Glass Weekly: The market is stable and rising, and the overall sales continue to improve (20250410 issue)

01 Industry News of the Week

《Ignition of Brown Glass Tube Production Line of Shandong Guotai Min'an Glass》

On the morning of April 7, the kiln ignition ceremony of the brown glass tube production line of Guotai Min'an Glass Technology Co., Ltd. in Dongping Economic Development Zone was held. Zheng Hui, deputy secretary of the county party committee, Qu Kezhi, secretary of the Party Working Committee and director of the Management Committee of the County Economic Development Zone, and Li Jianli, secretary of the Party Leadership Group and director of the County Industry and Information Technology Bureau, attended the ceremony. Members of the company's leadership team and some employee representatives participated in the event. It is understood that brown pharmaceutical glass tubes are mainly used for packaging photosensitive drugs, with good physical and chemical properties, strong UV shielding ability, and long drug storage time. After the production line is put into production, it will meet the market demand for high-quality packaging materials in the biopharmaceutical field, further improve the company's pharmaceutical glass product structure, effectively enhance market competitiveness, and inject new momentum into the company's high-quality development.

Next, Dongping Economic Development Zone will take this ignition ceremony as an opportunity to continuously optimize the business environment, provide precise services to enterprises in all directions and at multiple levels, continuously increase support for high-tech industries, attract more high-quality projects to land, promote industrial agglomeration and development, and strive to create a strong engine for high-quality economic development, injecting surging power into the county's economic development.

《China's Float Glass Project Going Abroad: The Smart Manufacturing Code Behind Indonesia's Thousand-ton Glass Factory》

In Batang Industrial Zone, Central Java Province, Indonesia, an ultra-large float glass production factory with a daily output of 1,200 tons is running at high speed. The daily output alone is enough to cover the entire exterior wall of the 128-story Shanghai Tower, China's tallest building. This is the largest single-line glass project for China's float glass technology and complete equipment exported overseas, the largest high-end glass factory in Indonesia, and the epitome of China Building Materials International Engineering Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as China Building Materials Engineering Group) creating high-quality projects in global operations.

The project is located in the Indonesian archipelago of the Pacific Rim seismic belt. The team not only has to face the 8-magnitude earthquake load, but also the three environmental "obstacles" of the coastal high corrosion environment and hurricane-level wind load.

Taking dust removal, desulfurization and denitrification as an example, during the design stage, engineers raised the chimney seismic level to 8 degrees, used special anti-corrosion coatings to resist salt spray erosion, and used 3D modeling technology to "fold" the waste heat boiler and desulfurization tower into a precision module, cleverly integrating the layout of the waste heat boiler and desulfurization tower. This "extreme arm wrestling" with the laws of nature is a design breakthrough in the game with nature, and it is also the hard-core wisdom of the Chinese solution of "not only conforming to the world, but also reshaping the rules".

In Indonesia's humid and hot environment of up to 40°C, the installation team faces "millimeter-level" accuracy requirements. It seems that 200 acceptance actions are required, but in fact, engineers use three-foot measurement and tens of thousands of "micrometer-level" calibrations in a grid format. Each point needs to go through a cycle of "measurement-adjustment-retest". What is particularly prominent is that when the temperature fluctuates by 5°C, the data that passed the acceptance yesterday may be invalid today due to sudden changes in the air. On the 200-square-meter glass kiln bottom work surface, engineers forced the flatness error of each brick gap to be within 1 mm, which is 66% higher than the specified requirements. The team used meticulous management to weld the drawings into reality.

In addition to the natural environment, what is more difficult is that the production line has a large span and a long kiln age, involving more than ten professional systems, and there are tens of thousands of technical parameters. Any detail errors may trigger a chain reaction. Faced with complex challenges, the project team used "three axes" - dynamic pipeline simulation, intelligent work efficiency evaluation, and flexible resource allocation. This "problem-oriented, data-driven" management paradigm provides a replicable Chinese solution for complex multinational projects.

On October 3, 2024, the production line was successfully ignited at one time. 27 days later, the first batch of glass was offline, and all technical indicators of the project were better than expected. "The owner has gone from worrying about the technology, products, and services being "unsuitable" to fully trusting us now." Tu Zhige, deputy project manager, said with emotion. From being questioned to being trusted, China's smart manufacturing is using the dual advantages of "technology + service" to create a global glass industry brand name card.

02 Float glass market analysis

2.1. Float glass market analysis

This week, the domestic 5mm float glass market as a whole maintained a stable and rising trend. Among them, Shahe's overall shipments were good, some manufacturers raised prices, and the market trading was OK. The Central China market had good shipments today, and some companies raised prices, while most companies' prices were temporarily stable. Some companies in the Northeast market continued to raise prices, and driven by the surrounding sentiment, some companies shipped higher. The prices of some brands in Sichuan moved up. In the early stage, in order to alleviate the pressure on white glass, there was a phenomenon of switching to ultra-white and colored glass. Other regions are still mainly shipping at stable prices, and there are differences in corporate shipments. The demand margin has not improved, and the main demand is justified. Overall, the float glass market this week is still in a state of supply and demand game. There has been little change in the supply and demand side recently. Companies mainly ship to warehouses. Market prices in some regions have been raised one after another, and the transaction situation of manufacturers has improved. There are differences in shipments between regions. The demand side showed differentiation, and the downstream market was cautious and wait-and-see, maintaining rigid demand stocking. In the short term, the market still needs to pay attention to the digestion of downstream demand, and the float glass market is expected to fluctuate in a narrow range.

In terms of futures, the price of glass futures during the week was mainly affected by macroeconomic sentiment and fluctuated greatly within a range, and the actual performance was relatively resilient compared with other varieties. After Trump announced the details of the reciprocal tariffs before the holiday, my country chose to retaliate in kind, which aggravated the panic in the global market. The global asset plunge affected the domestic market sentiment after the holiday, and most commodities followed the low opening and fell. However, looking back at the glass itself, it is a variety that is priced for domestic demand. The actual impact of the tariff issue is limited. In addition, the spot performance of glass during the Qingming Festival was good, and the production and sales in various regions continued to pick up. Manufacturers in core areas raised their quotations. In view of the fact that the main contract is approaching delivery and is mainly based on the delivery logic, the fundamentals have given strong support to the market, making it one of the more resilient varieties this week. However, the sustainability of the demand recovery still needs to be considered. The pressure of inventory and warehouse receipts in the middle and upper reaches still exists. In the short term, we will wait and see the changes in macro sentiment and the rhythm of market production and sales. Prices may temporarily maintain the bottom range fluctuations and wait for new drivers.

2.2. Comparison of float glass market prices

03 Statistics of float glass production profits this week

3.1. Profits of float glass production

As of April 10 this week, the average weekly profit of float glass fueled by petroleum coke was 25.94 yuan/ton, an increase of 21.22 yuan/ton month-on-month; the average weekly profit of float glass fueled by natural gas was -176.13 yuan/ton, an increase of 7.65 yuan/ton month-on-month; the average weekly profit of float glass fueled by coal-to-gas was 107.28 yuan/ton, an increase of 15.91 yuan/ton month-on-month. Glass profits continued to pick up during the week, downstream demand for goods recovered slightly, and profits were restored.

3.2. Profit trend of float glass production

04 This week, the maintenance and production changes of float glass enterprises

4.1. Dynamics and operation of float glass enterprises

This week, the weekly operation rate of float glass is 75.42%, which is the same as last month. No production line was released or ignited this week.

4.2. Weekly output of float glass enterprises

This week, after eliminating the zombie production lines, there are 297 domestic glass production lines, of which 224 are in production, and the output of float glass is 1.1093 million tons, up 0.04% month-on-month. The output changes narrowly during the week, an increase of 0.05 million tons compared with last week.

05 This week's float glass inventory statistics

This week, the total inventory of float glass manufacturers is 65.203 million heavy boxes, and 65.757 million heavy boxes last week, a decrease of 55.4 heavy boxes from the previous month, a decrease of 0.83%; the overall shipments in some regions are still good, and the middle and lower reaches purchase and replenishment, the inventory of production enterprises has decreased slightly, leading to a slight destocking of the industry as a whole.

06 Analysis of upstream and downstream industries of float glass

6.1. Analysis of soda ash market this week

This week, some prices in the domestic soda ash spot market continued to decline. As of Thursday this week, the price of light soda ash was 1350-1550 yuan/ton, and the price of heavy soda ash was 1450-1600 yuan/ton; this week, the pressure on soda ash plants to ship goods is still relatively large, and the transaction of new orders is not good. There is panic in some parts of the market, and low-priced goods continue to increase; the soda ash plants in Hunan area resumed production after maintenance, and there are soda ash plants in the north that reduce the volume and load. The overall market operation is still high, and the inventory pressure is also large; due to the sluggish soda ash market, the downstream market procurement attitude is still relatively cautious, and the enthusiasm for taking goods is not high. The main demand is to replenish stocks. The price of soda ash in some areas has fallen. The market lacks positive sentiment support, and the price continues to run weakly.

6.2. Real estate industry statistics

In January and February 2025, the national real estate construction area reached 605972350 square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 9.14% and a month-on-month decrease of 17.36%. The construction side continued to shrink, reflecting the cautious attitude of real estate companies towards the market, and the overall construction progress slowed down. During the same period, the completed real estate area was 87642100 square meters, a year-on-year decrease of 15.69% and a sharp month-on-month decrease of 65.75%. The pace of completion slowed down significantly, mainly affected by the slow progress of previous projects and financial pressure.

After the "Two Sessions", the policy side continued to release positive news, including a reduction in mortgage interest rates, relaxation of purchase restrictions in first-tier cities, and tax relief. The three measures will effectively reduce the cost of buying houses for rigid needs and promote the recovery of market activity. At the same time, the renovation of old communities is accelerated and 6 million affordable housing units are continuously promoted. The government further optimizes the market structure under the dual track of "stabilizing housing prices and protecting people's livelihood". In the short term, the real estate market is still in the bottoming adjustment stage, and the recovery process of the demand side still needs to be observed. The key to the future industry trends depends on the continued efforts of policies and the restoration of home buying confidence. Whether the market can stabilize still requires attention to policy implementation and market feedback.