Analysis of the current development status of rock wool at home and abroad
Given the urgent market demand for rock wool, some investors, aiming for quick profits, have launched projects illegally. These projects, which were hastily started without prior environmental impact assessments and approvals from environmental protection departments, are currently being gradually cleaned up, especially in Hebei, a severely affected area. In 2013, nearly 100 small workshops were shut down, and this year, under the pressure of environmental policies, production capacity has been reduced by approximately 500,000 tons, providing favorable conditions for the healthy development of the market.
Current Status of Rock Wool Development Abroad
There are four major rock wool producers in the world: R0CK-WOOL (Denmark), PAROC (Finland), Knauf (Germany), and Saint-Gobain (France), with capacities of 1.8 million, 350,000, 320,000, and 320,000 tons respectively. The maximum capacity of a single production line is 50,000 to 100,000 tons. Their products are of superior quality and represent the world's highest level of production technology.
In terms of rock wool production technology and equipment, rock wool manufacturing companies in different countries have their own characteristics in key technologies such as melting, fiber formation, wool collection, pendulum molding, pleating, curing, and cutting. Each company, while considering how to improve product capacity and quality, also focuses on increasing product diversity, expanding application areas, reducing production consumption, lowering production line operation and maintenance costs, and being more environmentally friendly.
In terms of production capacity, the total annual output of rock wool products abroad has exceeded 7 million tons, mainly concentrated in developed countries, with the EU alone having an annual production capacity of over 4 million tons. Regarding applications, most European rock wool products are used for building insulation, sound absorption, and fireproofing. In the UK, rock wool accounts for 85% of building production capacity. As a cost-effective building insulation and fireproofing material, rock wool began to be promoted and used in Europe in the 1960s. Furthermore, the rise of rock wool as a soilless cultivation substrate for plants has led to the rapid development of agricultural rock wool applications in Europe and America, with the Netherlands and the United States performing particularly well in this area.
Current Status of Rock Wool Development in China
my country's rock wool manufacturing industry started relatively late, with domestic production penetration less than 10 years ago. In the early years, it mainly focused on producing low-end mineral wool. my country began importing mineral wool production technology in the late 1950s, but it wasn't until the late 1970s that the industry began to take shape. The 1980s can be considered a period of great leap forward in the development history of my country's mineral wool industry. Both production scale and technology saw significant progress, mainly due to the import of more than 10 mineral wool production lines of different styles and scales from 6 different countries, thus laying the foundation for the development of rock wool in my country.
In the 1990s, due to people's weak awareness of energy conservation and the lack of requirements for building energy conservation, the products were mainly used for industrial insulation. At that time, the total amount of mineral wool in the country hovered between 200,000 and 300,000 tons.
Although my country's progress in the mineral wool industry is evident, the industry as a whole is still at a relatively low level. Compared with developed countries, there are still significant gaps in product quality, technology and equipment, product consumption, and environmental protection.
In 1995, CSR Group entered China and established a rock wool production plant in Guangzhou, thus pioneering the domestic production of rock wool. Later, through the introduction and assimilation of foreign rock wool production technology by Nanjing Glass Fiber Research and Design Institute (hereinafter referred to as Glass Fiber Institute), rock wool was truly localized in 2008.
With the increasing awareness of energy conservation in buildings among Chinese people in recent years, building insulation has gradually gained acceptance. Several major fire accidents have brought fire-resistant insulation materials to the forefront of attention. Guided by relevant policies, rock wool has gradually entered the building insulation market, leading to the vigorous development of the rock wool industry. Rock wool production technology and equipment have made significant progress, but the overall production level and processes still lag considerably behind those of developed countries. By the end of 2016, according to rough industry statistics, my country's total rock wool production capacity had reached 3.5 million tons per year. However, this capacity has been affected by the domestic economic situation and the downturn in the real estate industry. The industry is facing increasing competition, and rock wool manufacturers generally have a weak awareness of product quality control. Currently, the entire domestic rock wool manufacturing industry still produces less than 1 million tons of high-quality rock wool that fully meets the GB/T25975-2010 standard for building rock wool, which came into effect on October 1, 2011. In addition, the supervision of building quality management departments is not strong enough, and the market for building rock wool products is still rife with counterfeit and substandard products. A large amount of slag wool with poor weather resistance, substandard acidity coefficient, and poor strength, which is unsuitable for external wall insulation, is being sold as qualified rock wool, seriously disrupting the market.
Current state of industry competition
my country's rock wool manufacturing industry started relatively late, and public awareness of its use in building insulation was low. It wasn't until the devastating Shanghai fire of November 15, 2010, that the excellent fire-resistant and insulating properties of rock wool gained widespread recognition and promotion. Simultaneously, the Ministry of Public Security issued document No. 65 of 2011 regarding "Requirements for Fire Safety Supervision and Management of External Insulation Materials for Civil Buildings," stipulating that external insulation materials must achieve a fire rating of NA. Rock wool with a fire rating of A1 was in high demand and short supply, causing delays in construction for many large-scale projects and driving up market prices. At that time, the substantial profits and vast market attracted a large number of investors. In the past two years, approximately 30 production lines have begun operation in China, with more under construction this year.
However, affected by the slow growth of the domestic economy, the real estate industry has declined. In addition, the market for fire-resistant Class B insulation materials, which was forced to open up due to insufficient rock wool production capacity, is becoming increasingly competitive and exhibits the following characteristics.
To accelerate the structural adjustment and transformation and upgrading of the rock wool industry, curb low-level repetitive construction and blind capacity expansion, protect the ecological environment, promote energy conservation and emission reduction, and improve the utilization level of resources and energy, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology formulated the "Access Conditions for the Rock Wool Industry" in 2012 in accordance with relevant laws, regulations and industrial policies, which greatly raised the entry threshold. At the same time, because the rock wool manufacturing industry has relatively high energy consumption compared with general manufacturing industries, developed provinces and cities such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai have in principle stopped approving such projects, thus providing favorable guarantees for the development of the rock wool manufacturing industry.
Building exterior wall insulation is related to the safety of people's lives. In order to strengthen the management of the quality of rock wool used in construction, the GB/T25975-2010 standard for the requirements of rock wool for exterior wall insulation was introduced and implemented in 2011. This made it impossible for products produced by mineral wool manufacturers to be used on walls, and also prevented the entry of substandard products from many small rock wool manufacturers into the field of building rock wool. This has maintained a healthy development of demand for high-end building rock wool products and provided a guarantee for the development of high-quality rock wool manufacturers.
