4.20.3.1 Availability and Consumption

In 1977, the output of glass siliceous raw materials in China was about 9 million tons.

The materials are mainly used to produce glass and glass products, and in the industries of machine casting, metallurgical flux, refractory materials, cement and cement products, and ceramic products and so on. But most materials are used to produce glass. In 1997, the output of flat glass was 166.2728 million weight cases and the yield ranked first in the world for seven years in succession. The output accounted for about one-fourth of the world's total. Given each weight case=50 kg, the product weight will be 8.31 million tons. In the same year, China also produced 7.5 million tons of domestic glass. So a total of 15 million or more tons of glass were produced in the year. About 9 million tons of siliceous raw materials were consumed for the production of flat glass in the year.

From the total output of the materials, one can find that the supply has exceeded the demand. Apart from the demand for the domestic production, a certain amount of the materials are exported. As to the varieties, the quality siliceous raw materials are in short supply. Most materials are only excavated but not dressed, which has influenced more or less the upgrading and stability of the quality of flat glass.

In recent years, the export volume of siliceous raw materials has shown a tendency of growing. In 1993, its export volume was 22,400 tons. In 1997 the figure rose to 49,400 tons, increasing 121%.

The import and export of quartz and quartzite from 1994 to 1997 are shown in Table 4.20.2.

Table 4.20.2 Imports and exports of quartz and quartzite from 1994 to 1997

4.20.3.2 Trends

China boasts rich natural resources of glass siliceous raw materials. Its explored reserves can meet the demand of glass production to 2010. As the distribution of quality and amount of resources are extremely unbalanced in the country and the development and utilization of the resources and the distribution of enterprises are not rational, it is very difficult to bring all the advantages of the resources into full play. From now on, along with the social and economic development and the improvement of the standards of the people's livelihood and the setting of higher requirements for the varieties, quality and quantity of glass and glass products, still stricter and higher requirements on needed siliceous raw materials will also be made. However, the demand will not be met if we only depend on those quality and rich natural materials. So we have to carry out actively dressing and refining of the glass materials so as to reduce cost and upgrade the quality of ores and expand the effective use of resources. We also must strengthen research and development so as to produce deep-processed products, expand the field of applications and raise the level of total use of the resources. A number of large material supply bases will be built to meet the need of the production of glass in large enterprises.