By Ji Hongyi, CNCIC

Boron carbide is an inorganic nonmetallic material synthesized by boric acid and reducing carbon at high temperature. With Mohs hardness of 9.36, it is one of the hardest materials known. Compared with other hard materials, boron carbide features lower density (2.5g/cm3).
   At present, boron carbide is mainly applied in two fields: first, to process powder with different particle sizes according to the needs; second, to sinter ceramic materials at high temperature (commonly known as boron carbide products). Its downstream markets consist of civil, military and nuclear industries. To be specific, boron carbide is mainly used as abrasives, refractories, antioxidants, welding rods, and nozzles in the civil market; it is mainly used as bulletproof insert plate and armor in the military field and as neutron absorption material in the nuclear industry.

Global market: regional consumption differences

   The global boron carbide capacity was about 22 000 t/a, and the output was about 9 500 tons in 2019. Figure 1 shows the distribution of global boron carbide consumption in 2019.

Figure 1 Distribution of global boron carbide consumption in 2019 (by consumption)

   By downstream applications, abrasive and refractory antioxidant are two major derivatives, accounting for 53% and 33% respectively. The distribution of global boron carbide downstream markets in 2019 is shown in Figure 2. According to the application form, powder application accounted for more than 90%, and product application accounted for only 7%.

Figure 2 Distribution of global boron carbide derivatives in 2019 (by consumption)

   The high consumption of power in the high-temperature synthesis process and the manufactures sintering process, as well as the high technical access to the manufactures sintering process, keep the prices of boron carbide high, so the consumption of boron carbide is small globally. Taking China as an example, the average price of boron carbide powder is about RMB100 000/t and the price of manufactures is more than 10-20 times that of powder, which are both much higher than the price of silicon carbide of the same kind.
   There are some regional differences in the consumption of boron carbide. In the US and Europe, boron carbide bulletproof products have been existing in the army for long time, making the two regions the most important military industry market in the world; Japan is the first country to use boron carbide as antioxidant – one of the refractory materials, accounting for over 50% of the refractory market.

Chinese market: structural oversupply

   China's boron carbide capacity was at 18 000 t/a and the actual output was about 7 000 tons in 2019, suggesting that the market was significantly surplus. However, the excess supply was mainly concentrated in the low-end capacity, while the boron carbide capacity used for military and nuclear industries remained short. There were 15 boron carbide producers in China, among which, three leading ones, Dalian Jinma, Dalian Zhengxing and Dunhua Zhengxing, reported that their aggregate capacity accounted for 53% of the total, and the capacity of top six producers took up more than 86%, showing high concentration of capacities. Table 1 shows the main suppliers of boron carbide in China in 2019.

   China exported about 2 500 tons of boron carbide in 2019, accounting for 36% of the total output of the year. Almost in powder form, the exports were mainly sold to Japan, Germany, India, the US and South Korea. With fast-growing domestic demand, the proportion of exports has decreased year by year, and this trend is expected to persist in the future.
   China consumed about 4 500 tons of boron carbide in 2019. Abrasives and refractories were two major derivatives, accounting for about 60% and 30% of the total consumption respectively. In contrast, the demand for boron carbide in the three product markets, military industry, nuclear industry and nozzle, was no more than 200 tons, which meant that the three markets were still in the development stage.

Three key downstream markets to be major drivers in future

   The refractory and nozzle markets are considered to have been saturated, so their demand for boron carbide demand is expected to have little improvement in the long term, while the abrasive, military and nuclear markets are more eye-catching.
   The abrasive market can still be further segmented. It is mainly used in sapphire processing, which accounts for about 70% of the total. In the past decade, the application of sapphire in the semiconductor and electronics industries has developed rapidly, and by now, sapphire has become the most important substrate material for LED, greatly boosting the demand for boron carbide in the domestic market. The application of MiniLED and MicroLED technology as well as the development of large-scale LED substrate in the coming few years will further promote the demand and technological innovation of boron carbide.
   In the field of nuclear industry, boron carbide is considered as one of the best neutron absorbing materials owing to the good neutron absorption capacity of 10B isotope and excellent mechanical properties. However, the number of spent fuel generated from reactors amid the multi-year operation of Chinese nuclear power units is increasing by multiple, and it is expected to become a main driver for nuclear power plant in the future.
   The military industry market is the focus of attention in the domestic boron carbide industry this year. In February, the PLA opened a tender publicly for nearly 1.4 million sets of bulletproof inserts, including 467 000 sets of boron carbide-based reinforced inserts. It will become the most important investment market in the next few years.
   In general, the boron carbide industry is expected to usher in a new round of rapid growth with the growth of the aforementioned three key markets, and be on the track to high-quality development. The picture of competition among leading boron carbide producers may be changed.