Japanese companies dominate my country’s spherical silica powder market, and local companies accelerate domestic substitution

Microsilica powder refers to the SiO2 and Si gas produced during the industrial smelting process of industrial silicon and silicon, and is a by-product obtained after special treatment. More than 80% of the fineness of silica powder is less than 1 μm, and the average particle size is 0.1-0.3 μm. There are three types of microsilica powder, and their application fields are also different. Among them, spherical microsilica powder has better heat transfer and filling properties, and is used in chip packaging, high-performance coatings, and fillers for high-frequency and high-speed circuit boards.

Microsilica powder is mainly used in copper-clad laminates. Benefiting from the rapid development of the domestic electronics industry, the sales area of ​​domestic rigid copper-clad laminates continues to grow, reaching 640 million square meters in 2020, and is expected to reach 770 million square meters by 2023. The growth in sales area of ​​copper-clad laminates has driven up the demand for silica powder. In the past five years, my country’s demand for silica powder has shown a growth trend, reaching 300,000 tons in 2021 and is expected to reach 370,000 tons by 2023.

As a product with higher added value among silica powders, spherical silica powder has a higher unit price and a relatively higher profit. In 2020, the unit price of spherical silica powder is 15,000 yuan/ton, and its modified products are sold at 30,000 yuan/ton, which is much higher than the prices of crystalline silica powder and fused silica powder products.

According to the “2022-2026 Spherical Silica Powder Industry Market In-depth Research and Investment Prospect Forecast Analysis Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, Due to the high development value of the spherical silica powder industry, it has attracted many companies to deploy. However, due to the high technical barriers in the industry, the current global market concentration is high. companies occupy the market, with the top three companies accounting for about 72% of the market.

my country’s silica powder products are mainly concentrated in low-end crystalline silica powder and fused silica powder. Moreover, the scale of enterprises is small, the mechanical expertise is low, the particle size and purity of the products produced are not high, and the product quality stability is poor. Therefore, domestic spherical The market demand for silica powder still relies on imports. Lianrui New Materials is a leading domestic silica powder manufacturer. In 2019, it raised funds to build a 7,200 tons/year spherical silica powder production project. Lianrui New Materials’ spherical silica powder sales volume is relatively high. With the implementation of new projects, sales volume exceeded 10,000 tons and reached about 11,200 tons in 2020. In terms of revenue structure, Lianrui New Materials’ spherical silica powder operating revenue in 2020 was 145 million yuan, accounting for 35.79% of the company’s total revenue. In 2021, benefiting from the growth in the production and sales of spherical silica powder, Lianrui New Materials Company’s revenue will still show a growth trend, reaching 625 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 54.55%.

Industry analysts said that spherical silica powder is a high-end silica powder product with high production technology threshold and high product added value. In the fields of integrated circuits and PCB boards, benefiting from the development of the terminal industry, the industry development prospects are good. Compared with angular silica powder, spherical silica powder has a higher unit price and higher profits, so it attracts many companies to deploy. However, due to high technical barriers, the current global and domestic markets are highly concentrated, with Japanese companies dominating the market. With the continuous improvement of production technology, my country has achieved large-scale production of spherical silica powder, and gradually formed domestic substitution.