The year 2021 was an extraordinary year with the intertwined changes and the pandemic of the century. In 2021, we implemented new development concepts, built a new development pattern, and took new steps to promote the high-quality development of Chinese aggregates industry. New achievements have been made in technology, in the building of standard, quality and system, and the "14th Five-Year Plan" has achieved a good start. Affected by the three pressures of China’s economic development demand contraction, supply shock, and weakening expectations, the aggregates industry has experienced problems such as “drop in volume and price” of products in some regions, overcapacity in some areas, and uneven regional industrial development. China Aggregates Association has listed 15 major events in the aggregates industry in 2021.
1. The state government clearly prohibits indiscriminate mining and digging, and requires a severe crackdown on “sand mafias” and their “protective umbrellas” behind them.
On April 25, Xi Jinping came to the Yangdi Wharf of Lijiang River in Yangshuo County, Guilin City, Guangxi Province. After listening to a report on the comprehensive management and ecological protection of the Lijiang River Basin, he pointed out the problems caused by disorderly extraction and quarrying and called for protection of it. Indiscriminate mining requires not only accountability, but also criminal responsibility in accordance with the law.
On August 16, the General Office of the Ministry of Water Resources issued the “Notice on Carrying out a National Special Remediation Action for Illegal Sand Mining in River Channels”, stating that Xi Jinping attached great importance to it and made important instructions on many occasions, calling for a severe crackdown on “sand mafias” and their protective umbrellas.
Subsequently, the nationwide crackdown on illegal sand mining kicked off. The Ministry of Ecology and Environment, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Water Resources, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the China Coast Guard have successively issued documents to carry out special actions. All provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country have also individually or jointly rectified and cracked down on “sand mafias” and “mine mafias”, illegal sand mining, illegal mining, cross-border mining, abandoned quarries extraction and other illegal activities.
2. “Regulations on the Management of Sand Extraction in River Channels” revised by the Ministry of Water Resources, extensive research and opinions are solicited, to be released
River sand and gravel are an important part of the river bed and the basic element to maintain the stability of the river. Sand extraction in rivers is related to flood control safety, water supply safety, shipping safety, ecological safety and infrastructure safety, as well as social harmony and stability. It is the focus and difficulty of river and lake management. In recent years, affected by the contradiction between supply and demand, the price of sand across the country has continued to rise. Illegal sand mining and indiscriminate mining activities have become serious in some places, affecting the stability of rivers and threatening the safety of flood control, navigation, bridges, docks and other water projects and water ecology. Safety is highly concerned by the society, and it is imperative to strengthen the legislative management of river sand mining across the country.
The Ministry of Water Resources and the Ministry of Justice are jointly responsible for the revision of the “Regulations on the Management of Sand Extraction in River Channels”. Entrusted by the Ministry of Justice and the Ministry of Water Resources, CAA organized industry experts to put forward opinions and suggestions. At present, the management of river sand mining has attracted great attention from the Party Central Committee and the State Council. With the promulgation of the official document “Regulations on the Management of Sand Extraction in River Channels” in the later period, the management of river sand mining will enter a new stage of law-abiding, healthy and orderly development, which will have a significant impact on China’s river sand and gravel management and the healthy and orderly development of the industry, and will far-reaching impact in the future.
3. Aggregates are included in the State Council's "Carbon Peak Action Plan before 2030", and the industry's low-carbon development policies have been intensively introduced
On October 24, State Council issued the “Carbon Peaking Action Plan before 2030” and proposed to improve the comprehensive development and utilization level and comprehensive utilization rate of mineral resources, and focus on the usage of coal gangue, fly ash, tailings, co-associated mines, and smelting slag. , industrial by-product gypsum, construction waste, crop straw and other bulk solid waste, support large-scale, high-value utilization of the above materials, and encourage the application to replace primary non-metallic ores, sand and gravel and other resources.
In 2021, the “14th Five-Year Plan on Industrial Green Development”, “Guiding Opinions on Comprehensive Utilization of Bulk Solid Wastes in the 14th Five-Year Plan”, “Notice on Carrying out Demonstration of Comprehensive Utilization of Bulk Solid Wastes”, “The Outline of the Plan for Ecological Protection and High-quality Development in the Yellow River Basin”, “Opinions on Encouraging and Supporting Social Capital’s Participation in Ecological Protection and Restoration”, “The 14th Five-Year Plan for In-depth Integration of Informatization and Industrialization”, and the “The 14th Five-Year Plan for the Construction of a National Standard System for Promoting High-Quality Development”, “Law of the People’s Republic of China on the Advancement of Science and Technology”, “Guidelines for the Construction of National Intelligent Manufacturing Standard System”, and the newly revised “Safety Production Law” are closely related to the aggregates industry. Low-carbon development has become one of the hot topics and development directions of the industry.
4. Local governments implement the policies of the central state, and successively issue local policies for the aggregates industry
Hubei, Fujian, Hebei, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hainan, Guangxi, Shanghai, Jilin, Inner Mongolia, Hunan, Anhui, Shandong, Chongqing, Henan and other provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions, as well as some cities and counties, have successively implemented “Opinions on Promoting the High-Quality Development of Manufactured Aggregates Industry” and “Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Aggregates Industry” issued by 15 central departments and issued guidance documents according to local conditions.
5. A number of standards have been implemented, approved, formulated and revised, and the aggregates industry standard system has been improved
The national standard “Technical Requirements for Complete Sets of Equipment for Aggregate Production” was approved and issued, and will be implemented from March 1, 2022. The “Evaluation Requirements for Green Factories in the Aggregates Industry” has been officially approved and will be implemented on February 1, 2022. Two national standards of “Pebble and gravel for construction” and “Sand for construction” have been reviewed and submitted for approval. The recommended industry standard of “Intelligent Mine Construction Specification” passed the review. The solicitation of 8 group standards including the “Evaluation Specification for Smart Factory in the Aggregates Industry” was launched. “Technical Requirements for Dry-method Sand Production Line” is included in the standard revision plan of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. “Specifications for Applicable Technical Evaluation of Mineral Resources Conservation and Comprehensive Utilization” and “Specifications for Comprehensive Utilization of Aggregates” were selected into the 2021 natural resource standard formulation and revision work plan.
6. The Aggregates industry “14th Five-Year Plan” preparation and investigation smoothly carried out
In February, CAA issued a notice to start the collection of the “14th Five-Year Development Plan for the Aggregates Industry", and then successively went to Chongqing Longlei Concrete Co., Ltd, Shibang Group, Zhejiang Mining Heavy Industry, Zhejiang Kangcheng, and Deqing Hengxin , Shenghua Group, Nanfang New Materials, Zoomlion, Jiaozuo Qianye, Zhongyu Dingli, Shandong Lingong, Jingjin Environmental Protection and other enterprises to research on the preparation of the “14th Five-Year Plan” for the aggregates industry.
7. Many achievements on scientific and technological development were made. Twenty-two aggregates science and technology award projects have been released, a number of scientific and technological achievements have passed evaluation and acceptance, and the effectiveness of industry management informatization has begun to show.Tongli Heavy Industry(同力重工) was listed in the fifth batch of single champion enterprises in manufacturing industry, and its off-highway wide-body dump truck won the single-champion product title. Modular disposal technology of construction waste and cold recycling technology of asphalt pavement solid waste emulsified asphalt were selected into the “Green Technology Promotion Catalogue (2020)”.
The key technologies of Weifang Tianjie(潍坊天洁) Mine Dust Control Complete Equipment were selected into the “Catalogue of Major Environmental Protection Technology and Equipment Encouraged by the State (2020 Edition)”. The block forming machine of Fujian Qunfeng Machinery Co., Ltd. won the 22nd China Appearance Design Excellence Award.
Shanghai Yuntong(上海云统) Construction Waste Concrete Disposal Management System was selected into the National Catalogue of Advanced Applicable Technology and Equipment for Comprehensive Utilization of Industrial Resources (2021 Edition). 22 projects including fine blasting on-site application exploration and research won the 2020 CAA Aggregates Science and Technology Award.
Special projects“Research and Demonstration of Process, Technology and Equipment for Efficient Sorting of Construction Waste and High Quality Improvement of Recycled Aggregate” and “Manufactured Aggregates Cross-regional Supply and Demand Balance and Transportation System Research”of the national key research and development plan “Green Building and Construction Industrialization”has passed the subject acceptance.
A number of projects including GEPI (green, environmental protection, energy saving and intelligent) key technologies and applications for preparing high-quality aggregates have passed the evaluation/appraisal of scientific and technological achievements organized by the China Aggregates Association. The Sino-African cooperation project “Research on the Application of Philippine Natural River Sand in Modern Concrete” passed the review. The book Research and Practice of Intelligent Manufacturing in China’s Manufactured Aggregates Industry, which proposes the direction, goals and paths for the industry’s intelligent manufacturing, has been completed.
A number of management and supervision system were launched. For example, the management system of the aggregates wharf in the Jiangsu section of the Yangtze River, the electronic quarrying and transportation management form in Poyang Lake, the information platform for the management of aggregates quarrying and transportation in the Yangtze River, the earthwork (including topsoil) and construction waste management system of the Xiongan New Area construction project, and the first marine dumping waste sea by the National Coast Guard, and the quarrying reporting system and the Ningbo construction sand enterprise online supervision platform. The launching of these systems indicates that the informatization construction of China’s aggregates industry management has achieved initial success.
8. Manufactured aggregates is included in the “General Specification for Concrete Structures”.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development issued the “General Specification for Concrete Structures” and put forward technical requirements for the application of manufactured aggregates. This specification is a mandatory engineering construction specification, and all provisions must be strictly implemented. It shows that the state has affirmed the application of manufactured aggregates from the highest level of “mandatory national standards”, which means that manufactured aggregates will be taken into account in the design stage of construction projects, which “fundamentally” solves the problem of application of manufactured aggregates in various types of engineering construction, and is a breakthrough in the application of manufactured aggregates.
The Jinsha River Wudongde Hydropower Station project(金沙江乌东德水电站工程), which will be officially put into operation in 2021, is a major engineering model for the application of machine-made sand. C130 high-strength and ultra-high-performance machine-made sand concrete (strength of 149.5MPa) was used for the first time in the New World Zengcheng project, an engineering entity, with a pumping distance of more than 220 meters. The Country Garden project, a key project in Guizhou Province, completed the 380-meter ultra-high pumping test of C130 ultra-high-performance steel fiber machine-made sand concrete, setting a world record for the pumping height of the whole machine-made sand entity project.
9. The transfer of mining rights is still a hot spot in the industry, and the aggregates 4.0 model has become a development trend
In 2021, a large number of newly established quarries’ mining rights were successfully sold at high prices. Statistics show that at least seven or eight large-scale mining rights are listed for sale every month, and most of the transaction prices are in the billions of yuan.
China National Building Materials Group(中国建材), Conch Cement(海螺水泥), Huaxin Cement(华新水泥) and other cement enterprises keep great performance in aggregates this year. At the same time, the Hydropower Bureau 9(水电九局), Meishan Tianhong Investment(眉山天洪投资), China Resources Cement(华润水泥), Huoshan Guoxin Building Materials(霍山国鑫建材), Hydropower Bureau 8(水电八局), Zhejiang Traffic Investment(浙江交投), Jidong Cement(冀东水泥), Guizhou Shuanglong Kaitou(贵州双龙开投), Hunan Development(湖南发展), and Fujian Derui(福建德睿) also invested heavily in aggregates. In the new round of aggregates industry layout, central enterprises, local state-owned enterprises and cement enterprises have gradually become the protagonists.
Most of the building materials (mainly quarries) industrial parks that started or have been put into production in 2021 have same characteristics in planning: starting from quarry mining, extending to aggregates deep processing and cement production projects, and then to concrete parts such as PC buildings. The planning featuring in integrated development based on the aggregates 4.0 model(put forward by CAA president Hu Youyi), indicating that this kind of model has gradually become an example for the future development of quarry industrial parks. In addition, with the gradual release of new aggregates production capacity in recent years, there have been signs of excess capacity in some areas of China, and the industry must be vigilant.
10. Green transportation will be implemented in more areas, and the greening of aggregates logistics has become inevitable
The aggregates transportation has transferred from highway to railway, which is not only the adjustment of the transportation structure, but also brings huge environmental benefits and social benefits such as traffic congestion relief. With the advancement of the aggregates transportation and the improvement of the efficiency of the freight yard, the amount of aggregates materials arriving at the Dahongmen freight yard in Beijing has increased rapidly. In 2017, there were only 5 unloading trucks.
11. The construction of the green system in the aggregates industry continues to accelerate. A number of companies have entered the national green mine and national green factory directory, 15 companies have been included in the large-scale green aggregates production base, and Beijing has increased 5 green aggregates production bases
In January 2021, the Ministry of Natural Resources issued a new batch of national green mine directory announcements. Zhejiang Communications, Pingliang New Century, Chongqing Guangcheng Building Materials, Luanping Juyuan Mining, Oriental Hope Chongqing Cement, Hubei Wuxue and other CAA member companies is among them.
In December, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced the list of green manufacturing in 2021. Gansu Huajian New Materials Co., Ltd., (甘肃华建新材料股份有限公司)the vice-chairman unit of CAA, and Dongfang Hope Chongqing Cement Co., Ltd., (东方希望重庆水泥有限公司),the executive director unit of CAA, were on the list.
2021年2月启动中国砂石协会2020年度中国砂石行业大型绿色砂石基地评选工作，经过企业申报、部门推荐、专家组评估核查、材料审核、协会官网公示等五项流程，历时近10个月，于12月3日名单揭晓，中电建长九、焦作千业新材料司、东方希望重庆水泥、重庆市涪陵大业建材、迁安首矿建材、承德沃华筑嘉、平凉市新世纪、甘肃华建新材、广州顺兴石场、淇县恒源矿业、重庆新酢坊建材、铁岭中南矿业、重庆中材参天建材、重庆新田湾建材、陕煤新材集团泾阳公司等15家企业纳入中国砂石行业大型绿色砂石基地名录。
In February 2021, CAA launched the selection of large-scale green aggregates production bases in China of 2020. On December 3, the list was announced in CAA official website. 15 companies has been included in the list of large green aggregates production bases. The 15 companies are China Power Construction Changjiu, Jiaozuo Qianye New Materials Division, Oriental Hope Chongqing Cement, Chongqing Fuling Daye Building Materials, Qian’an Shougang Building Materials, Chengde Wohua Zhujia, Pingliang New Century , Gansu Huajian New Materials, Guangzhou Shunxing Quarry, Qixian Hengyuan Mining, Chongqing Xinyoufang Building Materials, Tieling Zhongnan Mining, Chongqing Sinoma Cantian Building Materials, Chongqing Xintianwan Building Materials, Shaanxi Coal New Materials Group Jingyang Company, etc.
在北京市住建委等多部门和相关企业的共同努力下，北京市建筑砂石绿色基地增至5家，分别为：北京威克、迁安首矿建材、承德宝通矿业、滦平县聚源矿业、承德沃华筑嘉。
With the joint efforts of Beijing Municipal Housing and Urban-rural Development Commission and other departments and related enterprises, the number of green aggregates bases in Beijing has increased to 5, namely: Beijing Weike Metallurgical Co., Ltd., Qian’an Shoukuang Building Materials Co., Ltd., Chengde Baotong Mining Co., Ltd., Luanping County Juke Yuan Mining Co., Ltd., Chengde Wohua Zhujia Co., Ltd.
12. The aggregates industry science and technology conference was held, and the innovation achievements of enterprises continued to emerge
In July, the 8th China National Aggregates Industry Science and Technology Conference was held in Huzhou, Zhejiang Province. There were 1 Sino-foreign cooperation project demonstration and review meeting, 1 association council meeting, 1 opening ceremony, 20+ government department leaders and academicians attend, 10 major theme forums, 60+ exhibitions, 70+ expert reports, 80+ papers, 150+ leading enterprises, 200+ sand and gravel industry chain experts, 300+ Mining customers, 1500+ delegates.
13. CAA and our members are committed to prevention and control of the Covid-19 epidemic, flood relief, the implementation of the carbon peak and carbon neutrality goal, the completion of the “Hope Primary School”, actively taking social responsibility
Since 2021, the Covid-19 epidemic has repeated. Enterprises in our industry have strictly implemented the national epidemic prevention and control policies and measures, and supported the epidemic-stricken area on the basis of their own prevention and control.
In July and August of 2021, Henan and Shanxi provinces were ravaged by heavy rains and floods. Enterprises such as Zhongyu Dingli, Liming Heavy Industry, Shibang Group, Liaoning Fangda, Hongda Blasting, Wanshi Hengtong, Dongsheng Industry, and Weimeng Co., Ltd., offered help and made donations to Henan and Shanxi.
Entrusted by the council of CAA, the secretariat of CAA signed a donation agreement with the China Youth Development Foundation. With the support of member companies, the Hope Primary School has been constructed.In order to implement China’s carbon peak and carbon neutrality goal, CAA issued the “Proposal for Promoting Carbon Peak and Carbon Neutrality in the Aggregates Industry”. At the annual aggregates conference of 2021, Hu Youyi shared ways and measures to achieve the “dual carbon” goal, indicating the path for the low-carbon development of enterprises.
14. CAA actively involved in international exchange and become more and more closely connected with aggregates industry organizations in various countries
In order to facilitate a better understanding of China’s aggregates industry, CAA has made a bilingual brochure, and opened Facebook and Twitter account, as well as official English website (en.zgss.org.cn). In 2021, we have participated in a series of international communication activity, for example, the 2021 China-ASEAN New Year’s Dialogue Cooperation, series of Global Aggregates Information Teleconference, China-ASEAN Building Materials Industry Cooperation Teleconference, Construction Solid Waste Utilization Network Teleconference, Global Sand Crisis exchange activities and so on.
15. China's largest green aggregates production base with an annual output of 70 million tons was completed, and the trend of large-scale quarries was further accelerated
On December 28, 2021, with the successful commissioning of the 4# chute crushing system, the second phase of the Changjiu (Shenshan) limestone mine project is ready for trial production, which marks China’s largest green aggregate production base with an annual output of 70 million tons was completed. The first phase of the project with an annual output of 35 million tons started construction in November 2016, and was completed and put into operation on June 28, 2019. So far, the cumulative production of construction aggregate is about 80 million tons, and it has become an important supply base for aggregates products in the Yangtze River Delta region.