From January to June, the national refractory output was 10.4822 million tons, down 13.75 percent from the same period last year. Among them, 5.6107 million tons of dense shaped refractory products, down 16.34 from the same period last year; 312000 tons of thermal insulation refractory products, up 5.94 from the same period last year; and 4.5596 million tons of unshaped refractory products, down 11.51 from the same period last year. Among the dense shaped products, 1.3865 million tons of carbon-containing products, down 3.35 percent year-on-year, and 233200 tons of functional products, down 14.4 percent year-on-year. The decline in dense shaped articles was larger, mainly due to infrastructure.refractory materialThe impact of the epidemic is greater.

The output of the main production provinces (cities) of refractory materials also declined to varying degrees. Henan Province produced 3.3531 million tons in the first half of the year, down 36 percent from the same period last year; Liaoning produced 2.203 million tons in the first half, down 2.22 percent from the same period last year; Shandong produced 1.2354 million tons, down 3.37 percent from the same period last year; Jiangsu produced 722700 tons in the first half, down 5.53 percent from the same period last year; and Zhejiang produced 697900 tons in the first half of the year, down 13 percent from the same period last year. It should be noted that due to the partial adjustment and optimization of this year's statistical methodology, the first half of the comparison benchmark was selected based on half of the final annual output verified at the end of 2019, so the year-on-year data deviation is large. In addition, the reason for the increase in output in some areas is that associations at all levels encourage more enterprises to report, and the number of samples has increased compared with the previous year. The adjustment of statistical attribution has also resulted in some changes.

Overall, refractory production in most regions and enterprises in the first half of 2020 was still relatively affected by the epidemic. From January to June, the output of refractory products decreased by 13.75 year-on-year. In addition to a slight increase in insulation products, the yield of other varieties has been reduced to varying degrees. In addition to silica bricks, clay bricks, high-alumina bricks and magnesia bricks in dense shaped products decreased significantly, by 23.54 per cent, 25.22 per cent and 24.97 per cent, respectively; "operation" of the consumption of refractory varieties, less affected by the epidemic, infrastructure refractory enterprises by the impact of the epidemic and the impact of greater, more direct.

From a regional point of view, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong and other producing areas are less affected by the epidemic. The main reason is that the variety structure and customer quality of local traditional advantageous industries are better and their competitiveness is stronger. Enterprises in other producing areas are more affected by the epidemic than in other regions.

(Source: China Nai Association)