New building materials are collectively referred to as energy-saving, environmentally friendly, and functional building materials that differ from traditional bricks, cement, and sand. The core categories include insulation, waterproof sealing, decorative finishes, new wall structures, and special inorganic materials. The industry's core characteristics are low carbon energy saving, functional upgrades, wide scenario adaptation, and strong policy-driven. These materials meet the development needs of green buildings, prefabricated buildings, and ultra-low energy buildings, serving as a key support track for the transformation and upgrading of the construction industry. In 2024, the overall market size of new building materials in China will exceed 2.3 trillion yuan, with green new building materials revenue reaching 210 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth rate of about 10%, far higher than the 3% growth rate of traditional building materials, making it the most core growth pole in the building materials industry. Currently, the penetration rate of new building materials in newly constructed buildings in China is 58%, and the penetration rate of green buildings in first-tier cities exceeds 50%.
1. Upstream: Raw Materials and Equipment, Basic Demand + Technical Support
The upstream consists of two major sections: basic raw materials and special production equipment. Raw materials determine product performance and cost, while equipment determines process precision and production efficiency. The raw materials are diverse, with clear sub-segment barriers: the core raw materials for new wall structures and insulation materials are gypsum, fly ash, slag, and other industrial solid waste and rock wool, polystyrene resin; the core raw materials for waterproof building materials are asphalt, VAE emulsion, and rubber powder; high-end special building materials rely on high-purity quartz, ceramic powder, and glass fiber raw yarn and other fine chemical raw materials.
The industry has a prominent green attribute, with extensive application of industrial solid waste as raw materials. In the field of new wall structures and insulation materials, solid waste raw materials account for more than 45%, which can effectively reduce production costs by more than 15% and significantly reduce carbon emissions. Equipment-wise, it focuses on intelligent, energy-saving production lines. Ordinary forming and drying equipment have been fully localized, but the import dependency of high-end precision coating and modified sintering equipment still reaches about 35%. Upstream profitability is clearly differentiated, with bulk raw material companies earning cyclical dividends, and gross profit margin fluctuations can reach 10%-25%. Fine chemical and specialized equipment companies rely on technical barriers to maintain a stable high gross profit of over 20%, and the concentration of leading companies in the industry continues to rise.
2. Midstream: Processing and Manufacturing, Significant Stratified Competition Pattern
The midstream is the core processing stage of new building materials. Through processes such as mixing, forming, sintering, compounding, and modification, upstream raw materials are processed into standardized finished products. The industry presents a polarized pattern of low-end homogenization and high-end functional premium. The low-end track mainly includes ordinary insulation boards, conventional waterproof membranes, and ordinary gypsum boards. The technical threshold is low, small and medium-sized enterprises are crowded, corresponding to a market share of over 60%, and the issue of overcapacity is prominent. The industry's average net profit margin is less than 4%, and the core competition relies on low prices to increase volume.
The high-end track has extremely high barriers, focusing on functional and customized new building materials, including ultra-low energy consumption insulation materials, weatherproof sealing materials, high-purity quartz building materials, special glass fibers, and low-carbon prefabricated wall panels. These rely on formula modification and precise production processes to achieve performance breakthroughs. Currently, the localization rate of high-end special building materials is less than 50%, and the gross profit margin in high-end segments can reach 18%-30%, with profitability being 5-8 times that of low-end products. Currently, leading domestic companies are continuously promoting capacity structure upgrades, eliminating high-energy consumption low-end capacity, and by 2025, the proportion of green compliant capacity in the industry has increased to 75%, accelerating the transformation towards refinement and low carbonization.3. Downstream: Diverse Scenarios, Policy + Dual Track Driv
ing Increment
Downstream applications are concentrated in the construction field, while extending to new energy and industrial support, with a continuously optimized demand structure, completely getting rid of the single dependence on traditional real estate. The traditional construction field is the basic market, with green buildings, prefabricated buildings, and renovation of old communities as the core rigid demand. Data shows that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, ultra-low energy consumption buildings in China will drive the new market size of new building materials to exceed 280 billion yuan, with demand for exterior wall insulation and energy-saving window materials accounting for over 80%; by 2025, the penetration rate of prefabricated buildings in China will exceed 32%, continuously driving the rigid demand for prefabricated wall panels and energy-saving components, and the demand is solid.Emerging tracks have become the core incremental engine, with growth rates far exceeding traditional fields. Photovoltaic and wind power new energy infrastructure drive the continuous rise in demand for photovoltaic glass and corrosion-resistant insulation special building materials, with an annual compound growth rate of over 15%; computing power centers and electronic factories drive the consumption of low dielectric glass fibers and high-purity quartz and other high-end building materials, with a growth rate of over 18%. At the same time, the mandatory standard for ultra-low energy consumption buildings has been implemented, forcing the popularization of high-end energy-saving building materials, forming a demand pattern of "traditional renovation stabilizes the base, new energy infrastructure increases the increment, high-end industry expands space".4. Industry Pattern and Core Development Trends
The domestic new building materials industry is globally leading in scale, accounting for over 38% of the global new building materials market share, but structural shortcomings are prominent. The overall industry pattern is highly fragmented, with a large number of small and medium-sized low-end manufacturers, and the CR10 industry concentration is less than 18%. The low-end market is seriously homogenized, with thin profits; leading brands monopolize the high-end market with technical, channel, and qualification advantages, and import substitution continues to advance. The policy side clarifies the industrial development goals, and it is expected that by 2026, the revenue of the green building materials industry will exceed 300 billion yuan, and the overall market size is expected to exceed 4.1 trillion yuan by 2030, with an annual compound growth rate of over 10%. By 2025, the proportion of energy efficiency compliant capacity in key building materials fields will exceed 80%, and the industry's low-carbon transformation will achieve significant results.Four core trends for the future industry are clear. First is green low-carbon scaling, with comprehensive popularization of industrial solid waste recycled materials and low-carbon production processes, meeting the requirements of dual carbon policies; second is functional high-end refinement, focusing on new energy, semiconductors, and ultra-low energy consumption building special building materials, breaking through high-end technical bottlenecks; third is accelerated domestic substitution, gradually breaking the monopoly of overseas high-end special building materials, achieving independent control of core materials; fourth is integrated branding, with leading companies binding fine raw materials upstream and engineering and new energy customers downstream, relying on brand and service to enhance the industry chain's premium capacity.
