Quartz sand has a wide range of applications and production is gradually increasing

Quartz sand refers to quartz particles formed by screening, crushing, washing, calcining and other processes of quartz stone. Quartz sand often appears as a milky white or colorless translucent particle, which has the characteristics of wear resistance and stable chemical properties. There are many types of quartz sand. According to the different silica content, it can be roughly divided into ordinary quartz sand, refined quartz sand, high-purity quartz sand, etc. Among them, ordinary quartz sand is mainly used to produce glass, enamel, metallurgy, graphite silicon carbide, cast steel and other products; refined quartz sand is mostly used to produce high-grade glass, refractory materials, glass products, grinding wheels and abrasives and other products; high-purity quartz sand is multi-purpose to produce integrated circuits, optical fibers, photovoltaic power generation and other products.

As a very important industrial raw material, quartz sand has a wide range of applications. Due to the impact of the epidemic and the real estate market, my country’s flat glass market demand has declined. Against this background, my country’s flat glass production has gradually declined. According to data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, as of 2022, the cumulative value of my country’s flat glass production will be 1,012.785 million weight boxes, a year-on-year decrease of 3.70%. Ordinary quartz sand is the main raw material for the production of flat glass, and its market has been affected to a certain extent.

According to the “China Quartz Sand Market Analysis and Development Prospects Research Report 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center, high-purity quartz Sand, as a subdivided product of quartz sand, is mostly used to manufacture solar cells, chips, electronic core devices and other products. With the rapid development of semiconductor, consumer electronics, photovoltaic, new energy and other markets, the market demand for high-purity quartz sand is gradually growing. Driven by the rapid development of the high-purity quartz sand market, my country’s overall quartz sand market continues to expand. Against this background, my country’s quartz sand production enterprises continue to expand their production scale and their output gradually increases. From 2015 to 2022, my country’s quartz sand production increased from 67.867 million tons to 94.072 million tons, with an average annual compound growth rate of 4.17%.

From the perspective of import and export, my country’s quartz sand import volume is far greater than its export volume. Due to the large gap between my country’s quartz sand production and market demand, large quantities of imported quartz sand still need to be imported from abroad to make up for this gap. According to data released by the General Administration of Customs, in 2022, my country’s quartz sand import volume will be 3.8614 million tons, an increase of 406,700 tons compared with 2021, a year-on-year increase of 11.77%.

Industry analysts said that at present, there are a large number of quartz sand production companies in my country, most of which are small and large. The main ones include Kanglong Chemical, CSG Group, Liyang Quartz Sand, Linuo Group, Kibing Glass, Pacific Quartz, etc. In addition, there are a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in my country’s quartz sand market. These enterprises are small in scale, have a relatively single product range, and have relatively backward technical levels. As my country’s large-scale quartz sand companies gradually expand, the living space of small and medium-sized enterprises continues to be squeezed, and the market share will gradually move closer to large companies. The quartz sand market concentration is expected to increase in the future.