Among cutting tools, cemented carbide is mainly used as cutting tool materials, such as turning tool, milling cutter, planer, drill bit, boring tool, etc. it is used for cutting cast iron, non-ferrous metals, plastics, chemical fiber, graphite, glass, stone and ordinary steel, and also for cutting refractory materials such as heat-resistant steel, stainless steel, high manganese steel and tool steel. Cutting is mainly realized by machine tools. At present, the amount of cemented carbide used in cutting tools accounts for about 1 / 3 of the total production of cemented carbide in China, of which 78% are used for welding tools and 22% are used for indexable tools.
Cutting tools are mainly used in manufacturing. Cemented carbide cutting tools are widely used in high-speed cutting because of their excellent properties (high strength, high toughness, high hardness, good thermal stability and thermal hardness). Downstream traditional industries such as machinery and automobile, ship, railway, mold, textile, etc.; high end and emerging application fields include aerospace, information industry, etc. Among them, machinery and automobile manufacturing are the most important application fields of cemented carbide tools in metal cutting.
First of all, mechanical processing solutions are the core products of cemented carbide industry chain, which are oriented to downstream manufacturing and processing fields such as CNC machine tools, aerospace, mechanical mold processing, shipbuilding, marine engineering equipment, etc. According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, the year-on-year growth rate of China’s general and special equipment manufacturing industry has rebounded for two consecutive years after bottoming out in 2015. In 2017, the output value of general equipment manufacturing industry was 4.7 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 8.5%; the output value of special equipment manufacturing industry was 3.66 trillion yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 10.20%. As fixed asset investment in the manufacturing industry has bottomed out and rebounded, the demand for processing solutions in the machinery industry will rebound further.
In automobile manufacturing, one of the most important tooling in automobile manufacturing industry is tool mold, and cemented carbide tool mold is its most important component. According to the data of the National Bureau of statistics, China’s total automobile production increased from 9.6154 million in 2008 to 29.942 million in 2017, with an average growth rate of 12.03%. Although the growth rate tends to decline in recent two years, under the background of high base, the consumption demand of cemented carbide cutting tools in the automotive field will remain stable.
Generally speaking, in the field of cutting, the growth rate of traditional automobile and machinery industry is stable, and the demand for cemented carbide is relatively stable. It is estimated that by 2018-2019, the consumption of cemented carbide cutting tools will reach 12500 tons and 13900 tons respectively, with a growth rate of more than double digits.
Geology and mining: demand recovery
In terms of geological and mineral tools, cemented carbide is mainly used as rock drilling tools, mining tools and drilling tools. The product forms include rock drilling bit for percussive drilling, drill bit for geological exploration, DTH Drill for mining and oilfield, cone drill, pick of coal cutter and impact drill for building materials industry. Cemented carbide mining tools play an important role in coal, petroleum, metal minerals, infrastructure construction and other aspects. The consumption of cemented carbide in geological and mining tools accounts for 25% – 28% of the weight of cemented carbide.
At present, China is still in the middle stage of industrialization, and the growth rate of energy resource demand is slowing down, but the total demand will remain high. It is estimated that by 2020, China’s primary energy consumption will be about 5 billion tons of standard coal, 750 million tons of iron ore, 13.5 million tons of refined copper and 35 million tons of original aluminum.
Under the background of high demand operation, the trend decline of mineral grade further forces mining enterprises to increase capital expenditure. For example, the average grade of gold ore dropped from 10.0 g / T in the early 1970s to about 1.4 g / T in 2017. This needs to increase the output of raw ore to maintain the stability of metal production, thus driving the demand for mining tools to rise.
In the next two years, as the prices of coal, oil and metal minerals remain high, it is expected that the mining and exploration willingness will continue to rise, and the demand for cemented carbide for geological and mining tools will continue to increase significantly. It is expected that the demand growth rate will be maintained at about 20% in 2018-2019.
Wear resistant appliances: demand release
Wear resistant cemented carbide is mainly used in mechanical structure products of various wear-resistant fields, including molds, high-pressure and high-temperature cavity, wear-resistant parts, etc. At present, the cemented carbide used for various molds accounts for about 8% of the total output of cemented carbide, and the cavity for high pressure and high temperature resistance accounts for about 9% of the total output of cemented carbide. The wear-resistant parts include nozzle, guide rail, plunger, ball, tire anti-skid pin, snow scraper plate, etc.
Taking the mold as an example, due to the industries that use molds more intensively, including automobile, household appliances, it and other consumer industries closely related to people’s daily life, under the background of consumption upgrading, the updating of products is faster and faster, and the requirements for molds are also higher and higher. It is estimated that the composite growth rate of die cemented carbide demand in 2017-2019 will be about 9%.
In addition, the demand for cemented carbide for high-pressure and high-temperature resistant cavities and wear-resistant mechanical parts is expected to increase by 14.65% and 14.79% respectively in 2018-2019, and the demand will reach 11024 tons and 12654 tons.
Post time: Nov-27-2020