Characteristic Industrial Cluster Research Line (4) | See why Shahe has become the national glass pricing center

The delivery volume accounts for more than 50% of the national total, and the price index has been released for three consecutive years, and the influence of commodity pricing continues to rise

See why Shahe has become the national glass pricing center

On May 27, at the 34th China International Glass Industry Technology Exhibition, the latest China (Shahe) glass price index attracted the attention of the audience. The index focuses on Shahe, the core glass producing area in China, and accurately portrays the market trend by analyzing key factors such as regional glass prices, supply and demand, and sets a "wind vane" for the national and international glass industry.

Since the first release of the price index in Beijing, this industrial "barometer" has been released for three consecutive years, which not only provides strong data and information support for predicting the changing trend of the glass market, but also promotes Shahe from a "highland of production capacity" to a pricing center of the three major markets of glass spot, futures and bulk commodity trading in China.

Hebei Jinhongyang Solar Energy Technology Co., Ltd. is located in Shahe City, electronic and automotive glass production lines. Photo by Gao Rusen

Price index tree benchmarking

The small town holds the right to speak in the industry

On June 10, in the futures benchmark delivery warehouse of Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd., the forklift loaded the original glass with the label of "Dejin Delivery" into the container. "Yesterday closed at 71.83 points, the pricing of this batch of goods is directly linked to yesterday's index, and the Zhengzhou Commodity Exchange applied for registration as a delivery warehouse receipt." Warehouse keeper Shi Lei said.

Hebei Dejin Glass Co., Ltd. float glass production line located in Shahe City. Photo by Gao Rusen

Since 2025, there have been zero complaints about the delivery of Shahe glass futures, and the delivery volume accounts for more than 50% of the national total, and the influence of commodity pricing has continued to rise. The price index has become the pricing anchor for glass traders across the country.

According to the data, in 2024, the consumption of float glass in the real estate/home improvement field will be 52.8 million tons, a year-on-year decrease of 4.37%; the consumption of household appliances/electronics reached 1.23 million tons, a year-on-year increase of 14.95%; Consumption in the automotive sector increased by 2.63% year-on-year. At that time, the index accurately predicted the increase in glass consumption in the fields of automobiles and home appliances/electronics, and guided enterprises to adjust their production lines in a timely manner.

With the increase of the influence of the index, the endogenous driving force for the high-quality development of enterprises has been activated. Key enterprises such as Wangmei and Xinli have strengthened their efforts to "intelligent transformation and digital transformation", built an industrial Internet platform, promoted the application of intelligent technology in the whole chain of R&D and design, production and manufacturing, and market operation, improved the level of digital control of the whole process of the production line, and achieved a jump in industrial productivity.

Today, Shahe City has 32 float glass production lines, with a production capacity of 134 million weight boxes, accounting for 11% of the country; Glass products are diversified, covering various deep processing processes such as tempering, hollow, Low-E, mirror-making, sanitary ware, color crystal, relief, etc., among them, the output of mirror-making glass accounts for 50% of the country, the output of glass sliding doors accounts for 60% of the country, and the output of glass pot lids accounts for 80% of the country. The volume blessing makes Shahe glass more marketable.

Technological innovation breaks the bottleneck

The industry has a solid "high" and "green" foundation

On June 6, Hebei Xinli Glass Co., Ltd. put into operation the intelligent production line of automotive glass substrates. Ding Hao, the person in charge of Xinli Glass Company, pointed to the newly put into production line and introduced: with an investment of 530 million yuan, it integrates 12 cutting-edge technologies such as 5G communication, AI visual inspection, and digital twins, and realizes the whole process of digitalization from material input, product offline, energy management to e-commerce, finance, inventory and other subsystems.

On June 6, Hebei Xinli Glass Co., Ltd., located in Shahe City, put into operation the intelligent production line of automotive glass substrates. Photo by Gao Rusen

Shahe's technological breakthrough stems from the painful experience of "low-end involution". To this end, the local glass industry cluster set up a special class to carry out the "technological transformation investment in the Year of the Dragon doubling action".

"Through technological transformation, we have built the first two-line electronic glass production line in the first kiln in the north of the country." In Hongsheng Glass Industry Science and Technology Park, Hu Yaoliang, general manager, introduced that this production line can produce 1.44 million weight boxes of various types of ultra-thin photovoltaic electronic glass below 1.1mm, and the products are widely used in solar substrates, high-end automotive glass, high-end displays, conductive films and other high-tech fields, achieving an annual output value of 800 million yuan.

Up to now, Shahe has invested a total of 4.8 billion yuan to complete the technical transformation of 10 production lines, and accelerated the implementation of 7 thousand-ton intelligent lines. By 2028, it will invest 22 billion yuan to complete the plan of technical transformation and upgrading of all production lines, and it is expected to complete the task ahead of schedule.

While chasing "high", Shahe glass also continues to "green". According to statistics, the average total emissions of Shahe glass industry in the past three years are 546 tons, which is only equivalent to the emissions of a medium-sized steel enterprise. The company has completed the technical transformation and upgrading of desulfurization, denitrification, dust removal, plume whitening, VOCs control and other technologies, and the emission level is far lower than the national and provincial standards, and is at the advanced level of the industry. At the same time, the Zhengkang coal-to-gas project has entered the gas supply experimental stage, which is expected to supply 4.8 million standard cubic meters of gas per day after completion, saving 400,000 tons of standard coal annually and ensuring green energy consumption from the source.

Reduce costs, increase efficiency and resist risks

Build a new pattern of development of the whole industry chain

In recent years, affected by the close layout of the real estate industry and the national glass industry, how to reduce costs and increase efficiency has become the forefront of the development of Shahe glass industry cluster.

"In terms of raw material mining, we have promoted a substantial breakthrough in local quartz sand mining. At the same time, organize enterprises to realize direct collection and mining of soda ash production areas and reduce the cost of raw materials for enterprises. Li Yanfeng, the person in charge of the glass industry, calculated an account: after the mining right of the quartz sand base was approved, the cost of raw materials dropped by 20%; The centralized mining of soda ash has made Shahe a "national soda ash price depression".

In the glass fiber drawing workshop of Hebei Jizhong New Materials Co., Ltd., located in Shahe City, the glass fiber material is extremely fine filamentous. Photo by Gao Rusen

In the upstream, we will open up the local supply of quartz sand and soda ash centralized mining, and promote the Zhengkang Gas Project to achieve centralized supply of clean energy; In the midstream, the intelligent and green level of the production line will be improved through technological transformation, and the low-carbon technology innovation and application will be deployed in advance; In the downstream, it will bind new energy vehicles, glass and cultural and creative application scenarios to open up new markets...... Today, Shahe has explored and formed an effective path to reduce costs and increase efficiency in the industrial chain.

In the production workshop of Hebei Jinshi Xinyuan New Material Technology Co., Ltd., located in Shahe City, workers are busy debugging production equipment. As the downstream of the original automotive glass, the company has been deeply bound to a number of new energy vehicle companies, and is about to usher in official production. After reaching production, it is expected to produce 1.5 million sets of high-end automotive glass annually, with an annual output value of 1.5 billion yuan.

"The whole chain 'collaborative chain belt' makes enterprises lower cost and higher efficiency, and also makes industrial clusters more resilient to risks." Li Yanfeng introduced that the local area is accelerating the construction of a new pattern of development of the whole industrial chain, realizing the localization and centralized procurement of raw materials in the short term, the digitization of equipment and product differentiation, and the overall level of the industry to reach the middle and high-end; In the medium term, we will focus on the development of automotive glass and composite energy-saving glass, form 2-3 professional clusters of high-end glass products, and reduce the comprehensive cost of the industrial chain by 10%; Long-term industrial ecological optimization, to create a "green and low-carbon glass industry chain", to achieve the whole chain of the glass industry coordination.

Short comment

Shahe Glass: A Sample of the Development of Characteristic Industrial Clusters

Liu Zengjian

Shahe, a county-level city, has released huge energy in the glass industry and has become a national glass pricing center, and its development path has provided valuable experience for the development of characteristic industrial clusters.

The release of the price index is a key step for Shahe to grasp the right to speak in the industry. The China (Shahe) glass price index, which has been released for three consecutive years, is like a "barometer" of the industry, which not only accurately reflects market changes, but also provides strong support for enterprise production and trade decisions. The proud achievement of futures delivery accounting for more than 50% of the country's total demonstrates its important influence in commodity pricing. The index not only empowers data, but also activates the endogenous power of enterprises, promotes "intelligent transformation and digital transformation", and improves industrial productivity.

Technological innovation is the core driving force for Shahe to break through the bottleneck of development. The former "low-end involution" prompted Shahe to learn from the pain, and through a series of technological transformation actions, the introduction of cutting-edge technology to realize the intelligent upgrade of the production line. It not only enhances the added value of products, but also occupies a place in the field of high-end products. At the same time, Shahe adheres to green development and has achieved remarkable results in energy conservation and emission reduction, laying a solid foundation for sustainable development.

Whole-chain optimization is an important measure for Shahe to build an industrial ecology. In the face of industry challenges, the upstream and downstream of Shahe glass industry have made concerted efforts to reduce costs and increase efficiency. upstream to ensure the supply of raw materials and reduce costs; improve the production level in the midstream; Downstream to open up new markets, form a close "synergistic chain", and enhance the ability of industrial clusters to resist risks.

The significant improvement of the Shahe glass industry benefits from the accurate grasp of market trends, continuous investment in technological innovation and systematic optimization of the industrial chain, and has broad prospects for future development. This also provides valuable experience for the development of characteristic industrial clusters in our city - only by continuous exploration and innovation and collaborative progress can we stand out in the fierce market competition and achieve high-quality development of the industry.