Strong ceramic raw material prices go higher hidden potential risks

When investigating chemical raw materials such as zirconia, frit, zinc oxide, bismuth oxide, and potassium sodium sand, we noticed that since the end of 2009, the ceramic raw material market has been characterized by “prosperity in production and sales, and the price of some products has continued to rise strongly”.

Ceramic raw material prices are strong

"The price keeps rising, and manufacturers can't sell the goods without being afraid to sell them." There are people in the industry who describe the current ceramic raw material market.

Yongkun color glaze Guangdong sales area manager in a single ocean engaged in ceramic raw materials for nearly a decade. According to his recollection, 2007 was the best year since he joined the industry. The single sea shipping clearly remembers that the price of zinc oxide was as high as 28,000 yuan per ton in that year, and that “manufacturers are urging for goods”, and now zinc oxide has soared from about 9,000 yuan in the low season last year to about 18,000, and the upward trend is obvious. .

“March to August 2008 was the period most affected by the financial crisis. At that time, the price per ton of yttrium oxide fluctuated between 80,000 yuan and 90,000 yuan.” Shanhai said, “But by January 2010, prices have steadily increased. At the end of January, the price per ton rose to 130,000 yuan.” Both in terms of sales price and market sales, the trend in 2007 is more obvious. However, this is only the prelude to the rise in the price of antimony trioxide.

A few reporters visited a number of companies recently and found that the current price of 200,000 metric tons of niobium oxide is not necessarily available. At this point, the unit price of antimony oxide has doubled in less than a year.

As an important raw material for color glaze frit prices have also increased. According to an unnamed supplier, the frit is now very well sold, and the price is more than 1,000 yuan higher than the 5,000 yuan in 2008, up by 20%.

“We also have the possibility of upward adjustment.” Asked about the future trend of the frit market, the supplier said. In addition, according to the survey conducted by the newspaper, the prices of chemical materials such as nickel and tin have steadily increased.

Ms. O'Toole Lin said that the price trend of copper as an important chemical raw material for seepage technology has also fluctuate after the earthquake in Chile. The price of copper is also worthy of attention.

In terms of clay, white pebbles, black pebbles, and black talc are stable and supplyable, while potassium and sodium sands are in tight supply and prices have been raised.

Hot sales of ceramics are not the only factor

"The first pick-up in China's economy, the active real estate market and the release of capacity in the third and fourth-tier markets have stimulated further expansion of ceramics domestic sales. With the recovery of some international market economies, export orders for export-oriented Foshan production areas have begun to increase, especially Since 2010, a person who has been engaged in the sale of ceramic raw materials for many years revealed that "I have several customers who are currently scheduled for production in July and August."

At the same time, a number of ceramics company sales executives also claimed that conservative estimates for the first quarter of this year's sales growth of 20-30% over the same period last year, but in fact may be higher.

"There must be a heated production scene behind such a hot market." Shanhai said.

"Recently, the production capacity of the new production line has been greatly improved." Ms. Lin believes that the transfer of expansion of enterprises in the surrounding areas of Foshan, Guangdong, or into the right track to expand production capacity or new production line officially put into production, but also to some extent, the expansion of raw materials demand.

In addition, the contradiction between the non-renewability of mineral resources and the increasing demand in the ceramic industry; coupled with the continuous expansion of industry scale, the gradual maturity of the market, the country's restrictions on resource extraction is also increasingly stringent.

Although there was no major change in the clay price system, the drought in the southwest drastically reduced the water level in the upper reaches of the Pearl River, which had a major impact on the clay transport in the direction of Guangxi. Many raw material suppliers had to change from water to automobile. Xinfeng County is currently strengthening the monitoring of mineral resources. The mining of local mines has caused the supply of potassium-sodium-sanded sand in Xinfeng to be cut off, causing a certain supply shortage and an increase in the cost of transporting pottery clay to more distant places.

Potential risks

"Now, not just selling products, the core of raw materials has been changed from selling technology to selling services. The R&D personnel in the raw material field is increasingly important." A raw material supplier said with emotion. "Now with ceramic companies doing raw materials business, people are asking you to be The research and development capabilities of varieties and varieties have made it difficult to establish a foothold in the industry, not to mention becoming bigger and stronger.

Increasing the research and development of new products, extending the technical services of ceramic enterprises, and focusing on the business expansion of emerging production areas have become the consensus of many raw material suppliers. However, there are also many raw material suppliers worried that the hot ceramic industry will lead to a new round of blind expansion of ceramic enterprises. Ultimately, excess production capacity creates pressure on the supply chain of suppliers.

According to statistics, although the promotion of the Foshan ceramics industry has caused many ceramic companies to relocate, leading to a sharp drop in local production lines, Qingyuan, Gaoyao, and Enping have gradually become the climate in Guangdong in recent years. More than 100 production lines have been put into production.

This is actually not what raw material manufacturers are worried about. "Now that the ceramics market is so good, if the ceramics business owner sees money and earns as in previous years, it will increase production capacity and blindly increase production lines without doing market research. The consequences may be products. Backlog, industry excess production capacity.” This is the worry of most of the raw material suppliers that the reporter has contacted.