Anchoring Policy Direction to Break the Development Dilemma — Exploring the Promotion of High-Quality Development in the Carbon Industry

In order to thoroughly implement the spirit of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the spirit of the 2025 Central Economic Work Conference, accelerate the upgrading of the carbon industry, optimize supply, optimize the increment, revitalize the stock, develop new quality productivity according to local conditions, and achieve effective qualitative improvement and reasonable quantitative growth, the research team of the China Carbon Industry Association went to Shandong and Shanxi provinces to go deep into the enterprise site and carry out special research through field visits and organized symposiums, aiming to solve the development dilemma for the carbon industry. Achieve high-quality development and provide decision-making support.
As a basic material to support the high-quality development of the national economy, carbon materials play an irreplaceable key role in the upgrading of traditional industries and the cultivation of strategic emerging industries due to their unique physical and chemical properties. According to statistics, in 2025, the total output of products in China's carbon industry will be about 30.06 million tons. Carbon materials cover a wide range of applications, not only empowering the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries such as metallurgy, nonferrous metals, and chemicals, but also occupying an important position in strategic emerging industries such as aerospace, new energy, and high-end equipment manufacturing.
The high-quality development of the carbon industry is facing challenges
Driven by the continuous deepening of the "dual carbon" goal, the surge in demand for new energy and the upgrading of high-end manufacturing, the carbon industry is moving towards high quality and high added value. On the one hand, technological innovation has made comprehensive breakthroughs, the carbon industry has entered a new stage of "technology-led" development, the R&D investment intensity of leading enterprises has continued to improve, the performance of some high-end products such as ultra-high power graphite electrodes and nuclear graphite has approached or reached the international advanced level, and anode materials have ranked among the international leading levels. On the other hand, the production capacity layout of core products is more high-end and regional coordination, and the industrial concentration is gradually increasing. However, at the same time, the carbon industry still faces greater risks and challenges in terms of supply and demand and green transformation.
First, the contradiction between supply and demand in the market has existed for a long time, and the industry is "seriously involuted". At present, there are problems in some areas of the carbon industry, such as repeated construction of low-end production capacity and blind investment expansion, which has exacerbated the imbalance between supply and demand in the market, resulting in intensified industry involution and significant squeeze of profit margins. Graphite electrodes, carbon electrodes, aluminum anodes and cathodes, anode materials, special carbon, carbon paste, carbon blocks and other products are facing the problem of oversupply. Taking graphite electrode and anode materials as an example, in recent years, the annual output of graphite electrodes in China has remained at about 950,000 tons, and the output in other parts of the world is about 700,000 tons, while the annual production capacity of graphite electrodes in China has reached 2.4 million tons, and the pressure of overcapacity is particularly prominent. Although the market demand for anode materials is growing, the growth rate of production capacity is significantly higher than the growth rate of market demand, and the phenomenon of overcapacity is prominent. At the same time, the scale and number of enterprises are different, there is a lack of core technical barriers, and the product homogenization is serious. In order to seize the low-price competition in the market, enterprises squeeze profit space, restrict R&D and transformation investment, and further intensify the "involution" of the industry.
Second, enterprises blindly invest, resulting in the intensification of industry overcapacity. Some enterprises have insufficient research and judgment on the medium and long-term development trend of market demand, misguided by short-term raw material price fluctuations or positive signals in the local market, blindly expanding production, and a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises have followed the trend to build new production lines, exacerbating the supply imbalance in the low-end market. In addition, the R&D investment of high-end carbon products is insufficient, and the structural contradiction of "low-end overcapacity and high-end insufficient capacity" has led to a mismatch between industry capacity expansion and real market demand, and the problem of overcapacity in the whole industry has become more and more serious.
Third, there is still a gap in environmental protection governance, and green and low-carbon transformation needs to be strengthened. At present, China is vigorously promoting the green and low-carbon transformation of steel, coking, electrolytic aluminum and other industries through ultra-low emission transformation and energy efficiency benchmarking. In this context, there is still a gap in the carbon industry in terms of deep decarbonization and green collaboration, and some enterprises are limited by capital and technology, and pollutants such as flue gas and dust have not been able to achieve ultra-low emissions. In addition, the national standard "Greenhouse Gas Emission Accounting and Reporting Requirements Part 34: Carbon Material Manufacturers" has been officially implemented on March 1, 2025. As related industries continue to promote green transformation, relevant policies and standards continue to improve, and ecological and environmental supervision is normalized, the green and low-carbon transformation of the carbon industry is urgent.
Suggestions for the high-quality development of the carbon industry
Carbon material production is the secondary use of energy, a typical practice of the concept of circular economy, and has broad development prospects. In the face of multiple challenges such as oversupply, vicious competition, and blind investment, most enterprises in the industry hope that the relevant state departments will attach great importance to the development of the carbon industry, and promote the industry to improve quality and efficiency, transformation and upgrading by strengthening macroeconomic regulation and policy guidance. In order to help the high-quality development of the carbon industry, the China Carbon Industry Association now puts forward the following work plan.
The first is to scientifically prepare the "15th Five-Year Plan" for the carbon industry. 2026 is the first year of the "15th Five-Year Plan", and the China Carbon Industry Association will closely follow the overall deployment of the raw material industry development plan, based on the actual development of the industry, coordinate the resource elements and regional development advantages of the carbon industry in all aspects, and accurately prepare the overall development plan of the carbon industry and special plans for sub-regions and fields. Clarifying the development goals, key tasks and implementation paths of the industry during the 15th Five-Year Plan period is of great significance for further enhancing the strategic position and industry visibility of the carbon industry in the national industrial system and promoting the high-quality development of the industry.
The second is to promote the solution of the problems faced by the industry. At present, there are still problems in the carbon industry in terms of industrial concentration, product structure, technological innovation, production capacity layout, etc., and the association will continue to tackle tough problems from three aspects: industrial structure, investment layout, and factor support, and promote the healthy development of the industry.
First of all, we will further promote supply-side structural reforms, cooperate with relevant state departments to increase policy support, promote industry mergers and restructuring in an orderly manner, and improve industrial concentration. At the same time, we will gradually eliminate backward equipment, reduce excess capacity, expand the supply of high-end products, optimize and upgrade the product structure, and promote the transformation of the industry from "small and weak" to "big strong and excellent".
Secondly, guide enterprises to lay out high-end product investment and optimize the industrial investment structure. At the same time, we will build a resource docking platform around the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain, stabilize the supply and demand relationship of carbon materials, increase investment in scientific research, attach importance to the transformation and implementation of scientific and technological achievements, promote the deep integration of scientific and technological innovation and industrial innovation in the carbon industry, and cultivate the core driving force for sustainable development of enterprises.
Finally, actively coordinate enterprises to apply for ultra-long-term special treasury bond funds and relevant national special funds, support enterprises to carry out equipment upgrading and transformation, improve the level of intelligent and refined production, and help enterprises reduce costs, increase efficiency, and improve quality and upgrading.
The third is to strengthen environmental protection and energy consumption constraints. Cooperate with relevant state departments to accelerate the establishment and improvement of the environmental performance grading evaluation system of the carbon industry, implement differentiated hierarchical control according to the level of environmental protection facilities, pollutant emission concentration, resource utilization efficiency and other indicators of enterprises, and take measures such as restricting production and stopping production for enterprises with low environmental performance ratings. Strictly implement the energy consumption quota standard, implement compulsory energy-saving transformation for enterprises that exceed the energy consumption quota, and resolutely withdraw from the market if they still do not meet the standards after rectification. Give full play to the regulating role of market mechanisms, force enterprises to optimize production processes, reduce energy consumption and carbon emission intensity, and accelerate the pace of green transformation of the industry.
Fourth, further play the role of the association as a bridge. On the basis of the current work of the association, we will further focus on the functional role of the association and achieve the two major transformation goals of the service industry: on the one hand, accurately collect the development demands of member enterprises and convert them into professional industry development opinions; on the other hand, promote the upward docking of industry professional opinions and transform them into an important reference for the government to formulate industrial policies. At the same time, the association will actively prepare for the establishment of the Carbon Association Expert Committee and other organizations to strengthen the overall deployment and implementation of special work to ensure that all work is carried out scientifically, orderly and efficiently.
As an important part of the strategic new material industry, the carbon industry is currently at a critical juncture of capacity iteration, structural upgrading, and green transformation. The road of transformation and upgrading is not only related to the survival and development of enterprises themselves, but also has far-reaching significance for the breakthrough and upgrading of downstream core industries such as high-end equipment manufacturing, new energy, and aerospace in China. Based on the current development stage, enterprises should resolutely change the traditional thinking of extensive scale expansion, take the initiative to avoid homogeneous competition, actively carry out technological innovation, optimize product structure, break the situation with innovation, empower with quality and efficiency, and accelerate the transformation and upgrading to intelligence, greening and integration.