prospect of special alumina market

First, special alumina application market analysis

Each production link of alumina industry chain can operate independently or form a joint enterprise through industrial integration.The outer edge of the alumina industry chain is constantly expanding in process improvement and technological breakthrough, extending from the initial simple casting calendering and extrusion to the field of precision, which makes the application field of aluminum products also continuously expanding.

Alumina and its hydrate vary in nature, ranging from hard as sapphire to soft as talc.Such characteristics give special alumina a lot of excellent performance, so special alumina is widely used in TFT-LCD LCD glass industry, electrical filler industry, thermal silica gel industry, thermal plastic industry, structural ceramics, electronic ceramics industry, polishing industry, lithium battery ceramic diaphragm industry, refractories industry, etc..At the same time, aluminum oxide powder can do all kinds of glass coating materials, precious stones, precision instrument materials and so on, so the application of special alumina products is very wide.With the rapid development of China's ceramics, medicine, electronics, machinery and other industries, the market demand for special alumina still has room to grow, especially the demand for high-end alumina products will continue to grow.

Second, the importance of special alumina industry

As one of the high-tech industries and strategic emerging industries supported by many countries in the world today, new materials industry is of great strategic significance for promoting the forerunner of technological innovation, promoting the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, and ensuring the construction of major national projects.New material technology is also the common basic technology with the most driving force in the field of research and development, and plays a key role in guiding, supporting and interdependent development of other industries.

As one of the new functional materials, special alumina is an important basic raw material with wide application fields and high industrial correlation. It plays an important role in national economic construction, national defense construction, social development and stable employment, etc. Therefore, its development is strongly supported by national policies.In recent years, with the rapid development of China's alumina industry, China has become the world's largest producer and consumer of alumina.

At present, the world is generally facing the problem of metallurgical alumina overcapacity, but the development of special alumina is more and more highly valued, its demand and production is also showing a growing trend.This is mainly due to the excellent performance of special alumina is widely used in different industries, in addition to the high technology content and high added value makes its profit margin far more than metallurgical alumina.Europe, America, Japan and other developed countries have done a lot of work in the research and production of special alumina, their technology is also in the international leading position.

Third, the development trend of special alumina industry

1. Bioceramics industry

In recent years, new breakthroughs have been made in the application of high purity ultrafine alumina powder in biomedicine.High purity alumina ceramics have stable chemical properties, good biocompatibility and bioinertness.Due to its high hardness and good wear resistance, the wear rate is at least 1-2 orders of magnitude smaller than other materials.Due to the extremely thin fibrous membrane formed on the back surface of the human body, alumina ceramics are commonly used in total hip reduction and repair and the connection between femur and hip bone.Through the flame melting process of single crystal alumina, high strength, good wear resistance, fine processing, artificial root, fracture fixator.

According to relevant statistics, orthopedic and cardiovascular applications have the largest demand in the global biomaterials market, accounting for 37.5% and 36.1%, respectively.In 2013, the market size of Orthopedic medical devices in China was about RMB 11.804 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of about 15.0% from 2009 to 2013.It is expected that the orthopedic medical device market will grow at a compound annual rate of 14% from 2015 to 2018, reaching 21.203 billion yuan. 

At present, China is focusing on the application of high purity ultrafine alumina in artificial trachea and other soft tissue materials, as well as biological ceramic materials to simulate biological body function and artificial intelligence.With the increase of the output value of the medical equipment and equipment industry and the increase of the market demand, alumina bioceramics has a very broad application prospect in the medical field.

2. Sapphire crystal industry

High purity alumina can be divided into 3N, 4N and 5N according to its purity.Among them, 5N purity alumina is mainly used in sapphire crystal and other fields.At present, sapphire has two main USES: one is LED semiconductor substrate materials, LED lighting sapphire substrate accounted for more than 90% of the application of sapphire substrate;The other is window material, such as mobile phone screen, watch dial, aviation, aerospace, precision manufacturing, special manufacturing and so on.

With the expansion of consumer electronics applications, the demand for non-LED substrates is growing rapidly.LED and non-LED market demand continues to increase, bringing broad development space for sapphire application market.The annual production of 2-inch sapphire substrate requires 500kg of high-purity alumina material, and 11,700 tons of high-purity alumina is needed. If yield and cutting loss are also included (roughly calculated with an efficiency of 70%), the demand is 16,714 tons, which is calculated at 120,000 yuan per ton, and the corresponding market space is 2 billion yuan.

Apple has already used sapphire for its camera and protective glass for the Home button, and other phone brands such as Vivo and Huawei have also chosen to use sapphire for their mobile devices.With the rapid development of wearable devices, more wearable sapphire is chosen as the screen material for devices like Apple Watch and Huawei Watch.It can be predicted that the above favorable factors provide a broad market for sapphire application.As the main raw material for sapphire production, the demand of high purity alumina will increase rapidly with the increasing of sapphire usage.

3. Glass substrate industry

Special alumina is the main material of liquid crystal glass substrate, and glass substrate is an important raw material for liquid crystal panel. It accounts for about 20% of the raw material cost of TFT-LCD and has a great impact on the performance and quality of liquid crystal panel.The transparency, thickness, weight and visual Angle of the finished panel are closely related to the substrate glass.In 2012, global TFT-LCD panel revenue accounted for 89.76% of the entire display device industry, and TFT-LCD has become the mainstream display product at this stage

Since 2009, in the "smile curve" of the profit structure of the LCD industry chain, the glass substrate has the highest gross profit rate and is the most profitable link in the whole TFT-LCD industry chain. For example, the gross profit rate of Corning's glass substrate business in 2011 and 2012 was as high as 63.1% and 51.8% respectively.

4. Ceramic membrane industry of lithium battery

The coating of ceramic membrane mainly USES high-purity ultrafine alumina powder. The membrane has specific requirements on purity, particle size, uniformity, particle morphology and surface modification of alumina powder, with high technical threshold.

The rapid growth of new energy vehicles has become the main driving force for the explosion of demand for lithium batteries, which in turn stimulates the explosive growth of demand for lithium battery separator.According to the estimate of 300,000 new energy vehicles in 2015, the demand for lithium batteries in China will be 12Gwh in 2015 and 55Gwh in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 34.5%.According to the calculation of 18.75 diaphragms required for 1Kwh lithium batteries, the required diaphragms for power lithium batteries will be 225 million in 2015 and 1031.25 million in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 30%.At the price of 6 yuan per square meter, the market size of lithium battery diaphragm will reach 1.35 billion yuan in 2015 and 6.19 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 35.6%.

Inorganic membrane industry

Inorganic membrane is made of alumina, zirconia, titanium oxide and other powder raw materials with special selective separation function of high-performance membrane, widely used in environmental sewage treatment, biochemical pharmaceutical, food and beverage processing, rare metal smelting and other industries, with huge market growth potential.Compared with organic membrane, inorganic membrane has inherent advantage in industrial wastewater.Inorganic membrane ceramic support is the base material of inorganic membrane and its market capacity will increase with the wide application of inorganic membrane.

According to the statistics of China Film Industry Association, in 2014, the annual installed capacity of global ceramic film wastewater treatment was 420,000 square meters, with a year-on-year growth of 280%.From 2010 to 2012, the installed capacity of ceramic membrane for sewage treatment in China was 10,000 square meters.With the increase of environmental protection and the outbreak of industrial demand, it is expected that the size of the domestic market will reach 200,000 square meters in the future.