Data disclosed at the 2025 China Inorganic Salt Industry Development Conference indicates that China's inorganic salt sector continues to consolidate its global leadership position. By 2025, the industry's total output value is projected to exceed 680 billion yuan, with primary product output surpassing 100 million tons.

Reviewing the 14th Five-Year Plan Period: Steady Industry Development and Continued Global Leadership Consolidation

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the inorganic salt industry maintained stable development. By 2025, the industry's total output value is projected to exceed CNY680 billion, representing a 23% increase from 2020 with a compound annual growth rate of 5.4%. Production of key products is expected to surpass 100 million tons, with potassium salts, calcium salts, and phosphorus chemicals accounting for 11.5%, 34%, and 8.5% of output respectively. Average capacity utilization is estimated at approximately 73%. Industrial structure optimization will elevate the share of inorganic salts for new energy materials to 7%, while the electronic-grade products market will exceed CNY50 billion.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China's inorganic salt industry will continue to consolidate its global leadership. Production capacity and output will maintain steady growth, with explosive expansion in lithium salt products for new energy applications. Trade will remain vibrant, solidifying export advantages. An industrial landscape has emerged characterized by “high-end manufacturing in the east and resource conversion in the central and western regions”: East China now accounts for 70% of the nation's electronic-grade inorganic salt capacity. Potash-rich regions like Qinghai and Xinjiang have established salt lake chemical bases, contributing 87% and 30% of China's total potash and lithium salt capacity, respectively. Phosphate-rich areas including Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan, and Hubei have formed phosphate chemical industry clusters, accounting for 95% of the nation's phosphate chemical production. Corporate tiered development has yielded initial results, with CR5 (market concentration of the top five enterprises) rising to 40%, a 5-percentage-point increase from 2020. A cohort of leading enterprises with annual revenues exceeding CNY10 billion has emerged.

Meanwhile, the industry's application domains exhibit diversified development. Agriculture remains a key application area for inorganic salts—including potash fertilizers and micronutrient fertilizers—ensuring food security. Inorganic salts also play a vital role in industrial production, including applications such as hydrogen peroxide, yellow phosphorus, phosphates, calcium carbonate, aluminum fluoride, and barium-strontium salts, which ensure the stability of material manufacturing.

Emerging sectors: Driven by the rapid growth of the new energy industry, lithium iron phosphate materials achieved an average annual growth rate of approximately 98% during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. By 2024, the production capacity of basic lithium salts—lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide—reached 1.95 million tons/year and 700,000 tons/year respectively, representing year-on-year increases of 148.5% and 23.5%. In wind power equipment manufacturing, the application proportion of specialty inorganic salts in blade composite materials and anti-corrosion coatings continues to rise. For integrated circuit manufacturing, electronic-grade phosphoric acid and hydrofluoric acid have achieved 5N and 6N purity levels. In semiconductor packaging materials, the application ratio of nano-grade inorganic fillers increased from 23% in 2018 to 41% in 2022.

Meanwhile, significant achievements were made in green safety and low-carbon development. Ten national-level green factories were established, with energy consumption per unit of output decreasing by 12.5% and water consumption reducing by 15% compared to 2020. Pollutant emission intensity decreased by 18.3%, with by-product utilization rates reaching 55%. Large-scale utilization technologies for solid wastes like phosphogypsum and chromium slag have been successfully applied at enterprises including Lubei Chemical, Guizhou Phosphate Group, and Hubei Zhenhua. Major production safety accidents decreased by 40% compared to 2020, with 85% of enterprises meeting safety standardization requirements. Intrinsic safety levels have continuously improved, with intelligent monitoring and early warning systems achieving 100% coverage in enterprises with major hazards, and emergency response capabilities significantly enhanced.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, breakthroughs were achieved in a number of key technologies:

Breakthroughs in purification processes for electronic-grade ultra-high-purity reagents, achieving purity levels exceeding 99.999% and enabling partial import substitution for certain products; Green processes like membrane separation and electrochemical synthesis were widely adopted in lithium and calcium salt production, boosting separation efficiency by 30%. The adoption rate of intelligent control systems (DCS/MES) in key enterprises reached 65%, a 25-percentage-point increase from 2020. Thirty percent of leading enterprises pioneered digital twin factories, achieving full-process visualization and control of production operations.

Chinese enterprises have established nearly 4.5 million tons of potash fertilizer capacity in Laos, including 3 million tons by Asia Potash International, 1 million tons by Oriental Iron Tower, and 500,000 tons by China-Laos Potash. QuCheng Silicon Chemical completed a 50,000-ton/year water glass and silica project in Thailand; Hebei Magnesium God built a 50,000-ton magnesium oxide project in Zambia; and Luoyang Jianlong Micro-Nano established a 24,000-ton molecular sieve project in Thailand. Ganfeng Lithium has established a 20,000-ton-per-year lithium chloride project in South America. Companies like Tianqi Lithium, Zijin Mining, and China Resources Mining have also acquired or invested in projects such as Talison Lithium, SQM, RIM, America Lithium, 3Q Salt Lake, and African spodumene mines.

Looking Ahead to the 15th Five-Year Plan: Entering the World's Leading Ranks and Becoming a Global Powerhouse

By 2030, China's inorganic salt industry aims to achieve innovation, green and low-carbon development, enhanced digital and intelligent capabilities, strengthened supply chain resilience and security, and the formation of internationally competitive enterprise clusters. The industry seeks to enter the ranks of the world's advanced nations and become a global powerhouse.

Core development targets include: achieving an industry market scale of 860 billion yuan by 2030, with a refinement rate ≥50%, green products accounting for 30% of output, a 25% share of the international market, and an average annual growth rate of approximately 5.0%, thereby strengthening global influence and core competitiveness.

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