The current situation and development trend of the glass deep processing industry

Analysis of the Development Characteristics and Trends of the Glass Deep Processing Industry (Attached Report Catalog)
1. Industry development status
Glass is a non crystalline inorganic material made mainly from quartz sand, soda ash, feldspar, and limestone, which are melted, formed, cooled, and solidified. It has transparency that is difficult for ordinary materials to possess, as well as excellent mechanical and thermal properties. The deep processing of glass, also known as glass secondary products, is a glass product with specific functions that is made from a one-time formed flat glass as the basic raw material, using different processing techniques according to usage requirements.

The development of the flat glass industry provides a good foundation and opportunity for deep processing glass. The types of flat glass (also known as original glass) formed in one go mainly include primary glass products such as float glass. From a functional perspective, original glass can only meet people's basic needs for transparency, while deep processed glass is closely related to the construction industry, transportation industry, electronics industry, and military industry, representing the development direction of the entire glass industry. Although China's deep processing glass industry started relatively late, with the rapid improvement of domestic economic level and people's living standards, people's requirements for the safety, energy-saving, comfort, aesthetics, and environmental protection of glass are also increasing. In addition, with the promotion of policies and regulations, the glass deep processing industry is developing rapidly, especially for safety glass and energy-saving glass, with an average annual growth rate of over 30%. Deep processed glass products can have functions such as controlling light, adjusting temperature, preventing noise, and enhancing architectural art decoration. Glass is no longer just a lighting material, but a structural and decorative material in modern architecture.
Compared with the international level, there is a significant gap in industrial concentration, technological progress, market cooperation, product development, and other aspects. The processing rate of flat glass in China is only 40%, with an external dependence rate of 15-20%. The guarantee capacity of high-end products needs to be improved, and the variety needs to be enriched; The disorderly market development and uneven product quality make it urgent to strengthen the integration and upgrading of China's glass deep processing industry.
In terms of application, there are nearly a thousand sub varieties of deeply processed glass in the world today, mainly used in fields such as home furnishings, modern communication, ecological environment, energy production, national defense research, military, industry, and architectural design. The glass deep processing rate in the world's major industrialized countries is increasing from 60% in the 1980s and 70% in the 1990s to over 80% today. The glass deep processing ratio in China is only about 40%, which is significantly lower than the world average of 60% and developed countries with a glass deep processing ratio of over 80%. The development space of the domestic industry is very broad.
2. Industry development characteristics
The development of the domestic deep processing glass industry mainly presents the following characteristics:
(1) Regionality of geographical layout
The production capacity of deeply processed glass is mainly distributed in the three regions of South China, East China, and North China, which is basically consistent with the industrial layout of flat glass. The fragility of glass itself and the limitations of transportation result in its sales being divided into intensive marketing within 300 kilometers, selective distribution within 300-800 kilometers, and exclusive marketing beyond 800 kilometers. That is to say, the sales radius of the glass deep processing industry is about 500 kilometers, so this industry has strong regional characteristics. When building factories, they mainly rely on the demand areas. In recent years, large-scale development and construction have been carried out in the central and eastern regions of China, and glass enterprises have formed a considerable scale in these areas.
(2) Diversity of product structure
Compared to the ordinary flat glass industry that only produces glass raw materials, the product structure of the glass deep processing industry is significantly diverse, with thousands of glass varieties that can meet the different needs of industry, construction, military, and communication. The diversity of product structure can eliminate the single consumption mode of the original ordinary flat glass market and weaken the cyclical fluctuations of the economy. Since 2000, the sales revenue of China's glass deep processing industry has been increasing year by year and has been in a profitable development state.
(3) Innovation in glass deep processing technology and products
Innovation is the soul of an enterprise, and it is also the source of life for the sustainable development of an industry. Compared to ordinary flat glass, deep processed glass is more easily replaced by substitutes, such as glass film can to some extent replace hollow Low-E glass. Therefore, only by continuously developing glass deep processing technology and products towards high quality, greenness, multifunctionality, high added value, and high-tech content can the industry grow and strengthen. The innovation of glass deep processing includes product innovation, process technology optimization, and environmental protection and energy conservation.
3. Development trends
The invention of glass can be traced back 3500 years and has been widely used as a basic raw material for 130 years. In today's society, whether it is a stationary building or a running car, from glasses and lenses, home decoration, to building curtain walls, all are closely related to glass products. So far, no material has been able to replace glass, and glass is gradually replacing a certain material. In the future, the market demand for functional glass will grow rapidly, and other uses of glass are constantly being developed. Glass raw materials are shifting from final consumer products to intermediate products. Deep processing of glass is not only using a single technology and method for production, but also focusing on multiple types of products
The combination of technology and emphasis on research in glass modified materials will lead glass products towards the direction of composite functional and ecological intelligent energy conservation and environmental protection.
In 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Ministry of Finance issued an implementation plan for the upgrading and replacement of key materials, which involves four aspects: new generation information technology, marine engineering equipment, energy conservation and environmental protection of industrial kilns, and 20 urgently needed materials for advanced rail transit equipment. These are the top priorities during the 13th Five Year Plan period. Among them, there are four aspects related to glass, which also indicate the direction for the development of the glass industry and determine the goal of industrial structure adjustment. According to the implementation plan, it is necessary to strengthen the optimization and upgrading of traditional glass, enhance the precision of conventional glass deep processing products, focus on solving the tempering of tempered ultra-thin glass and coated glass, actively innovate and develop new materials for laminated glass intermediates, strengthen process management and new product innovation and development for vacuum glass, insulating glass, silk screen glass, relief glass, sand faced glass, etc.
(1) Development of coating materials for coated glass
Due to the influence of different coating materials, thickness, and number of layers, various products such as sunlight control glass, low radiation film glass, glass mirrors, and conductive film glass with different colors and functions can be obtained. Except for mirror manufacturing, the production of other coated glass in our country started relatively late, and there is a significant gap in technology compared to foreign countries, especially in the development and research of coating materials, which has not yet formed a large-scale professional product research. With the increasing demand for multiple functions of coated glass, the development of new coating materials requires coated glass production enterprises to collaborate with the metallurgical and chemical industries to invent or discover a batch of coating materials with more distinctive functions.
For example, glass coated with TiO2 film can undergo photocatalysis under sunlight, degrading organic pollutants such as formaldehyde released from industrial waste gas, car exhaust, and indoor decorative materials in the atmosphere, as well as liquid organic substances such as edible oil and tar accumulated on the surface of the glass, inhibiting and killing microorganisms in the environment. Moreover, it has superhydrophilicity and is completely wet with water, which can isolate the glass surface from adsorbed dust and organic matter. Under external forces such as wind, rain, and water washing, and the self weight of adsorbents, dust and oil stains automatically peel off the glass surface, achieving the requirements of cleaning and self-cleaning.
This type of autonomous (anti fouling) glass coated with TiO2 film can be used for doors, windows, exterior walls of buildings, interior walls, doors, windows, and sanitary ware of kitchens and bathrooms. It is particularly suitable for doors, windows, and interior walls of hospitals and public facilities. In short, the development and research of new coating materials is undoubtedly the key to the development of new coated glass.
(2) Reasonable combination of various glass to develop new varieties
The product is not limited to one function, but combines multiple functions, that is, through the reasonable combination of multiple functions of glass, to obtain the most effective use of resources and meet different needs of new products. Low E coated insulating glass has functions such as shading, warmth preservation, and decoration, saving energy by 18% compared to ordinary insulating glass; Another example is to process glass substrates coated with photocatalytic degradation films into insulating glass, which has a common hollow insulation. It has the functions of sound insulation, eliminating frost and dew, and also has the self-cleaning function of degrading dirt. For example, combining screen printing and tempering to produce screen printed tempered glass; Anti fog glass mirrors produced by coating the surface of the glass mirror with electric heating or a borrowed water film. In combination, there should be breakthroughs, reverse thinking should be adopted, and one should be good at learning to utilize the shortcomings of glass itself. Under the relatively mature production process of deep processed glass in our country, it is necessary to increase the development and research of modified materials combined (or composite) with glass, so as to develop deep processed glass products towards multifunctional composite, ecological environment, and intelligent and intelligent directions.
4. Adverse factors for industry development
(1) The competition order within the industry is relatively chaotic
With the rapid development of the glass deep processing industry, some enterprises with technological, brand, and cost advantages in the industry have rapidly grown and become the leading force in China's glass deep processing industry. International renowned manufacturers have also seen the promising development prospects of the domestic deep processing glass industry, and have increased their investment in this industry, starting to integrate enterprises investing in China according to division of labor and layout. However, at the same time, there are still many small and medium-sized enterprises with weak development capabilities and single products. Due to a lack of funds, they are unable to advance a large amount of funds and can only make some irregularly sized small orders. Moreover, the more small and medium-sized enterprises are, the more intense the price war becomes, leading to market chaos. The phenomenon of reducing product quality to achieve bottom price sales often occurs, resulting in vicious competition and adverse effects on industry development.
(2) Technical barriers
The development trend of deep processed glass in the world is towards technological innovation, product innovation, multifunctionality, and high technology. In recent years, the deep processing rate of flat glass in China has been about 40%, which is significantly lower than the world average of 55%, and 80% of glass deep processing rates in developed countries. Taking architecture and automobiles as examples, lightweight, energy-saving, and high safety products are commonly used abroad, such as heat reflective glass, low radiation glass, dimming glass, hydrophobic glass, thin tempered glass, deep bending laminated glass, electric heating glass, etc. Many high-end and special purpose deep processing products are still blank in China and have to rely on imports.
(3) Capital shortage
In order for the glass deep processing industry to develop and grow, it is necessary to increase research and development investment and introduce advanced foreign production lines. Only with a certain amount of capital investment can various high-end glass products be developed, which also intensifies the transformation of the industry from labor-intensive to capital and technology intensive. However, currently more than 95% of the glass deep processing industry is composed of small and medium-sized enterprises, which have not formed industrial cluster advantages, financing difficulties, let alone a large amount of capital investment, and cannot quickly improve product and process updates.
5. Industry entry barriers
(1) Product quality and management capability barriers
Due to the special requirements of the glass deep processing industry for product performance, usage effects, and other aspects, since 2003, the National Certification and Accreditation Administration has included building safety glass products in the scope of CCC mandatory certification. At the same time, strict regulations have been made on their impact strength and fragmentation status indicators through the development of national standards, resulting in stricter product quality requirements. High standard product quality requires enterprises to have efficient management capabilities, which makes it difficult for enterprises with poor management and product quality control capabilities to enter and develop.
(2) Technical and R&D resource barriers
The glass deep processing industry has high requirements for technology and processes, and the continuous application of various new technologies, processes, and materials is the key for an enterprise to ensure its core competitiveness. Enterprises that have just entered the industry are generally small in scale, unable to achieve economies of scale, have limited R&D investment, and are constrained by funding and technology in new product development, making it difficult to form batch production capacity.
(3) Barrier between raw material procurement channels and product sales channels
Glass deep processing enterprises have dedicated channels for raw material procurement and sales, which will ensure the reliability of product quality and reduce costs. The cooperative relationship between channels is generally relatively stable, based on confidence in product quality and demand. New entrants often find it difficult to quickly find relatively stable channels, and have obvious disadvantages in quality control and production capacity, which also poses entry barriers for new entrants.
6. Industry competition situation
The world glass market is mainly controlled by five famous multinational companies, namely Pilkington in the UK, PPG in the US, Saint Gobain in France, Asahi in Japan, and Cardian in the US. Each company has its own research and development center for processing glass technology, which mainly targets the two major markets of architectural glass and automotive glass, developing new varieties, materials, equipment, processes, and high-end products. This type of glass multinational giant has obvious advantages in technology, scale, brand, and occupies a high share in the international energy-saving glass market. With the acceleration of world market integration, the competitive pressure it brings is gradually increasing.
In China's glass deep processing industry, the main large enterprises include: China Southern Glass, Fuyao Glass, Yaopi Glass, Yaohua Glass and other large listed companies, with a complete industrial chain, high level of product diversification, high degree of specialization in segmented products, strong innovation ability, and significant advantages in funding and technology fields.
Small and medium-sized enterprises account for over 95% of the total number of enterprises, with weak product development capabilities, outdated equipment, single products, mutual imitation, originality, and very few independent products. There are even fewer brands. Although these manufacturers are at a disadvantage in scale, technology, and other aspects, selling through methods such as lowering prices has a great impact on the less standardized market.