1. The development course
People in rare earth polishing powder before the main iron oxide polishing glass, because the cerium oxide has the unique physical and chemical properties, are widely used in glass surface polishing gradually: the United States and Canada in 1944 launched the first generation of rare earth polishing powder, Japanese companies since the 1950 s production of rare earth polishing powder, our country started in 1958 to develop rare earth polishing powder, then gansu rare earth company and Beijing nonferrous metal research institute developed for the cathode ray tube (hereinafter referred to as the glass shell) and optical glass polishing using rare earth polishing powder. Around 2003, with the continuous development of emerging flat-panel displays, LCD substrate and the outer screen glass polishing area gradually rise, after 2007, with the rapid development of the liquid crystal display and touch technology, mobile phone display on the outside size is more and more big, the mobile phone screen polishing area outside the increasingly developed into another important application field of rare earth polishing powder.
2. Changes in application areas are shown in table l.
China’s rare earth polishing powder industry status
1. Present situation of production capacity
Before 2000, the main domestic rare earth polishing powder enterprises include baotou tianjiao qingmei rare earth polishing powder co., LTD., baotou luodiya and gansu rare earth co., LTD., with a production capacity of about 10,000 tons per year. Surging demand for rare earth polishing powder, engaged in the rare earth polishing powder production enterprises more and more, especially since 2010, as the rare earth market heating up and the regulation of national policy on rare earth industry, more and more enterprises to join the rare earth polishing powder industry, rare earth polishing powder enterprise has increased rapidly, expanding production capacity. Table 2 mainly statistics the production enterprises of rare earth polishing powder with an annual output of more than 1000 tons, and there are many enterprises with an annual output of less than 1000 tons. According to estimation, the annual output of rare earth polishing powder in China is about 50000 tons. Baotou area rare earth polishing powder production enterprises have more than a dozen, with an annual capacity of about 20,000 tons. Production capacity of major rare earth polishing powder manufacturers in China is shown in table 2.
2. Application distribution status
As the world’s largest polishing powder production and application base, China accounts for about 70% of the global consumption of polishing powder. In addition to the Chinese market, Japan, South Korea, southeast Asia, Taiwan and other countries and regions also use more concentrated, and mainly in the high-end sector. Among them, 95% of the glass hard disk substrate is processed abroad, and the production base is mainly concentrated in southeast Asia and Japan, accounting for more than 90% of the total consumption. LCD substrate production is mainly concentrated in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and other countries or regions. 3. Production process status
(1) status quo of quality identification of polishing powder. The application fields of rare earth polishing powders are different, so the raw materials and process parameters required for the production of rare earth polishing powders are also different. Due to the polishing mechanism and the powder characteristics between still needs further discussion, instrument testing index and customer application requirements is still a gap, so at present using the cognizance of manufacturer of rare earth polishing powder quality, still keep the traditional way, namely to provide relevant auxiliary particle size composition parameters, more than the actual polishing machine test performance is given priority to, with a final polishing index of the actual testing conditions (such as cast grinding, polishing speed, roughness, scratches, etc.) to determine the final polishing performance of rare earth polishing powder. In recent years, with the rapid development of the optoelectronics industry, the requirements for rare earth polishing powder are more and more refined, which puts forward higher requirements for the production of rare earth polishing powder enterprises.
(2) current production process. After decades of development, there are many kinds of preparation techniques for rare earth polishing powders. However, there are two main techniques commonly used at present. One is the preparation of rare earth polishing powder using rare earth chloride as raw material. The other is to prepare rare earth polishing powder with rare earth carbonate as raw material, as shown in the production chart. The main difference between the two preparation methods is that the control method of particle size before roasting is different from that of adding fluorine.
4. The market situation
2011 for the polishing powder market, from the first half of the demand, to the second half of the volume price qi fell, experienced the baptism of fire and ice. In 2011, the application of polishing powder is mainly concentrated in the three major fields of mobile phone cover glass, flat panel display and crystal diamond jewelry. It accounts for about 90% of the polishing powder market in China. Numerous polishing powder manufacturers and middlemen are around this field to seize the market, expand capacity. In February 2011, with rare earth raw materials prices soaring, polishing powder prices also rose sharply, in less than six months up to 5 ~ 8 times, but starting from the mid to late July, polishing powder market shift, appear the price down, then the price lower, especially in the fourth quarter of 2011, the market increasingly depressed.
Figure 5 shows the export price trend of polishing powder. As shown in the figure, from August 2010 to July 2011, with the turmoil of the rare earth market, the export price of polishing powder decreased from 7 per kilogram. The price of $5 shot up to more than $150, up by more than 17 times. Then it began to fall back. By June 2012, it dropped below more than $40 per kg.
As can be seen from table 4 and figure 6, from 2008 to 2010, the price of rare earth polishing powder in China was in a relatively stable state, and the price was basically maintained at the level of 30 ~ 40 yuan/kg. After the Spring Festival in 2011, the price of rare earth polishing powder soared with the rapid rise of the price of rare earth raw materials, and the demand for rare earth products was in short supply like other rare earth products. At the end of 2010, the price of rare earth raw material of polishing powder was about 10 yuan/kg, which was only half a year. In July 2011, the price of polishing powder reached about 100 yuan/kg, up 10 times. The price of polishing powder also increased from 40 ~ 60 yuan/kg at the end of 2010 to the highest point of 250 ~ 300 yuan/kg in July 2011.
Generally speaking, the high price of rare earth polishing powder in the first half year of 2011 led to high profit margin of products. In addition, many middlemen hoarded goods and withheld sales to hype, resulting in the extreme profit of polishing powder. In the second half began, due to high polishing powder prices and market demand, enterprises also use less as far as possible, use, or even to seek substitutes, in the second half of polishing powder prices continue to decline, many manufacturers are still plagued with high price stock up before, high-priced inventory needs to be in the future period of time to digest, purchasing become cautious, the polishing powder dosage and price in fact caused the crackdown.
5. Rare earth prices fall on the polishing powder industry
In 2011, the price of rare earth polishing powder experienced a sharp rise and fall. The two major markets of crystal water drill and liquid crystal plate were both in the second half of 2011, especially at the end of the year, there was a sharp contraction in consumption and price: In 2012, in terms of crystal diamond, due to the market at home and abroad to continue the momentum of the economic recession, indirectly affect a large number of high-grade crystal lighting accessories, such as export, crystal diamond jewelry low price competition at the same time, alternative or mixture of further reduce the dosage of rare earth polishing powder although rare earth raw material prices in 2012 than in 2011, a sharp decline, but the crystalline diamond market of rare earth polishing powder prices still not escape the war, the situation of good and evil people mixed up j flat-panel market, with the development of the global consumer electronics digital market, especially the popularity of smart phones, In the tablet market, the amount of polishing powder will keep rising steadily, but the premise is that the rare earth polishing powder is maintained at a reasonable price.
Future development trend
Since 2010, China’s rare earth polishing powder market has experienced unprecedented prosperity brought by the explosive development of mobile electronic products such as iphone and ipad, as well as rapid decline in market demand caused by the soaring price of rare earth raw materials. In the next three to five years, market capacity, market acceptance of price and price of rare earth raw materials will have an impact on the development of rare earth polishing powder industry, which will face new opportunities and challenges.
1. The application market continues to grow rapidly
In the next three to five years, the application market of rare earth polishing powder will grow by 20% to 30% every year. Far the largest application of rare earth polishing powder, for example, a touch-screen market will develop quickly in recent years, according to market-research firm Displaybank 1 in 201 when the touch panel market analysis report, published in the next few years will touch panel from smartphones, tablets, digital cameras, and other fields gradually be applied to the larger displays such as AIO (Allin one) PC, laptop computer and the device of the game: 201 1 year global touch panel production will amount to $13.4 billion, at the same time forecast output will with multiple growth, 6 years later in 2017 revenue of $23.9 billion. The increase of application market capacity will undoubtedly bring huge development space to the rare earth polishing powder market.
2. The amount continues to decrease
Due to the rapid rise in the price of rare earth products in the first half of 2011, the customers of the rare earth polishing powder industry could not bear the substantial increase in the processing cost of the products passed on by the increase in the price of rare earth polishing powder. They successively reduced the amount of rare earth polishing powder and listed the alternative products of rare earth polishing powder as a key task to tackle. In the second half of 2011, the amount of rare earth polishing powder used in the field of rare earth application was greatly reduced. For example, in the glass jewelry industry, the use of alumina to replace all or part of the rare earth polishing powder has been successful.
The application of rare earth polishing powder in this field has been greatly reduced. In the LCD industry, increasing the amount of chemical thinning, reducing the amount of polishing thinning, but also can save at least one-third of the amount of polishing powder: in the coated glass industry, generally adopted measures such as reducing the concentration of polishing paste, waste treatment reuse, reduce the amount of rare earth polishing powder, thus reducing the processing cost. In addition, the new technology and product solutions, directly reduce the glass In the application of electronic and information products, but also greatly reduced the amount of rare earth polishing powder: apple lphone5 USES the metal casing to replace the glass backboard, and adopted the In – cell touch solution instead of G – c film capacitor touch solutions, make each phone reduced 2 piece of glass, which greatly reduces the amount of rare earth polishing powder?
3. Rare earth raw material price will become rare earth to throw
Light powder development scale is the decisive factor of it industry, rare earth polishing powder is the main cost of glass processing industry, accounting for about 80% of the total cost: although the application of rare earth polishing powder market scale will be rapid growth, but because of every piece of glass unit consumption is reduced, the whole market scale growth of rare earth polishing powder and closely related to the price of rare earth polishing powder. For example, if the price of rare earth polishing powder is low, customers will increase the amount of rare earth polishing powder to increase the processing speed and shipments. Otherwise, they will reduce the amount of rare earth polishing powder. Therefore, the price of rare earth raw materials will become a decisive factor in the development scale of rare earth polishing powder industry: in 2010, the price of rare earth polishing powder is 40,000 to 70,000 yuan/ton, and the overall market demand of rare earth polishing powder is about 20,000 tons. In 2011, the price of rare earth polishing powder fluctuated violently. The actual usage of rare earth polishing powder was estimated to be 10,000 tons. According to the current low-end powder 8 ~ 100,000 yuan/ton, high-end powder 12 ~ 200,000 yuan/ton price estimates, the current market capacity is estimated not to exceed 1. 50,000 tons per year. Current production and supply capacity has been greatly increased
Exceeding market demand.
4. Rare earth polishing powder industry will appear industry segmentation
With the development and maturity of rare earth polishing powder application market in China and the technical progress of production enterprises, the rare earth polishing powder industry will present interindustry subdivision. Due to the obvious differentiation of the performance requirements of rare earth polishing powder in different application fields, according to different quality requirements and price tolerance, the rare earth polishing powder industry will be divided into glass jewelry, touch glass, liquid crystal display glass, optical glass and other fields. And in each subdivision of the field, will gradually be integrated into one or several manufacturers of products, many manufacturers in all areas of comprehensive attack, the situation of competition will be changed.
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Apr
