packaging will follow the synchronization of generic drugs to achieve product upgrades. International pharmaceutical companies generally choose borosilicate glass as the material for medical glass. In order to pass the requirements of consistency evaluation, pharmaceutical companies have enough motivation to choose more borosilicate glass as packaging materials.
However, at present, there are still few enterprises in China that have mastered the production technology of medium-borosilicate pharmaceutical glass raw materials, that is, medium-borosilicate pharmaceutical glass tubes. There are also serious shortages in this respect. China’s medium borosilicate pharmaceutical glass manufacturers, including the company, still mainly import raw materials, that is, import medium borosilicate pharmaceutical glass tubes and use them in the production of medium borosilicate pharmaceutical glass bottles. At the same time, since the price of borosilicate medical glass bottles for injections is generally 5-10 times that of low-borosilicate and soda-lime glass bottles with the same preparation process, some injections with lower prices and low quality requirements for packaging materials In other words, the cost pressure has led to a slow substitution process for borosilicate pharmaceutical glass.
3. Electronic glass
In recent years, thanks to policy support, China’s electronics industry has developed rapidly. Taking the integrated circuit industry in the electronics industry as an example, from the “12th Five-Year Development Plan for the Integrated Circuit Industry” in 2012 to the “Several Policies for Promoting the High-quality Development of the Integrated Circuit Industry and Software Industry in the New Era” in 2020, the State Council, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, etc. A variety of policies to support the integrated circuit industry have been issued intensively, effectively supporting the leapfrog development of the integrated circuit industry.
Taking automotive electronics as an example, with the influence of the trend of automobile intelligence and electrification, automotive electronics are widely used in various fields of automobiles. Benefiting from the rapid growth of the automotive electronics market, automotive electronics applications have gradually become a pillar of income for global passive component manufacturers. In recent years, the scale of China’s automotive electronics market has maintained steady growth. Data show that in 2022, China’s automotive electronics market will reach US$110.4 billion. It is expected that the scale of China’s automotive electronics market will further grow to US$118.1 billion in 2023.
With the rapid development of electronic equipment and automobile consumer market, the demand for electronic glass is also increasing. According to the data from the Statistical Yearbook of China’s Electronic Information Industry, in 2019, the consumer market declined, and the demand for glass substrates in downstream applications also declined, reaching 96,000 tons. In 2020, due to the impact of the epidemic, the consumer market will be affected to a certain extent in the first half of the year, and the economy will gradually recover in the second half of the year. Consumer enthusiasm will continue to rise as the economy improves, and sales of display glass substrates in China will rise to more than 100,000 tons. In 2021, sales of display glass substrates in China will exceed 105,000 tons.
3. Status quo of the downstream market of glass products
1. Construction market
With the continuous development and progress of China’s social politics and economy, all major industries in China have made remarkable achievements, among which the development speed of the construction industry is the most significant. In particular, China’s real estate development has developed extremely rapidly. In 2021, China’s fixed asset investment (excluding rural households) will be 54.45 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.9% over 2020; an increase of 8.0% over 2019, and an average increase of 3.9% in two years. In 2021, China’s real estate development investment will be 14.76 trillion yuan, an increase of 4.4% over 2020; an increase of 11.7% over 2019, and an average increase of 5.7% over the past two years.
The role of China’s construction industry in national economic and social development is increasing day by day. Since 2009, the proportion of the added value of the construction industry to the GDP has always remained above 6.5%. In 2018, it reached a high point of 6.87%, and the status of the construction industry as a pillar industry of the national economy is stable. In 2020, the proportion of the added value of the construction industry to the GDP reached a record high of 7.2%. The whole year’s construction industry realized an added value of 7,299.6 billion yuan, an increase of 3.5% over 2019, and the growth rate was 1.2% higher than the GDP. percent. In 2021, the added value of the construction industry will be 8,013.8 billion yuan, an increase of 2.1% over the previous year; the added value of the construction industry will account for 7.01% of the GDP. In 2021, China’s construction industry will achieve a total output value of 29,307.9 billion yuan, accounting for 25.63% of the GDP.
2. Pharmaceutical market
Medicine is a substance or preparation that prevents or treats or diagnoses human and livestock diseases, and has the advantages of preventing disease, treating disease, reducing pain, and improving health.
In recent years, the increase in per capita disposable income, the reform of the medical and health system, and the intensification of population aging have further expanded the demand for medical consumption, and the Chinese pharmaceutical market has developed rapidly. It is expected that in the context of continuous growth in demand for medicines, the prospects for the pharmaceutical industry can be expected.
According to data, the scale of China’s pharmaceutical market has increased from 1,430.4 billion yuan in 2017 to 1,791.9 billion yuan in 2020, with an average annual compound growth rate of 7.8%. In 2021, the scale of my country’s pharmaceutical market will reach 1,922 billion yuan, in 2022 it will reach 2,231.1 billion yuan, and it is expected to reach 2,457 billion yuan in 2023.
With the expansion of the market scale of China’s pharmaceutical industry, it will play a leading role in China’s pharmaceutical glass packaging industry. At the same time, the domestic market for biological preparations and health care products is growing rapidly, which will drive the growth of downstream demand for medicinal glass to stabilize.