Industry Insights | Continuous Technological Upgrades and Broad Market Prospects for Advanced Ceramic Materials

Advanced ceramic materials are made from high-purity, ultra-fine raw materials through high-temperature and high-pressure sintering. They are advanced basic materials that play an important role in multiple fields. The manufacturing process of advanced ceramics mainly includes five steps: powder preparation, pressing and forming, sintering, finishing, and surface treatment. In the manufacturing of advanced ceramic materials, the first step of powder preparation is the most critical and also has the highest technical requirements. In addition to advancements in powder preparation technology, processes such as pressing and forming technology and sintering technology are also undergoing continuous technological upgrades, continuously optimizing the performance of advanced ceramic materials and expanding downstream application fields.

Advanced ceramics can be divided into structural ceramics and functional ceramics based on their characteristics and uses. Structural ceramics benefit from their high-temperature resistance, chemical stability, and high toughness, and are often used as equipment parts in fields such as semiconductors, automotive, aerospace, textiles, and chemical engineering. Functional ceramics refer to advanced ceramics with properties such as sound, light, electricity, magnetism, chemistry, and biology. Among them, electronic ceramics have special electrical properties such as piezoelectricity, photoelectricity, and insulation, making them the best materials for capacitors, resistors, and inductors. In addition, with the development of biomedicine technology, biomaterials are increasingly used to make ceramic teeth, joints, bones, and other human organs.

The upstream raw material link is the starting point of the advanced ceramic material industry's industrial chain. There are many suppliers in this link, mainly involving raw material and equipment suppliers, including ceramic powder, non-ferrous metal slurries, chemical raw materials, and ceramic production equipment. The midstream of the advanced ceramic industry includes ceramic manufacturing enterprises, which are mainly responsible for sintering raw materials such as ceramic powder into various ceramic materials and then processing and polishing them into various parts and components. Advanced ceramic materials and parts and components are widely used in industries such as semiconductors, automotive industry, consumer electronics, and new energy, with continuous growth in downstream demand.

Ceramic powder is a key raw material for advanced ceramics, accounting for more than 60% of the total materials. As the precision of advanced ceramic components increases, the cost proportion of ceramic powder will be even higher. From a production technology perspective, the production of ceramic powder is the most critical link in the manufacturing process of advanced ceramics, and the quality of ceramic powder determines the performance level of subsequent advanced ceramic components.

Thanks to breakthroughs in core ceramic materials technology, continuous improvement in production capacity of domestic manufacturers, and rapid development in downstream application fields, China's advanced ceramic material industry will continue to develop steadily and rapidly. Driven by factors such as rapid development in downstream application fields of advanced ceramics, breakthroughs in core ceramic materials technology, and continuous improvement in production capacity of domestic manufacturers, the market scale of advanced ceramic materials in China continues to expand. From 2017 to 2022, the annual compound growth rate of the market scale of advanced ceramic materials in China was about 5%. It is expected that from 2023 to 2026, the market for advanced ceramic materials in China will grow at an annual compound rate exceeding 5%.

The global advanced ceramic industry has a long history of development. With the diversification of advanced ceramic functions and application fields, the market size of advanced ceramics continues to expand, with a compound annual growth rate of about 10% from 2017 to 2022. It is expected that from 2023 to 2026, the global advanced ceramic materials market will still maintain an annual compound growth rate of about 5%, continuing to develop positively.

Between 2017 and 2022, the market scale of structural ceramics in China had an annual compound growth rate exceeding 10%. In the future, with the vigorous development of major downstream application fields such as construction machinery, semiconductors, and new energy vehicles in China, it is expected that the market for structural ceramics in China will continue to maintain a relatively fast growth rate between 2023 and 2026.

As an advanced ceramic with excellent physical properties such as high temperature resistance, corrosion resistance, and hardness, structural ceramics are widely used as important components in semiconductor equipment, automotive, chemical textile machinery, and other fields. From 2017 to 2022, the global market size of structural ceramics grew at an annual compound rate of about 10%. It is estimated that from 2023 to 2026, the growth rate of the global structural ceramic material market will increase at an annual compound rate of about 5%.

With the rapid development of downstream application fields such as consumer electronics, 5G communication technology, and automotive electronics, the market demand for functional ceramics has grown rapidly. From 2017 to 2022, the annual compound growth rate of the Chinese functional ceramic market scale was about 5%. Among them, electronic ceramics are the most technologically mature type of functional ceramics. The main products include MLCC (chip ceramic capacitors), resistors, varistors, etc., which are widely used in fields such as semiconductors, automotive, consumer electronics, and communications, accounting for 80% of the total functional ceramic market scale. In the future, with further maturation of functional ceramic technology, it will be widely applied in more fields. It is expected that from 2023 to 2026, the Chinese functional ceramic material market will grow at an annual compound growth rate of over 5%.

Driven by factors such as the development of the electronic ceramic industry and its wide range of downstream application fields, the global functional ceramic market size grew at an annual compound rate of about 10% from 2017 to 2022. From 2023 to 2026, the global functional ceramic material market size is expected to grow at an annual compound rate of over 5%, with the market size expected to exceed $50 billion by 2026.

1) Breakthrough in core technologies of domestic ceramic materials

The core technology of ceramic material manufacturing lies in the production of ceramic powder materials, which directly affect the performance of ceramic materials. Thanks to a series of policies supporting the localization of ceramic devices, local enterprises have continuously increased investment in core technology research and development, breaking through the technical barriers in preparing ceramic powder materials by hydrothermal method, and further optimizing the production process. Some leading manufacturing enterprises have achieved self-reliance in technology upgrading and breakthroughs from ceramic powder production to sintering processes, continuously upgrading and developing the overall technical strength of the industry.

2) Continuous improvement in localization rate

The barriers to advanced ceramic technology are high, and there is still a certain gap compared with ceramic enterprises in advanced countries such as Japan and the United States. As China continues to break foreign monopolies and technological blockades in areas such as ceramic powder production and processing systems, some advanced ceramic products have been able to achieve localized large-scale stable production and occupy some international markets. In the future, with the upgrading of China's advanced ceramic technology and the gradual emergence of price advantages for products, the localization rate of ceramics in China, from powder to material, will continue to increase.

3) The performance of ceramic components continues to improve

Currently, domestic enterprises have achieved large-scale production in major technical processes. They have not only broken through the technical barriers of hydrothermal methods but also further optimized the production process. The integration of various technologies such as nano-ceramic preparation technology and nano-grade ceramic raw materials, rapid prototyping and sintering technology, and wet chemical synthesis technology has greatly promoted the miniaturization and functional integration of ceramic components. The strong stability of advanced ceramics has enabled them not only to be used in mid- to low-end basic components but also to make substantial breakthroughs in emerging fields such as mid- to high-end biomedicine and smartphones.

4) Advanced ceramic manufacturing and green, environmentally friendly, and harmless products

Advanced ceramic manufacturing processes and products themselves can generate toxic substances that pollute the ecological environment. To reduce pollution from advanced ceramic manufacturing processes and products, relevant Chinese departments and the Electronic Ceramics Industry Association have taken various regulatory measures and organized research on lead-free piezoelectric ceramics by enterprises. At the same time, advanced and efficient energy-saving ceramic products such as honeycomb ceramics for energy saving and thermal storage, alumina ceramics used in lithium battery separators, and silicon carbide ceramics for heat conduction and dissipation will all gain rare development opportunities.