Analysis of the demand status and development trend of the cemented carbide industry

Tungsten carbide is an alloy material made by powder metallurgy process of hard compounds of refractory metals and bonded metals. Tungsten carbide products are mainly made of tungsten carbide as the hard phase and cobalt as the binding phase, which are made by ball grinding, spray granulation, pressing and sintering, and have high hardness, strength, wear resistance and corrosion resistance.

Tungsten carbide can be divided into tungsten cobalt alloy, tungsten titanium cobalt alloy, tungsten titanium tantalum (niobium) cobalt alloy, titanium carbide base alloy and coating alloy according to the composition classification.

Tungsten carbide can be classified according to its use into cutting tools, geological mining tools, molds, structural parts, wear-resistant parts, high-pressure and high-temperature resistant cavities and other uses.

Demand structure for tungsten carbide products

Tungsten carbide is mainly used in cutting tools, mining tools, molds and high-pressure and high-temperature cavities, among which cutting tools and mining tools account for 33% and 25% of cemented carbide applications respectively. Among the cutting tools, cemented carbide is mainly used as a tool material, such as turning tools, milling cutters, planer cutters, drills, boring cutters, etc., which are used to cut cast iron, non-ferrous metals, plastics, chemical fibers, graphite, glass, stone and ordinary steel and difficult-to-machine materials. In terms of mining tools, cemented carbide is mainly used as rock drilling tools, mining tools, and drilling tools, and plays an important role in minerals, oil exploitation, and infrastructure construction.

The demand for tungsten carbide in the field of cutting tools

The downstream applications of cutting tools are very extensive, and the key customers who have a greater demand for cutting tool products in China mainly include: automobile industry enterprises; Top 10 industrial groups in aviation, aerospace, weapons, shipbuilding, nuclear industry, etc.; Machinery, railway locomotives, molds, textiles, energy equipment, agricultural machinery, major complete sets of equipment manufacturing enterprises. According to statistics, in the world's demand for cutting tools, general machinery and automobile manufacturing each account for about 35%, and aerospace accounts for about 10%.

In recent years, the demand for cemented carbide for cutting tools in China has increased year by year. In 2016, the demand for cemented carbide for cutting tools was about 9,686 tons, an increase of 4.15% over the previous year. Demand is expected to exceed 10,000 tons in 2017.

According to the national plan, by 2020, China will become a manufacturing base for key complete sets of equipment and advanced scientific instruments such as automobiles, large aircraft, ships, electronic components, large-scale integrated circuits, high-end CNC machine tools, etc., all of which will greatly increase the demand for cutting tools. It is estimated that by 2023, the demand for cemented carbide for cutting tools will reach about 13,600 tons.

The demand for cemented carbide in the field of geological mining tools

In recent years, China's geology and mining industry has developed rapidly, which has driven the demand for geological mining tools industry, and the demand for cemented carbide for geological mining tools has also shown a growing trend, and the demand for cemented carbide in the geological mining tools industry in 2016 was about 7,512 tons, an increase of 4.39% year-on-year. Demand is expected to grow to around 8,000 tonnes in 2017.

With the advancement of coal mine integration, there will be a large demand for mining tools. In terms of other minerals, the Ministry of Land and Resources issued the "National Mineral Resources Planning (2016-2020)" clearly stated that at present, China is still in the middle stage of industrialization, the growth rate of energy resource demand is slowing down, but the total demand will still maintain a high level of operation, it is expected that by 2020, China's primary energy consumption is about 5 billion tons of standard coal, 750 million tons of iron ore standard ore, 13.5 million tons of refined copper, 35 million tons of primary aluminum. Affected by the international mining market, domestic exploration investment tends to decline, but in general, China's demand for mineral resources is increasing, but domestic mining is in a downward trend, the previous low production capacity and rough collection mode will gradually be replaced by high production capacity mining mode, and the demand for high-quality mining tools will be greater. The Prospective Industry Research Institute predicts that by 2023, the demand for cemented carbide for geological mining tools will reach about 10,000 tons.