1. Silicone: Demand is growing fast
Organosilicon compounds contain both silicon-carbon bonds and at least one organic group directly connected to the silicon atom. This special structure makes organic silicon polymer materials have both organic and inorganic functional characteristics, with excellent bonding sealing, high and low temperature resistance, weather resistance, and good electrical performance and physiological inertia. After nearly 70 years of development, the application of silicone materials has been expanded from national defense to construction, electric power, electronics, automobiles and other fields of national economy, becoming an indispensable high-performance material in modern industry and residential life.
From the perspective of application types, silicon materials can be divided into three main forms: organic silicon, polysilicon/monocrystalline silicon and alloy. From the perspective of industrial chain, the upstream and downstream of the silicone industry chain includes raw silicon powder, silicone monomer represented by dimethyl dichlorosilane, silicone intermediates represented by polysiloxane, and silicone resin, silicone rubber, silicone oil, gas phase silica black and functional silane and other silicone products.
2. Industrial silicon: industry concentration needs to be improved
Silicon material, also known as industrial silicon, is the starting material of the entire silicon material industry chain. China's industrial silicon is mainly produced by carbonthermal process, that is, silica, carbon reducing agent smelting in a hot furnace. Industrial silicon production consumes a lot of energy, and the power cost accounts for more than 40% of the total cost. In 2020, China's industrial silicon output reached 2.22 million tons, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the world's total, making China the world's leading industrial silicon producer. From the perspective of consumption, the organic silicon industry is the main use of industrial silicon, accounting for more than 67%; Alloys accounted for 29% of the demand, polysilicon accounted for 26%.
At present, the industrial silicon industry presents two characteristics. First, the industry has experienced disorderly development, excess capacity is more serious, the market concentration is low. In 2020, China's industrial silicon capacity is 5.06 million tons/year, output is 2.22 million tons, capacity utilization rate is only 43.8%. According to the statistics of silicon Industry Branch, the total production of the top 10 enterprises in 2019 accounted for 46.6% of the total domestic production; In 2020, hesheng Silicon accounted for more than 24% of the market. Industry overall market concentration is still low.
Second, in recent years, with the tightening of domestic environmental protection regulation and the country's access restrictions and controls on energy-consuming industries, the new industrial silicon capacity has been controlled. Xinjiang and Yunnan are the main industrial silicon production bases in China, and both provinces have issued policies to control the total capacity of industrial silicon industry. Since 2018, domestic industrial silicon capacity has shown a slight downward trend from 5.34 million tons/year to 5.06 million tons/year. With the goal of carbon neutrality, the country will only tighten its control over industries with excess capacity and high energy consumption. The elimination of outdated capacity and the improvement of industry access threshold will promote the improvement of industry concentration. The downstream enterprises with large-scale industrial silicon production capacity are expected to have cost advantages in the future competition by virtue of integration advantages.