The 2021 China Sand and Gravel Industry Operation Report compiled by the China Sand and Gravel Association has been officially released. The report shows that China's sand and stone industry has comprehensively entered a new stage of high-quality development marked by green and low-carbon. In 2021, the overall national sand and stone industry is stable, the total output of sand and stone slightly decreased, the price before low after high.

Sand and stone is the largest, indispensable and irreplaceable raw material for infrastructure construction in China, with an annual consumption of about 20 billion tons. China's annual output value of sand and stone more than 2 trillion yuan, transportation costs up to more than 500 billion yuan. According to incomplete statistics, by the end of 2021, there are about 15,000 sand mines, more than 30,000 related enterprises, and nearly one million employees. At present, China's sand and stone industry has comprehensively entered a new stage of high-quality development, and the green and low-carbon management system of China's sand and stone industry with the distinctive characteristics of "green mines, green factories and green bases" is being rapidly constructed.

According to the report, in 2021, 805 new sand mining rights will be established in China, among which yunnan and Xinjiang are the top two in terms of new sand mining rights, with 166 and 156 respectively. More than 50 major aggregate production lines have been built nationwide. With the price rise, "north sand south transport" emerged at the historic moment, liaoning sand "north sand south transport", a small amount of north to Jilin, Inner Mongolia.

The report believes that in 2022, China's overall demand for sand and stone is stable, and the supply may narrow. It is estimated that the annual supply of construction sand and stone is about 19.5 billion tons. Combined with industry data, full-year average prices are expected to rise 1%-2% overall from 2021.

China sand and Gravel Industry operation Report 2021

China Sand and Stone Association

Overview of sand and gravel industry in 2021

In 2021, the supply of sand and gravel industry is affected by factors such as carbon peak, double control of energy consumption, normalization of epidemic prevention and control, and tight sand and gravel transport capacity in local areas. Infrastructure construction and real estate investment at the demand end maintain growth, and the economic operation of the sand and gravel industry shows a stable and sound development trend throughout the year.

In 2021, the country's output of sand and stone was 19.7 billion tons, a slight decrease of 1% compared with 2020. In 2021, the sand and gravel industry is affected by the slowdown in the growth of infrastructure and real estate, the growth of sand and gravel demand is slowing down, and the impact of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, carbon peak and energy consumption on the start time of sand and gravel mines, the sand and gravel output has a small contraction.

In the first half of 2021, the national sand price is relatively stable. In the second half of the year, with the arrival of the peak season of the project, the national demand for sand rises. But on the supply side, sand enterprises are affected by double control of energy consumption, and the supply continues to be tight, leading to the continued rise in the price of sand in the second half of the year.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics, fixed asset investment in China's mining industry grew 10.9 percent year-on-year in 2021. And the sand industry in the local shortage of prices continue to rise in the background, sand mine fixed asset investment is significantly higher than other minerals, preliminary statistics annual growth rate of about 15%.

In recent years, small sand mining rights have been rapidly integrated, and the number of sand mines in China has shown a downward trend. The scale and intensification of sand mines have achieved initial results. By the end of 2021, the number of sand mines is about 15,000.

Industry "home base"

Sand and stone is the largest, indispensable and irreplaceable raw material for China's infrastructure construction, with annual consumption of about 20 billion tons. It is the world's largest mineral resources, raw materials and commodities. China's annual output value of sand and stone more than 2 trillion yuan, transportation costs up to more than 500 billion yuan. According to incomplete statistics, by the end of 2021, there are about 15,000 sand mines, more than 30,000 related enterprises, and nearly one million employees. The sand and stone industry has comprehensively entered a new stage of high-quality development marked by green and low-carbon. The green and low-carbon management system of China's sand and stone industry featuring "green mines, green factories and green bases" is being rapidly constructed.

Operation of sand and stone industry

1. There was a slight drop in production

In 2021, the country's output of sand and stone was 19.7 billion tons, a slight decrease of 1% compared with 2020. In 2021, due to the slowdown in the growth rate of infrastructure and real estate investment, the growth rate of sand demand slows down. In addition, the normalization of epidemic prevention and control and the impact of environmental protection supervision on the start time of sand mine, the sand output shrinks slightly.

2. Prices are low before and high after

According to the Big data Center of the China Sand and Gravel Association, the comprehensive average price of sand and gravel in 2021 will be 113 yuan/ton, up 2.2% year on year.

In the first half of 2021, the average price of natural sand and mechanized sand is affected by such factors as construction schedule of the construction market at the demand end, production fluctuation of sand mines at the supply end, tight shipping in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River at the transport end, and so on. Into the second half of the year, with the arrival of the peak engineering season, sand and stone demand steadily increased, then also pushed up the price of natural sand and stone. Natural sand, mechanism of sand prices since the second half of the year continued to rise.

As of December 31, 2021, the national average price of machine-made sand is 102 yuan/ton, unchanged from the previous month; The average price of natural sand was 142 yuan/ton, up 0.7%.

In the second half of 2021, prices rose as supply and demand in the sand market changed. As of December 31, the average price of gravel 102 yuan/ton, flat.

3. Overview of sand mine

By the end of 2020, the number of sand mines in Guizhou and Yunnan was the largest, with 1,632 and 1,049 respectively. The number of sand mines in Xinjiang, Sichuan, Hunan, Guangxi and Jiangxi ranges from 500 to 800. The number of sand mines in Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Heilongjiang, Guangdong, Shanxi, Chongqing and Hubei ranges from 300 to 500. The number of sand mines in Zhejiang, Jilin, Shaanxi, Fujian, Hebei, Henan, Anhui, Liaoning, Qinghai, Shandong, Ningxia, Hainan, Xizang and Jiangsu is below 200; In addition, the number of sand mines in Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai is zero.

In 2021, according to the situation of new major aggregate production lines in all provinces, fujian and Shanxi will build more than 10 new aggregate production lines; The number of newly built key aggregate production lines in Henan, Guangxi, Liaoning, Guizhou, Anhui and Hunan is 6, 5, 5, 4, 3 and 2 respectively. The number of Sichuan, Chongqing, Hubei, Shaanxi and Shandong is 1.

In 2021, the number of newly established sand mining rights in China will be 805, among which the number of newly established sand mining rights in Yunnan and Xinjiang ranks first and second in China, with 166 and 156 respectively. The number of newly established sand mining rights in Heilongjiang and Guizhou provinces is between 50 and 100. In Jilin, Guangxi, Gansu, Hubei, Sichuan, Chongqing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Anhui and Shandong, the number of newly established sand mining rights is less than 10.

In 2021, the new mine sand, with limestone building stone, building sand, granite, sandstone, construction stone used in construction building (tuff), used in basalt, andesite, used in building dolostone, construction diorite, diabase, marble and used in used in building stone with limestone 12 kinds of minerals. Among them, the number of building stone limestone and building sand is 345 and 215, respectively. Secondly, the number of construction granite sand mining rights is 86, construction sandstone, construction stone (tuff), construction basalt, construction andesite, construction dolomite sand mining rights in the number of 10 ~ 50; In addition, construction diorite, construction diabase, construction marble, construction stone limestone four types of sand mineral rights are less than 5.

In 2021, the large-scale development of sand and stone industry has achieved some results, 0.1 ~ 1 square kilometers of mine rights to replace 0 ~ 0.1 square kilometers of mine rights, become the mainstream of new mining rights in 2021. In 2021, there are 365 new sand and gravel mining rights with an area between 0 and 0.1 square kilometers, accounting for 45.3%, which has decreased compared with the sand and gravel mining rights between 0 and 0.1 square kilometers (62.5%) in 2020. There are 422 sand and stone mining rights in the mining area between 0.1 and 1 square kilometers, accounting for more than half; There are 18 in the range of 1 to 10 square kilometers, accounting for 2.2 percent.

4. Analysis of key areas

Eastern region: the number of sand and stone mines is about 1200, and the demand for sand and stone is 6.7 billion tons. At present, the demand is strong and the supply is short in eastern China. The sand gaps in Shandong, Jiangsu and Guangdong provinces are 65.5%, 40% and 17.1%, respectively. As a large province of sand and stone resources, Hebei is in the key area of the coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei. The self-produced sand and stone can not only meet the needs of the province, but also shoulder the responsibility of ensuring supply to Beijing and Tianjin.

Among the key provinces in the eastern region, Guangdong has a serious shortage of sand supply and demand. Its own production of gravel is 350 million tons, and the annual production of machine-made sand is about 100 million tons, with an annual demand of 1.5 billion tons. Shandong is generally short of high-quality sand and stone, annual demand is about 1.2 billion tons; The total gap of sand and stone in Jiangsu is as high as 40%, and the annual demand is about 1.15 billion tons; Hebei guarantees 40% of Beijing's supply and provides nearly 1 billion tons of construction sand and stone materials to the market every year, while the province's annual demand is 650 million tons.

Central region: the number of sand and stone mines is 2,107, and the demand for sand and stone is over 5 billion tons. Among them, hunan overall, sand and stone supply gap of 200 million tons, sand and stone aggregate consumption is stable at about 900 million tons/year, the province's actual output of sand and stone mines about 700 million tons.

The total supply and demand of sand and gravel in Henan province is basically balanced. The province's sand and stone demand between 9 ~ 1 billion tons. From the total amount, the sand and stone mining rights in Henan can basically meet the overall demand for sand and stone in Henan Province.

Western region: the number of sand and stone mines is 6,288, and the demand for sand and stone is over 7 billion tons. Among them, The planned production capacity of Guizhou is over 1.5 billion tons, and the problem of excess capacity is widespread in the province. Gansu sand and stone demand of about 300 million tons, annual production of sand and stone (including river sand and sand embedded stone) about 340 million tons, supply and demand balance. At present, the demand of sand and stone in Chongqing is about 400 million tons, and the supply and demand are basically balanced.

Northeast China: the number of sand and stone mines is 789, and the demand for sand and stone is over 800 million tons. Among them, the current demand of Liaoning sand and stone is about 240 million tons per year, and the self-produced sand and stone output is about 400 million tons, which can meet the market demand, but the oversupply is becoming increasingly obvious. The ex-factory price of gravel is between 22 and 28 yuan/ton, and the ex-factory price of machine-made sand is between 30 and 36 yuan/ton.

With the price rise, "north sand south transport" emerged at the historic moment, liaoning sand "north sand south transport", a small amount of north to Jilin, Inner Mongolia.

Development trend of sand and stone industry

Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the sandstone industry has been highly valued by the CPC Central Committee and The State Council. On June 22, 2018, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued the "Green Mine Construction Code for Sand and Stone Industry", which made sand and stone one of the nine national mining industries. On November 4, 2019, ten departments of the State jointly issued several Opinions on Promoting the High-quality Development of mechanical sand industry; On March 25, 2020, the fifteen departments of the State jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Sand industry; In 2021, the National Mineral Resources Plan (2021-2025) will be completed. According to the above relevant industrial policies and planning requirements, the future development trend of sand and stone industry is intelligent, green, high quality, good management, good efficiency and large-scale. Sand and stone industry has entered a new stage of high quality development marked by green and low-carbon.

Development prospects for 2022

Supply: Supply may narrow. Carbon peak, double control of energy consumption, continuous increase in environmental protection and energy efficiency, the normalization of epidemic prevention and control, and the development trend of large-scale and green sand mining industry, all these factors will lead to a narrowing of sand supply in 2022, and the annual construction sand supply is expected to be about 19.5 billion tons.

Demand: the overall demand for sand and stone in 2022 is stable and declining. Infrastructure and real estate construction as the two major demand end of sand and stone industry, the overall demand for sand or continue to shrink. Infrastructure investment plan in 2022 is expected to be ahead of the layout, special bond issuance forward, driving infrastructure market active, to stimulate aggregate demand, real estate investment is expected to be steady and healthy development, but the infrastructure requirements ascension cannot compensate for real estate less demand for sand and gravel, is expected to have drop in aggregate demand will steadily throughout the year, a drop of about 1% ~ 2%.

Prices: Slightly higher overall. In 2022, under the industrial background of slight contraction of sand supply and demand, transportation factors that have a greater impact on the price fluctuation of sand will also be improved to a certain extent in 2022, easing the supply tension in local areas and basically realizing the balance of supply and demand. In 2022, the supply and demand of construction sand still shows a trend of decline. Combined with industry data, the annual average price may increase by 1% to 2% compared with 2021.

(Special thanks to the gravel associations and relevant member units that provided relevant information for this report.)

From: China Mining News