Since 2025, the global glass industry has shown distinct characteristics of "the shift between old and new growth drivers and the optimization of supply-demand structure". Data shows that the global glass market scale is expected to reach 1.8 trillion US dollars this year, with a stable annual growth rate of 4.5%. China, with a market scale of 850 billion yuan, accounts for 48% of the global share and continues to lead the development of the global industry.
At the policy level, the Work Plan for Stabilizing Growth in the Building Materials Industry (2025-2026) has promoted the industry's transformation from "capacity control" to "structure optimization". It strictly prohibits the addition of new capacity for low-end float glass and encourages the development of high-end fields such as photovoltaics and electronics. The market shows significant differentiation: the demand growth rate of traditional architectural glass has slowed down to 3%, while the annual growth rate of photovoltaic glass remains at a high level of 18%, and the market scale of electronic display glass substrates is expected to exceed 120 billion US dollars.
Enterprises have accelerated their strategic adjustments, and overseas layout has become a new focus. Leading enterprises such as CSG A and Xinyi Glass have concentrated on building factories in the Middle East. Among them, the investment in CSG Egypt's 1,400 t/d photovoltaic glass project has reached 1.755 billion yuan, and Xinyi Glass' Egypt base will become the largest solar glass production base in the Middle East after completion. Domestic technological breakthroughs continue to emerge: CNBM has developed 30-micron ultra-thin flexible glass that can withstand millions of folds, and CSG Group has achieved mass production of 0.15mm ultra-thin glass, promoting the import substitution of high-end products.
Green transformation has also accelerated simultaneously. Three zero-carbon glass factories have been built globally, the fuel structure for glass production is shifting to natural gas, and the energy consumption benchmark for production lines with a capacity of over 800 tons per day has been reduced to 12 kg of standard coal per weight box. The enabling role of the futures market is prominent: the loss rate of enterprises participating in hedging is 23 percentage points lower than that of enterprises not participating, providing risk protection for the industry's transformation.
Insiders pointed out that with the explosive demand in fields such as new energy and electronic information, the glass industry is ushering in a period of high-quality development opportunities, and technological innovation and global layout will become the core competitiveness of enterprises.