As a raw material-oriented industry, our country’s cemented carbide industry presents a regionalized distribution according to the distribution of our country’s tungsten ore resources, also mainly concentrated in Hunan, Jiangxi and other tungsten ore concentration distribution areas.
In this region, there are domestic carbide leaders represented by Chinatungsten High-Tech and Zhang Yuan Tungsten, forming a high degree of industry concentration. 2019, the output of the top ten carbide producers in our country accounted for 59% of the total national output.
With the continuous improvement in various fields of national economy and the rising demand for cemented carbide both at home and abroad, the production and sales volume of cemented carbide in China has maintained an upward trend; at the same time, in the context of emerging industries such as high-end equipment manufacturing, aerospace, semiconductor and new energy, etc., the enterprises with R&D and innovation advantages in the industry have continuously explored the application boundary of cemented carbide products according to the end-use demand, opening up broader market space. Therefore, in recent years, the production of cemented carbide in China has shown a continuous growth trend from 22,500 tons in 2012 to 51,000 tons in 2021, with a CAGR of 9.52%, reflecting a high growth rate.
Due to the large number of cemented carbide subdivision products and the wide range of downstream applications, there are certain barriers among the subdivision markets for a long time, and the enterprises in the industry generally enhance their market scale and competitiveness through the continuous development of new products and mergers and acquisitions within the industry chain.
From the market-oriented point of view, on the one hand, the downstream customers of the domestic cemented carbide industry – tool and tool and other end products manufacturers are relatively concentrated in the southeast coastal region, on the other hand, from the export point of view, the southeast coastal region has natural shipping advantages, therefore, the cemented carbide manufacturing enterprises are also more distributed in Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong, etc. On the other hand, from the export point of view, the southeastern coastal area has natural advantages in shipping, therefore, carbide manufacturing enterprises are also more located in Jiangsu, Fujian and Guangdong, such as Xiamen Tungsten, Changying Hardco, Xinrui and Xianglu Tungsten. In addition, some companies in the industry have set their headquarters in East China to understand the market dynamics in real time and respond to customer needs quickly; meanwhile, they have set their raw material production subsidiaries in Xiangjiang-Gan and other places to gain advantages in raw material procurement, which helps to enhance the overall competitiveness of enterprises.
In recent years, domestic leading carbide manufacturers are gradually increasing the research and development and manufacturing of high quality, high performance and high value-added fine processing products. With the increasing investment in R&D by domestic enterprises, carbide products have achieved import substitution of some high-end products. In the future, enterprises with advantages in technology research and development, product quality, sales channels and brand awareness are expected to gain a higher market share.
In view of the broad market space, good development prospect and relatively high profitability of the cemented carbide industry, some new enterprises have been attracted to enter the industry in recent years, but the new entrants face many barriers such as technical bottlenecks, brand effect, scale effect, customer base, marketing channels and talent reserve, which make it difficult to rationalize all aspects in the short term. Therefore, the domestic cemented carbide market is still dominated by a small number of high-quality enterprises including the Company, which holds most of the market share.
Post time: Jun-16-2023
