Tight Supply-Demand Balance Coupled with Technological Breakthroughs: Domestic High-Purity Quartz Materials Usher in a Golden Window for Development

Recently, with the recovery of the global semiconductor industry and the rapid expansion of AI computing infrastructure and fiber optic communication industries, the market demand for high-purity Quartz Materials, as a core upstream substrate for high-end manufacturing, has continued to surge. Coupled with breakthroughs in domestic mineral resources, iterative upgrades in purification processes, and improved policy systems, the high-purity quartz market, long monopolized by overseas companies, is being reshaped. Domestic materials are now entering a strategic development window of simultaneous increases in volume and price, accelerated substitution, and expanded application scenarios, becoming a high-certainty growth track in the new materials industry.

High-purity quartz materials are the "cornerstone materials" of semiconductors, optical communications, photovoltaics, and high-precision manufacturing. With their ultra-high purity, excellent high-temperature resistance, light transmittance, and chemical stability, they are widely used in core processes such as semiconductor wafer fabrication, lithography machine optical components, fiber optic preforms, and photovoltaic crucibles. They are a key material required to ensure the self-sufficiency and controllability of the high-end industrial chain. For a long time, the global high-end high-purity quartz market has been monopolized by overseas companies, and China's high-end production capacity, high-quality mineral resources, and core purification technologies have been highly dependent on imports, putting continuous pressure on supply chain stability and industrial security.

The industry is currently experiencing a fundamental turning point, primarily due to the robust downstream sector and a sustained tight balance between supply and demand. Industry data shows that the global semiconductor market is projected to reach $975.5 billion in 2026, a 26% year-on-year increase, driving the global semiconductor quartz material market to exceed $4.9 billion, with demand for semiconductor-grade high-purity quartz consumables continuing to rise. Simultaneously, the accelerated construction of AI data centers and computing networks is driving the expansion of the entire optical fiber industry chain. The mainstream price of high-purity quartz sand for optical fibers remains stable at 48,000-55,000 yuan/ton, with high-end products of 6N grade and above experiencing supply shortages and a widening market gap. The steady growth of the photovoltaic industry further solidifies the demand base. The combined effect of multiple downstream benefits has allowed high-purity quartz materials to completely shed their traditional low-end building material attributes, becoming a strategic new material in high-end manufacturing.

The demand for self-sufficiency and control over the supply chain is forcing industrial upgrading, while policy confirmation of rights and breakthroughs in mineral resources are solidifying the foundation for domestic substitution. In 2025, high-purity quartz was officially approved as my country's 174th new mineral resource, and the only newly added mineral resource during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. This marks the formal inclusion of high-purity quartz resource development into the national strategic mineral management system, completely changing the previous situation where domestic high-purity quartz resources lacked an independent mineral classification and were developed in an unregulated manner. On the resource side, tens of millions of tons of high-purity quartz mineral resources have been proven in regions such as the eastern Qinling Mountains in Henan, Altay and Qitai in Xinjiang. Multiple research institutions have completed technological breakthroughs, successfully producing high-purity products of 4N5 grade and above, with some samples reaching the 4N8 grade premium standard, breaking the predicament of having no independent high-quality mineral resources in China. At the same time, leading domestic enterprises have secured long-term supply rights for high-quality vein quartz mines overseas, further improving the raw material supply chain layout and completely alleviating the bottleneck problem of raw material shortages.

On the technological level, the domestic industry has achieved breakthroughs in both natural mineral purification and artificial synthesis, with high-end production capacity continuously being released. In the past, China's Quartz Industry focused on low-end ordinary quartz products. High-end 6N-7N grade semiconductor and photolithography-grade high-purity quartz materials had extremely high technological barriers, with only a few overseas companies achieving mass production. Now, the industry's technological iteration is accelerating. On the one hand, the purification process of traditional natural quartz sand is continuously optimized, significantly improving the purity, stability, and consistency of domestically produced products, making them fully adaptable to photovoltaic, optical fiber, and low-to-mid-range semiconductor applications. On the other hand, companies such as Kaisheng Technology, Feilihua, and Jianghan New Materials are accelerating their development of synthetic quartz technology, bypassing the quality limitations of natural mineral sources, and tackling the challenge of high-end synthetic high-purity quartz materials, gradually achieving material substitution in the photolithography and high-end semiconductor fields. Currently, the high-purity quartz sand production capacity of leading domestic companies has exceeded 100,000 tons/year, the proportion of high-end product capacity continues to increase, and the localization rate is steadily rising.

From an industry perspective, against the backdrop of tight global supply and demand and cautious expansion by overseas companies, domestic companies are facing an excellent opportunity for breakthrough. Previously, the global high-purity quartz market was dominated by overseas giants, with these oligopolies controlling pricing power and technological barriers. Furthermore, the expansion of overseas companies has slowed in recent years, failing to match the rapidly growing global downstream demand, leading to a widening supply-demand gap. Against this backdrop, domestic companies with advantages in resources, technology, and production capacity have rapidly seized market share, transforming from low-end processing to high-end, high-value-added sectors. Their product structure has been continuously optimized, with the revenue share of semiconductor-grade, lithography-grade, and high-end optical fiber quartz products steadily increasing, resulting in a sustained improvement in the overall profitability of the industry.

Industry analysts point out that 2026-2028 will be a crucial breakthrough period for the domestic high-purity quartz materials industry. In the short term, the recovery of downstream semiconductors, the expansion of computing power and optical fiber, and the growth of photovoltaic installations will continue to support both volume and price increases in the industry. In the medium to long term, the localization of mineral resources, the upgrading of technology, and the scaling up of production capacity will continue to drive the deepening of domestic substitution, and the import dependence on high-end, high-purity quartz materials will continue to decline. With the collaborative R&D across the domestic industry chain and the continuous improvement of the standard system, domestically produced high-purity quartz materials will gradually achieve full-scenario substitution and grow into a core sector of the new materials industry worth hundreds of billions of yuan.

Currently, the high-purity quartz materials industry has moved beyond its extensive development stage and entered a new phase of high-quality development characterized by technological breakthroughs, domestic substitution, and value upgrading. Benefiting from favorable policies, resources, technology, and downstream demand, the window of opportunity for the development of the domestic high-purity quartz industry has fully opened. In the future, leading companies with core technologies, stable mineral resources, and high-end production capacity will continue to benefit from the industry's high prosperity and substitution dividends, leading the process of achieving self-reliance and control over the domestic high-end quartz industry chain.