Driven by national policies, the concentration of the industrial explosives industry continues to increase

Industrial explosives, also known as civilian explosives, refer to explosive mixtures made of oxidants and flammable agents. Industrial explosives have the advantages of safe use and production, low price, high detonation degree, and simple preparation. They are widely used in seismic exploration, engineering blasting, transportation, hydropower, explosive processing and other operations. According to different composition characteristics, industrial explosives are generally divided into special explosives, ammonium nitrate explosives, emulsion explosives and ammonium nitrate explosives.

The main raw material of industrial explosives is ammonium nitrate, which accounts for nearly 50.0% of its production costs. Ammonium nitrate, as an oxidant, is mainly used in the production of industrial explosives and military explosives. Affected by factors such as restrictions on national environmental protection policies and supply-side structural reforms, China’s ammonium nitrate production companies with backward production capacity have gradually been eliminated by the market, resulting in a gradual decline in their output. Against this background, the supply of raw materials for industrial explosives in my country is tight. According to statistics from the China Explosive Equipment Industry Association, my country’s industrial explosives output in 2021 will be 4.415 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5%.

According to the “2022-2027 Industrial Explosives Industry In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report released by the Industrial Research Center, industrial explosives It is a subdivision of civilian explosives and is mainly used in the field of mining, accounting for 70.0% of the demand. Metal mining accounted for 25.0% of the demand for industrial explosives, and coal and non-metal mining accounted for 45.0% of the demand for industrial explosives. However, due to national policy restrictions and macroeconomic downturn, my country’s industrial explosives market demand has weakened. According to statistics from the China Explosive Equipment Industry Association, my country’s industrial explosive sales reached 4.416 million tons in 2021, a year-on-year decrease of 1.5%.

As a new type of industrial explosive, colloidal emulsion explosive has the advantages of good water resistance, high detonation velocity, and good detonation sensitivity, and has gradually become a mainstream product in the industrial explosive market. According to statistics from the China Explosive Equipment Industry Association, sales of colloidal emulsion explosives in my country reached 2.738 million tons in 2021, accounting for 62.0% of the total sales of industrial explosives.

In 2021, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology released the “14th Five-Year Plan for the Safety Development of the Civilian Explosives Industry”, which clearly proposed to further optimize the product structure and reduce the permitted production capacity of packaged industrial explosives. Affected by national policies, the number of enterprises with backward production capacity in China has gradually decreased, and the concentration of the industrial explosives industry has increased. Jiangnan Chemical, Guangdong Hongda, Cathay Group, and Yahua Group are the major manufacturers with licensed production capacity for industrial explosives in my country.

Industry analysts said that with the further implementation of environmental protection policies, the demand for industrial explosive applications in the mining field will further shrink. However, driven by positive factors such as rapid economic development and the accelerating construction of new infrastructure, industrial explosives will be widely used in water conservancy projects, railway construction and special operations. In recent years, benefiting from the continued favorable national policies, the concentration of my country’s industrial explosives industry has increased.