Glass Weekly: The market fluctuated within a narrow range, and overall sales improved (20250403 issue)

01 Industry News of the Week
《Hebei Anbang invests US$55 million to build a 600 t/d float glass line in Angola, which is expected to be put into production next year》
Hebei Anbang Group purchased 30 hectares of industrial land in Caxito, Bengo Province, Angola. The glass industry base planned to be invested and built has successfully completed key preparatory work such as detailed geological survey and power connection, and is expected to be officially put into production at the end of 2026.

It is understood that the total investment of the project is US$55 million, and it plans to build the first comprehensive industrial base in West Africa that integrates float glass production and deep processing, which will completely change the situation of Angola's dependence on imports of high-end glass. The project will build a 600 t/d float glass production line, using China's independently designed intelligent float process, and stably produce various high-end float glass substrates. In addition, it also includes an annual output of 3 million square meters of Low-E energy-saving glass, 1 million square meters of aluminum mirrors and various tempered, laminated, and hollow glass production lines to meet diversified market needs. After the project reaches full production, the annual output value is expected to reach US$180 million. The products will not only cover Angola, but will also be exported to neighboring countries such as Congo (DRC) and Namibia through the Port of Luanda, promoting the regional influence of "Made in Angola". The project will directly create more than 600 local jobs, and indirectly drive more than 2,000 jobs through related industrial chains (such as mining, logistics, equipment maintenance, etc.). In addition, it will create foreign exchange income for Angola. The project is committed to cultivating local talents and plans to localize 70% of production line positions within three years to promote local industrial development. At the same time, Hebei Anbang Group adheres to the concept of green intelligent manufacturing, actively promotes technology sharing and sustainable development, and is committed to symbiosis and win-win with Angola.

《Fulite's net profit in 2024 exceeds 1 billion yuan, and the construction of photovoltaic glass projects will continue to be promoted》
Fulite released its 2024 annual performance report on March 28. During the reporting period, the company achieved a total operating income of 18.683 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.20%; net profit of 1.007 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 63.52%; basic earnings per share was 0.43 yuan. Fulait's main business involves four major areas: photovoltaic glass, float glass, engineering glass, and home glass, as well as the mining and sales of quartz ore for glass, the construction of solar photovoltaic power stations, and electricity sales. Among them, the research and development, production and sales of photovoltaic glass are the company's main business.

The announcement shows that Fulait is currently continuing to promote the construction of photovoltaic glass projects in Anhui base, Nantong base and overseas Indonesia base, which still requires a lot of capital investment. After comprehensively considering the current industry situation, the company's actual operating conditions, the demand for self-owned funds for projects under construction and other factors, the company intends not to distribute the profits in 2024, nor to increase capital by capital reserves. The undistributed profits will be used to meet the company's own capital investment needs for ongoing projects, ensure the company's continued stable and healthy development, further improve the company's comprehensive competitiveness, and also benefit long-term returns to investors.

It is worth mentioning that since its listing, Fulait has always placed the interests of shareholders in an important position and continued to return to investors in the form of cash dividends. The company's cumulative cash dividends from 2022 to 2024 were 2243.969 million yuan, accounting for 120.01% of the average annual net profit in the three years.

"Yimengshan Glass Joint Laboratory First Release: High-speed Rail Insulation, High Transparency and Smooth Listening Special Temperature Control Coated Glass Opens a New Era of Extreme Cold Transportation"
On March 29, 2025, Shandong Linyi-Yimengshan Glass Joint Laboratory officially released the technical parameters of ARTIR-70 high-speed rail special windshield and side window glass, marking a major breakthrough in my country's field of functional glass for extreme environments. With a transmittance of ≤40% in the 1050nm band and an intelligent temperature control system, this technological achievement has successfully overcome the world's problems such as optical performance attenuation and electromagnetic shielding interference under temperature differences of -60℃ to 80℃, providing a new solution for high-speed rail, RVs, tracked snowplows, special vehicles and commercial cold chain equipment. Data from the Yimengshan Glass Laboratory show that the Y value of the transmission spectrum of ARTIR-70 coated glass reaches 89.55±1.5 at an incident angle of 8°, and the visible light transmittance exceeds 94%, while reducing the infrared thermal radiation transmittance by 60%. Its original nano-composite film layer stabilizes the reflectivity of the film surface in the range of 7.04±1.5, and the electromagnetic shielding attenuation value is 80% lower than that of traditional processes, ensuring zero interference in 5G/Beidou signal transmission. Through microcircuit matrix heating technology, the glass can melt -40℃ ice within 30 seconds, and the energy consumption is reduced by 45% compared with the traditional heating wire process, and the surface flatness reaches Ra≤0.8nm, significantly improving the aerodynamic performance of the high-speed rail side windows. In the polar simulation test of the Yimengshan Joint Laboratory, ARTIR-70 successfully passed the 200-hour continuous -50℃ low-temperature cycle experiment, and the glass transmittance fluctuation value was controlled within ±0.3%. At present, the technology has been installed in the China-Russia cross-border high-speed rail project. The window deicing response speed in the extremely cold environment of Siberia has increased by 2.7 times, and the energy consumption of carriage heating has been reduced by 37%. The special version for refrigerators developed simultaneously achieved a 30% energy saving breakthrough in a -18℃ environment. In addition, Shandong Yimengshan Glass Group Co., Ltd. used the coated glass base material equipped with electric heating, heat insulation and defrosting functions to make U-shaped, V-shaped and J-shaped refrigerator door glass suitable for various refrigerators using advanced special curved tempered glass forming technology, realizing a typical example of technology application supporting cold chain enterprises. The customized model code-named Plateau Wind YMS-987 in the laboratory test pilot stage set a record of insulation with a temperature difference of more than 15℃ in the -60℃ cabin, laying a solid foundation for future market applications. For the first time, the research and development team applied recycled microcrystalline particles from construction waste to glass substrates, accounting for 30%, and combined with the magnetron sputtering coating process to achieve a production wastewater recycling rate of 98%. The carbon footprint chip built into each piece of glass can record energy consumption data in real time. According to calculations, after the full replacement of a single 8-carriage high-speed railway, the annual carbon reduction is 54 tons, which is equivalent to the carbon fixation of 3,400 fir trees. This technology has been included in the catalog of the National Green Technology Trading Center and is expected to receive special support. "ARTIR-70 redefines the technical boundaries of functional glass." Liu Yonggang, chairman of Shandong Yimeng Glass Group Co., Ltd., said, "It not only achieves spectral-level energy management, but also builds a paradigm of technology transformation from the laboratory to the polar glacier." With the increasing number of domestic and foreign orders, this innovative achievement from the Yimengshan Joint Laboratory in the Yimengshan Revolutionary Old Area is heading towards a wider ice and snow territory along the "Belt and Road".

02 Float Glass Market Analysis

2.1. Float Glass Market Analysis 

This week, the domestic 5mm float glass market as a whole maintained a range of fluctuations. At the beginning of the week, the overall operation trend of the domestic 5mm float glass market was stable but weak compared with last Friday. The price of float glass in the North China market was reduced by 10 yuan/ton, the pace of traders' procurement slowed down, the production and sales in Shahe area declined, and the market prices generally fell. In the middle of the week, the domestic 5mm float glass market trend turned strong. Among them, under the influence of market sentiment, the price of float glass in the North China market was increased by 10 yuan/ton, the shipments of manufacturers in Shahe area improved, the market prices of some specifications rose slightly, and the overall trading was general. The shipments in the central China market are still good. A small number of companies have raised their prices by 1 yuan/heavy box, and most prices remain stable. As the weekend approaches, the market remains in order. Among them, the factories in Shahe area have good shipments. Under the boost of sentiment, the market prices of some specifications have risen slightly, and the overall market transactions are general. The prices in the central China market are temporarily stable today, and the overall shipments are good. Overall, the float glass market is still in a state of supply and demand game this week. Some production lines are planned to be repaired. At present, there is little change in the supply and demand side. Most companies will ship to warehouses, and some manufacturers will make flexible adjustments according to regional demand conditions; the demand side performance is differentiated, and some overall transactions have improved compared with the previous period. Downstream purchases are mainly based on rigid demand, and most have no intention to stock up, and the sales in various regions are different. With the cold repair of some production lines and the potential recovery of the real estate market, the market still needs to pay attention to whether downstream demand can continue to improve in the short term. It is expected that the float glass market may fluctuate in a narrow range.

In terms of futures, glass futures prices rose and fell during the week. The core driver is still the improvement of actual demand in the spot market, which drives the futures market sentiment upward. However, given that the main contract is approaching delivery, the futures price has risen sharply, and the risk of warehouse receipts in Hubei has increased. Therefore, the futures price has adjusted from a high level, waiting for the spot market to further improve and drive long funds to cash in profits and leave the market. In the future, we can pay attention to the continuous rhythm of actual demand improvement after the futures price valuation is adjusted back to the flat water range.

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 3 this week, the average weekly profit of float glass fueled by petroleum coke was 4.72 yuan/ton, an increase of 24.97 yuan/ton from the previous month; the average weekly profit of float glass fueled by natural gas was -183.78 yuan/ton, an increase of 7.72 yuan/ton from the previous month; the average weekly profit of float glass fueled by coal-to-gas was 101.37 yuan/ton, an increase of 12.87 yuan/ton from the previous month. Glass profits have rebounded during the week, downstream demand for goods has recovered slightly, and profits have been restored.

3.2. Float glass production profit trend

04 This week's float glass enterprise equipment maintenance and production changes

4.1. Float glass enterprise equipment dynamics and start-up situation

This week, the float glass weekly start-up rate was 75.42%, a decrease of 0.24% month-on-month. During the week, some float glass production lines were released, and the start-up rate dropped slightly compared with last week.

4.2. Weekly output of float glass enterprises

This week, after eliminating zombie production lines, there were a total of 297 domestic glass production lines, of which 224 were in production, and the float glass output was 1.1088 million tons, up 0.04% month-on-month. The output changed narrowly during the week, an increase of 0.05 million tons compared with last week.

05 Statistics of float glass inventory this week

This week, the total inventory of float glass manufacturers is 65.757 million TEUs, and last week was 67.012 million TEUs, a decrease of 125.5 TEUs from the previous month, a decrease of 1.97%; the market production and sales rate was low at the beginning and high at the end, and shipments were weak at the beginning of the week. Later, driven by market sentiment, the purchase and replenishment intention of the middle and downstream strengthened, leading to a slight destocking of the industry as a whole.

06 Analysis of the upstream and downstream industries of float glass

6.1. Analysis of the soda ash market this week

This week, the domestic soda ash market continued to operate weakly, and prices still fell slightly. As of Thursday this week, the mainstream price of light soda ash is 1400-1600 yuan/ton, and the price of heavy soda ash is 1500-1650 yuan/ton. At the beginning of the month, soda ash enterprises in various regions successively introduced new prices, and the prices of new orders mostly declined. The spot market transaction was not good, the transaction center of gravity was stable and downward, and the high price fell more; the previous maintenance enterprises resumed production, and there were no many maintenance plans in the short-term market. The supply of soda ash market continued to increase, the market supply and demand relationship was unbalanced, and the soda ash market continued to be weak; as the soda ash price continued to fall, the market trading atmosphere was not good, the high inventory of the alkali plant was difficult to reduce, and the support for the spot market was not good. At present, most enterprises waited and watched, and the downstream maintained low-price replenishment. Overall, the adjustment space of soda ash prices has narrowed, and the market is still weak and consolidating.

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.