Shandong Fiberglass: Improve the high-strength and high-modulus fiber product matrix, and it is expected that the fiberglass market price will continue to bottom out and rise?
After the industry initially got rid of vicious competition, Shandong Fiberglass, which continued to lose money last year, finally saw an increase in both quantity and price of its products in the first quarter of this year. The company expects to turn losses around in the first quarter year-on-year.
Can the positive situation in the industry continue? At the Shandong Fiberglass 2024 and 2025 first quarter performance briefing held on May 20, Zhu Bo, director and general manager of Shandong Fiberglass, said that the current market has formed a basic consensus on the price repair channel. Based on the gradual improvement of the supply and demand structure, it is expected that the fiberglass market price will continue to bottom out and rise in 2025, and the overall operation pattern will be stable and improving.
"Fiberglass yarn has been repriced many times since last year, and the market demand for fiberglass yarn has gradually recovered. It is expected to continue to be stable and improving in the future. The actual price trend will ultimately depend on the macroeconomic situation, industry supply and demand and other factors." Zhu Bo further stated.
Regarding the main driving factors for the company's future profit growth, Zhu Bo said that Shandong Fiberglass follows the development path of "complementing the supply chain, strengthening the production chain, and extending the industrial chain". First, it strengthens the supply of raw materials such as pyrophyllite and chemical raw materials in the upstream, and at the same time does a good job in downstream fiberglass products and composite materials; second, according to market demand, adjust the product structure, improve the high-strength and high-modulus fiber product matrix, and increase the added value of products.
Regarding the impact of Sino-US trade friction on the company, Zhu Bo revealed that Shandong Fiberglass's direct exports to the United States are relatively small. In the early stage, the United States imposed tariffs, and the export pressure of the company's downstream customers increased, which indirectly led to the company's export costs. Rising, the competitiveness of products has declined. The adjustment of the US tariff policy this time has reduced the company's cost of importing chemical raw materials from the United States, but it will take a certain amount of time for the company's downstream customers to ease the export pressure.
At present, the competitive landscape of the fiberglass industry remains stable.
An Qiguang, an independent director of Shandong Fiberglass, analyzed that the glass fiber industry has a high degree of concentration, and the world's top three fiberglass companies account for about 50% of the production capacity. The oligopoly competition landscape has not changed in the past ten years. The industry's high entry barriers and the downstream composite materials industry's emphasis on fiberglass cost, brand, quality, and corporate reputation, as well as the gradual decline in costs and continuous expansion of production capacity of leading companies, make the existing competitive landscape difficult to break.
In response to the phenomenon that the total output of domestic fiberglass yarn has maintained a slow growth for two consecutive years, Zhang Shanjun, chairman of Shandong Fiberglass, believes that after a period of fierce competition within the Chinese glass fiber industry, it is gradually emerging from the "involution" vicious competition vortex. Leading companies actively respond to the realistic requirements of the industry to move from high-speed development to high-quality development, and carry out capacity regulation and product structure optimization.
At the same time, he further stated that as an important part of the strategic new materials industry, the downstream application market size of fiberglass still has long-term growth potential. In the traditional market, the demand for large-scale markets such as automobiles, wind power, and electronics is stable, and emerging markets such as photovoltaic new energy, safety protection, marine development, smart logistics, and green building materials are gradually growing.
