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The fluorosilicon chemical industry has high technical barriers and is driven by both resources and innovation. It is a key pillar in the field of new materials and an important track for China to achieve high-end chemical industry.

Ccid Consulting recently released the "Current Development Status, Problems and Suggestions of China's Fluorine and Silicon Chemical Industrial Parks" (hereinafter referred to as the "Suggestions"), which pointed out that China's fluorine and silicon industry has a significant trend of clustering and a complete industrial chain, laying a solid foundation for achieving high-end development.

The three major cluster areas each have their own characteristics

The "Proposal" points out that China has now formed three major fluorine and silicon industrial cluster regions: the Yangtze River Delta region represented by Jiangsu and Zhejiang, the central and western regions represented by Sichuan and Inner Mongolia, and the Bohai Rim region represented by Shandong and Liaoning.

The Yangtze River Delta region takes "technology research and development + industrial collaboration" as its core driving force, focusing on high-value-added fields such as high-end fluoropolymers, electronic-grade chemicals, and special silicon materials. Relying on the resources of universities and the supporting advantages of the integrated industrial chain of the Yangtze River Delta, it has formed a full-chain innovation ecosystem of "research and development - pilot production - industrialization".

The central and western regions, relying on their abundant resources (Inner Mongolia accounts for 55% of the national fluorite reserves and Sichuan accounts for 30% of the national quartz sand reserves) and the advantage of green electricity, have taken over the industrial transfer from the eastern regions with "low-cost factors + policy dividends", focusing on the development of basic fluorine-silicon raw materials and midstream and downstream processing.

The Bohai Rim region, with leading enterprises at its core, has built a complete vertical industrial chain covering "resource extraction - raw material synthesis - terminal product manufacturing". By effectively controlling production costs on a large scale and strengthening the coordinated development of fluorosilicon materials, optimizing the supporting facilities of upstream and downstream industries, giving full play to the cluster advantages, and enhancing the competitiveness and added value of the entire industrial chain.

The "Proposal" further assesses the comprehensive strength of the fluorosilicon chemical industrial park. The High-tech Zone of Quzhou Intelligent Manufacturing New City ranked first, followed by Hangzhou Bay Shangyu Economic and Technological Development Zone and Dongyue Fluorosilicon Materials Industrial Park in second and third place respectively.

The ecological characteristics of the industrial chain are prominent

Based on the current development status of each fluorosilicon chemical industrial park, the "Proposal" further analyzed the development characteristics and layout directions of the current fluorosilicon industrial chain.

The "Proposal" holds that the vertical layout of the fluorine and silicon industries is currently basically complete. Most fluorosilicon chemical industrial parks are based on fluorite, silicon ore or chlor-alkali resources for layout. They ensure supply chain security by controlling upstream raw materials and reduce the risk of external fluctuations. Fluorine chemical industrial parks have generally formed a chain of "fluorite - hydrofluoric acid - fluoropolymers - new energy materials", with a focus on high-growth areas such as lithium batteries and photovoltaics. The mainstream path for silicone industrial parks is "silicon ore - silicone monomer - silicone rubber/silicone oil - automobiles/electronic products", and some parks are tentatively extending into silicon-based semiconductor materials.

It is worth noting that the "Proposal" points out that currently, there is a situation where the product layout directions of fluorosilicon chemical industrial parks tend to be similar. The main products of fluorine chemical industry are concentrated in new energy materials, such as polyvinylidene fluoride, lithium hexafluorophosphate and semiconductor electronic specialty gases. The silicone field mainly focuses on high-end rubber and functional silanes. Overall, the R&D investment in the fluorosilicon industry is mainly concentrated in the production stage of mid-range products, while the R&D capabilities for high-end products need to be enhanced.

The fluorosilicon chemical industrial park attaches relatively high importance to the recycling and utilization of resources. The "Proposal" states that currently, fluorine chemical industrial parks have widely established a "chlor-alkali - fluorine chemical" circular industrial chain. Among them, the by-product hydrochloric acid is reused in the acid hydrolysis process of fluorite, while hydrogen is utilized as fuel or chemical raw material. In the silicone industrial park, the use of silicon slag to prepare silica and the recovery of metal catalysts from waste contacts has become the industry standard. In addition, the investment in the treatment of "three wastes" in the fluorosilicon chemical industrial park has also significantly increased.

Adopt a dual approach of de-homogenization and improving supporting facilities

According to statistics, the output of the fluorine chemical industry has increased from 3.468 million tons in 2022 to 4.105 million tons in 2024, and the overall market demand is strong. The "Proposal" holds that the most significant challenges currently faced by the fluorosilicon chemical industrial park are the fierce homogenized competition in the mid-to-low-end market, insufficient high-end production capacity, and the incomplete industrial supporting facilities.

According to statistics, currently, the average R&D expense ratio of fluorosilicon enterprises is between 3% and 5%, mainly concentrated on process optimization, such as enhancing the efficiency of PVDF polymerization, and also mostly used for capacity expansion. However, this development model has led to a rather serious phenomenon of redundant construction, further intensifying market competition. In the high-end field, relevant investment is still insufficient, and the research and development progress of core additives, special monomers and key equipment is relatively lagging behind. These factors result in the development cycle of high-end products in China being 1 to 2 years longer than that of their counterparts overseas.

In terms of industrial support, fluorosilicon materials used in semiconductors need to obtain SEMI certification, which usually takes 3 to 5 years. However, China currently lacks a public testing platform to support the completion of the certification. In the field of silicone, the sterilization process and clean production environment standards for downstream products such as medical-grade silicone tubes have not yet been perfected, which to a large extent restricts the breakthroughs in terminal applications.

Based on the current development status of the fluorosilicon chemical industrial park, the "Proposal" points out that the top priority is to strengthen the construction of public testing platforms to provide one-stop testing and certification services for high-tech products such as fluorosilicon materials for semiconductors. By shortening the testing cycle, reducing the cost of enterprise certification, and accelerating the market access of products. Meanwhile, the park and industry associations can jointly organize expert teams to formulate a standard system that is both strict and operational. In the niche fields such as functional silanes and electronic-grade hydrofluoric acid, efforts should be made to support "little giant" enterprises with development potential and help them achieve breakthroughs in the high-end market.