Abstract:At present, bentonite in mainland China is facing a dual competition environment at home and abroad. The bentonite industry in mainland China has a high degree of competition, low technical level, many small and medium-sized enterprises in the industry, and few large-scale enterprises. With the development of international trade, more and more foreign companies have entered China's bentonite market, and at the same time, with the expansion of bentonite in emerging application fields, the research and development of high value-added deep processing bentonite has been strengthened, and the industry has developed rapidly. From the perspective of industry supply and demand, with the gradual stabilization of downstream demand and the gradual strictness of relevant standards, the domestic bentonite output has declined significantly. In 2023, the output of bentonite in mainland China will be about 2.1 million tons, the same as the previous year; The demand was 1.8866 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 4.3%.
1. Definitions and Classification
Bentonite, also known as porphyry, bentonite or bentonite, is a kind of non-metallic mineral with montmorillonite as the main mineral component, generally white, light yellow, waxy, earthy or grease luster, can be dense block, can also be loose soil, because after adding water can expand into paste, later people will have this property of clay, collectively called bentonite. The montmorillonite content in bentonite is generally more than 65%, so its properties are determined by montmorillonite, which can be divided into different types according to its different densities, and are widely used in binders, suspension agents, thixotropic agents, stabilizers, purification and decolorizing agents, fillers, feed, catalysts, known as "universal clay".
Second, industry policies
As an important part of the non-metallic mineral industry, there is no special laws and regulations for the industry, with the Ministry of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has listed non-metallic minerals as strategic emerging minerals and strategic emerging materials, inorganic non-metallic mineral materials will be the focus of development strategy and planning, non-metallic mineral processing (especially deep processing) utilization industry will become one of the "sunrise industries" in the 21st century, and the bentonite industry will also greatly benefit from it.
3. Industry barriers
1. Raw material wall fence
The bentonite industry is a resource-based processing industry. The most important basis for its survival and development is non-renewable mineral resources. Therefore, the quality and storage of mineral resources are the lifeblood of the survival and development of bentonite processing plants. Although the domestic bentonite minerals are abundant, it is precisely because of the abundant resources that there are mineral sources everywhere, and the vast majority of small bentonite enterprises do not go through mining procedures, do not purchase land, and there are no mining procedures and land purchase costs in the product cost of these enterprises, so they can use the advantage of low cost to launch a price war, resulting in fierce market competition.
2. Production process barriers
At present, the barriers to the production process of the bentonite industry are only reflected in the technical equipment. At present, there is no manufacturer in the market that specializes in manufacturing professional and complete sets of equipment for the bentonite industry, and the source and acquisition of equipment is an important barrier for enterprises to enter the bentonite industry. And domestic bentonite related equipment is in an important period of transformation to mechanization and automation, whether it can conform to the trend, complete the automation reform, realize the mechanization of mineral processing regulation and product quality control, and improve the efficiency of enterprises is an important barrier.
3. Talent and technical barriers
Bentonite involves a wide range of fields, and there are few manufacturers with multi-field technology. With the development of science and technology and the improvement of product quality, the requirements for the stability and efficiency of bentonite will be further improved, especially for the applicability of series products. This requires the enterprise to have strong technical research and development strength, and the research and development designers have strong theoretical and technical skills and rich practical experience. However, college graduates do not have the technology and knowledge of professional bentonite in the bentonite industry, and the lack of professional and technical personnel in the domestic professional research on bentonite products cannot be directly recruited from the market, and must be cultivated within the enterprise, which requires the enterprise to have a strong technical background and perfect technology research and development training system, and requires technical personnel to conduct long-term in-depth research and rich practical experience in the bentonite industry and bentonite series products.
Fourth, the industrial chain
From the perspective of the industrial chain, the upstream of the bentonite industry chain is bentonite ore, solvent oil, polar activator, mining machinery and other industries. Since the upstream industries of bentonite are relatively mature industries in the mainland, there is no shortage of supply or inability to procure; The downstream industries of the bentonite industry are casting, drilling mud, steel pellets, desiccant, waterproof materials and other fields, and the overall development of the industry is closely related to the development and prosperity of the downstream industry.
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