Refractories industry to cope with international trade friction strategy
Apr 15,2025
Accelerating market diversification
Expanding emerging markets: Actively explore emerging markets such as “Belt and Road” countries, RCEP region, Middle East and Africa to reduce dependence on single markets such as the U.S. and diversify the risk of trade friction.
Optimize export structure: Expand channels through cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses and other new modes, increase the proportion of high-value-added products exported, and reduce competitive pressure on low-end products.
Deepening technological innovation and product upgrading
Research and development of green and low-carbon technology: focus on breaking through the core technology in the fields of low-carbon refractories, intelligent refractories, etc., and enhance the added value of products to cope with international environmental protection standards (such as the EU carbon border adjustment mechanism).
Promote localization substitution: develop high-performance composite refractories (such as bimetallic metallurgical composite heat exchanger tubes), reduce dependence on imported raw materials, and enhance the ability of independent control of the supply chain.
Strengthen the industry chain synergies
Upstream and downstream synergy: Strengthen the collaboration of mining, raw material processing, product production, etc., and enhance industrial concentration and bargaining power through joint reorganization.
Resisting vicious competition: avoiding industry-wide low-price competition, optimizing the cost structure through cooperation, and enhancing the competitiveness of the whole industry chain.
Optimize global production capacity layout
Overseas capacity investment: build production bases or joint ventures in non-American regions (e.g. Southeast Asia, Africa) to avoid tariff barriers and logistics restrictions.
Flexible supply chain management: relying on transnational cooperation to adjust the raw material procurement and product distribution network and enhance supply chain resilience.
Responding to trade policy and certification barriers
Standardize export management: Strictly implement the export licensing system to avoid dumping allegations and maintain international market order.
Participate in international standardization: Promote the development of international standards such as carbon footprint certification for refractory materials to enhance the industry's voice and reduce the risk of trade friction.
Addressing domestic market demand
Responding to national strategies: Focusing on the goal of “double carbon”, urban renewal, rural revitalization and other policies, develop new refractory materials applicable to new energy, environmental protection and other fields.
Tap the potential of domestic demand: Expand the domestic market through consumer goods trade-in, “AI+” applications and other scenarios to balance the impact of fluctuations in external demand.
Summarize
In the face of international trade friction, the refractories industry needs to diversify market risks, enhance competitiveness through technological innovation, rely on industry chain synergies to reduce costs, and circumvent policy barriers through global production capacity layout. At the same time, we need to actively respond to domestic and foreign policy guidance, strengthen green transformation and standard discourse, and build a “double-cycle” development pattern.