Current Status Of The Fiberglass Industry During The 14th Five-Year Plan Period

1.1 Policy Support During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the national government issued several guiding documents, including the "Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-Range Objectives Through the Year 2035," the "Decision of the CPC Central Committee on Further Deepening Comprehensive Reform and Promoting Chinese-Style Modernization," and the "Opinions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council on Fully and Accurately Implementing the New Development Concept and Doing a Good Job in Carbon Peaking and Carbon Neutrality." These documents clearly focused on strategic, green, and low-carbon emerging industries such as new materials, aiming to cultivate and strengthen new drivers of industrial development. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the "Guidance Catalogue for the First Batch of Application Demonstration of Key New Materials (2021 Edition)," which included high-performance fiberglass and composite materials as one of the new materials in the key support scope. The National Development and Reform Commission revised the "Guidance Catalogue for Industrial Structure Adjustment (2024 Edition)," explicitly encouraging the development of new materials industries such as high-performance fiberglass. At the local level, many provinces and cities have included the high-performance fiberglass industry in their strategic emerging industry plans, promoting the high-end development of the industry through multi-dimensional measures such as policy guidance, cluster cultivation, financial support, and ecological optimization. Guided by this series of policy measures, the fiberglass industry has shifted its focus from scale expansion to quality improvement, intelligent and green transformation, and collaborative innovation across the entire industry chain. This has laid a solid institutional foundation for the long-term development of the new materials industry, supporting the construction of a manufacturing powerhouse and high-quality economic development.

1.2 Production Scale The total domestic production of fiberglass yarn increased from 5.41 million tons at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan period to 7.56 million tons in 2024. Of this, tank furnace yarn accounted for approximately 7.26 million tons (96%), while channel and crucible yarn accounted for approximately 291,000 tons. In addition, glass sphere production was approximately 608,000 tons, electronic cloth/felt production was approximately 809,000 tons, and industrial cloth/felt production was approximately 667,000 tons. In terms of the production structure of fiberglass yarn, tank furnace yarn holds an absolute dominant position. The total domestic fiberglass yarn production maintained slow growth for two consecutive years in 2023 and 2024 (year-on-year growth rates of 5.2% and 4.6% respectively), effectively improving the market supply and demand relationship. This production structure and growth trend have laid a solid foundation for continuously optimizing market supply and demand and promoting the industry's development towards high-end and green directions.

1.3 Production Capacity Distribution Globally, the total production capacity of fiberglass yarn is projected to reach approximately 12 million tons by 2025, with Asia accounting for 81.5%; China's capacity is approximately 8.7 million tons, accounting for 89% of Asia's and 72.5% of the global total. The pattern of "the world's fiberglass industry looks to Asia, and Asia's fiberglass industry looks to China" has been further consolidated, and China has become the "ballast" of the global industry. Domestic tank furnace yarn production capacity is relatively concentrated regionally. East China has a capacity of 5.2 million tons, accounting for 59.8% of the national total, becoming a core cluster area due to its superior geographical location and complete industrial chain; Southwest China has a capacity of 2.05 million tons, accounting for 23.6%, becoming an emerging growth pole due to its resource advantages and policy support; North China, South China, Central China, and Northeast China account for 8.2%, 2.3%, 1.5%, and 0.1% of the capacity, respectively. In addition, the national capacity for ball-type crucibles and channels is approximately 400,000 tons.

1.4 Product Innovation During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, high-end and specialty products continued to emerge in the industry. High-modulus, high-strength fiberglass achieved mass production, with performance reaching international advanced levels; multiple companies mass-produced ultra-fine electronic fiberglass and ultra-thin electronic cloth, supporting the development of the electronic information industry; low-dielectric/low-expansion fiberglass broke the foreign technology monopoly, and multiple companies built related production lines; basalt fiber is now in mass production by 20 companies, with an annual output of approximately 50,000 to 60,000 tons; breakthroughs were also achieved in specialty fiberglass products such as those for the nuclear industry, enriching product types and application areas.

1.5 Application Areas Globally, fiberglass and composite materials are widely used in infrastructure and building materials, transportation, electronics and electrical engineering, energy and environmental protection, and many other fields. The application areas of my country's fiberglass industry are basically similar to those globally. In recent years, due to the vigorous development of emerging industries, the proportion of fiberglass in emerging fields has been increasing, especially in clean energy fields such as wind turbine blade manufacturing and photovoltaic frame production, driving innovation and upgrading in downstream industries. In summary, the fiberglass industry has both relatively cyclical application areas and emerging application areas, possessing both "cyclical" and "growth" attributes. Moreover, as emerging application areas continue to grow, the "growth" attribute continues to strengthen.