Guangxi Longhua calcium carbonate, as an important non-metallic mineral raw material in daily industrial production, is at the forefront of the industrial chain and is known as the "industrial food." It is closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood and is an important supporting material for the development of emerging industries and high-tech industries. China's calcium carbonate industry started later than developed countries such as Europe, America, and Japan. For a long time, it has been in a factor-driven, extensive growth development model, with serious resource and energy consumption and environmental pollution. With the increasingly stringent national environmental protection policies and the country's entry into a stage of quality improvement, upgrading, and high-quality development, the calcium carbonate industry has also entered a stage of industry mergers and acquisitions and agglomerated development. However, problems abound, and the road to industrial upgrading is long and arduous.

Guangxi Longhua Calcium carbonate, as an important basic raw material in daily industrial production, is at the forefront of the industrial chain and is known as the "industrial grain". It is closely related to the national economy and people's livelihood and is an important supporting material for the development of emerging industries and high-tech industries. China's calcium carbonate industry started later than developed countries such as Europe, America, and Japan. For a long time, it has been in a factor-driven, extensive growth development model, with serious resource and energy consumption and environmental pollution. With the increasingly stringent national environmental protection policies and the entire national industry entering a stage of quality improvement, upgrading, and high-quality development, the calcium carbonate industry has also entered a stage of industry mergers and acquisitions and agglomerated development, but problems are emerging, and the road to industrial upgrading is long and arduous?

　　1. The awkward situation of being a large producer but weak in technology and brands

　　China has been producing calcium carbonate since 1931, a history of more than 80 years. Since the reform and opening up, China's calcium carbonate industry has developed rapidly. In 2014, China's light calcium carbonate production exceeded 10 million tons, and its production capacity exceeded that of the United States for the first time, making it the world's largest producer of calcium carbonate. In recent five years, the industry scale has continued to expand, and by 2021, the production capacity of light and heavy calcium carbonate reached more than 39 million tons, and the output value of light and heavy powder reached 27.83 billion yuan. China has now become a major producer and consumer of calcium carbonate in the world, with annual production and sales accounting for more than 30% of the world's total.

　　According to statistics, there are about 400 light calcium carbonate producers and more than 500 heavy calcium carbonate producers in China. The average annual production capacity of light calcium carbonate producers is less than 30,000 tons, and the average annual production capacity of heavy calcium carbonate producers is less than 40,000 tons. There are many enterprises, but they are small in scale. Corresponding to the fact that China's numerous small calcium carbonate enterprises have made it the world's largest producer is that China's calcium carbonate industry has long been factor-driven, and there is a large gap between the requirements of new industrialization with high technological content, good economic benefits, low resource consumption, and less environmental pollution, and its development is severely restricted.

　　First, technological iteration and updating are restricted.

　　Most small enterprises pay more attention to "quick money." Compared with investing a large amount of funds in the high-tech threshold of high-quality calcium carbonate industry, selling ore, burning white lime, and producing low-end quality calcium carbonate have shorter capital return cycles. Therefore, the proportion of R&D investment in the field of calcium carbonate in China, especially in the field of light calcium carbonate (high-end nano-calcium products), is small, and the enthusiasm of enterprises for R&D investment is not high.

　　Second, brand creation is restricted, and there is no world-renowned Chinese calcium carbonate brand.

　　There are only a few domestic enterprises that can truly produce nano-calcium carbonate. Most enterprises simply use the banner of producing nano-calcium carbonate to enhance their image, and even fewer are listed companies. Shanxi Lanhua Nano is one of the better representatives, but it has no international influence. However, the United States, Japan, and the European Union countries have already cultivated many multinational global enterprises in the field of calcium carbonate. For example, Omya of Switzerland, Imerys of France, Shiraishi of Japan, and Minerals Technologies Inc. of the United States are all leading enterprises in the world's calcium carbonate production, with brand enterprises all over the world.

　　2. Industrial transfer and ineffective connection

　　Resource-based industries are the industries most affected by environmental protection and industrial transfer in recent years. In October 2015, the Fifth Plenary Session of the 18th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China proposed the development concept of innovation, coordination, green, openness, and sharing. Starting in 2016, the strictest "environmental protection storm" in history swept across the country, and words such as "shutdown" and "rectification" filled the entire industry. Especially in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and its surrounding areas, enterprises that do not meet the standards of environmental protection and safety supervision are basically subject to rectification or direct shutdown policies.

　　Statistics table of closed calcium carbonate enterprises in China in recent years

　　Overall, the transfer of China's calcium carbonate industry from its original main production areas such as Xingtai, Hebei Province; Quzhou, Jiande, and Changshan, Zhejiang Province; and Zibo, Shandong Province, will shift to central and western regions, such as Guangxi, Sichuan, Anhui, Jiangxi, Hubei, and Hunan provinces, which will become the main recipients of the transfer and development of the calcium carbonate industry.

　　Trends in the transfer of China's calcium carbonate industry

　　With the pressure of environmental protection and the guidance of national policies, the integration and transfer of the calcium carbonate industry are gradually changing the previous "small, scattered, and chaotic situation" and dispersed layout. However, in the process of industrial transfer, the lack of coherent industrial policies has led to ineffective connections between industrial transfer and acceptance.

　　First, energy consumption problems make it difficult for projects to land.

　　 Guangxi Longhua The calcium carbonate industry, especially the production of light (nano-level) calcium carbonate, is most energy-consuming in the calcination of front-end ore. Under the current technology, the high energy consumption of calcium carbonate enterprises is difficult to change, and some places even include it in the list of high energy-consuming and high-emission projects. Under the national "dual carbon strategy", the approval of industrial energy consumption is stricter. The "Industrial Structure Adjustment Catalogue" (2019 edition) stipulates that "backward calcium carbonate processes and the production of ordinary calcium carbonate below 20,000 tons per year are all projects to be eliminated and prohibited from construction." With the increasing threshold for entering the calcium carbonate industry, large-scale development is the only way, but the problem of high energy consumption caused by large-scale development is still difficult to avoid.

　　Taking Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region as an example, as one of the key areas for accepting the calcium carbonate industry in China, the autonomous region aims to build a 100-billion-yuan calcium carbonate industrial cluster. However, the energy consumption approval requirements of projects in the autonomous region are as follows: In terms of industrial added value intensity per 10,000 yuan: projects with an industrial added value intensity of less than 0.45 per 10,000 yuan can be directly approved by the county-level government; projects with an industrial added value intensity of more than 0.45 and less than 0.98 per 10,000 yuan can be directly approved by the city-level government if there is a reasonable energy consumption substitution plan; projects with an industrial added value intensity of more than 0.98 per 10,000 yuan are basically not approved; in terms of the total amount of energy consumption indicators, energy consumption indicators of less than 5,000 tons of standard coal per year can be directly approved by the county; energy consumption indicators of more than 5,000 tons and less than 50,000 tons of standard coal per year can be directly approved by the city; energy consumption indicators of more than 50,000 tons of standard coal need to be reported to the autonomous region for approval. Under the current technological process, the energy consumption for producing one ton of nano-calcium carbonate is 0.27 tons of standard coal, and the market price of nano-calcium carbonate ranges from 1,500 to 2,500 yuan/ton. The industrial added value intensity per 10,000 yuan is basically between 1.08 and 1.8, and it is difficult to apply for energy consumption indicators. This even leads to some projects being launched without violating energy consumption regulations and then being rectified later. It can be seen that coherent policies, timely adjustments, and industry-specific policies are necessary to successfully guide the landing of industries.

　　Second, the "one-size-fits-all" environmental protection policy, and situations such as power cuts, seriously disrupt the normal production of enterprises.

　　The pressure of environmental protection policies is increasing. In order to welcome supervisory inspections, some local governments urgently restrict the production capacity of enterprises by cutting off power and electricity, which will lead to market chaos. For example, in the first half of 2021, in order to welcome environmental protection inspections, a certain area that accepts the calcium carbonate industry cut off power and electricity for several months to restrict production capacity, which once caused the local enterprises to stop production. The cost of starting and stopping kilns is quite high, which is very unfavorable to production and is not a sustainable development strategy.

　　3. Mismatch between the focus of local governments and enterprises in investment promotion

　 Guangxi Longhua The calcium carbonate industry is a heavily resource-dependent industry, and reliable, stable, and high-quality mineral resources are the guarantee for the long-term stable production of enterprises. Due to previous industry irregularities, many small enterprises have engaged in chaotic mining and improper resource utilization. The state has introduced a series of policies to integrate mining resources, promote green mining, and implement centralized and graded resource utilization, which will undoubtedly promote the standardized and efficient use of resources. However, mining resources and enterprise production are closely related. Only by properly handling the relationship between the two can the industry take root and develop sustainably.

　　First, resource allocation is the foundation for the development of the calcium carbonate industry, and problems with allocation will severely impact the industry.

　　Currently, the investment in equipment and factory areas required for calcium carbonate production is typically heavy asset investment. With the increasing requirements of industrial policies in recent years, industry access has been continuously raised, investment requirements are higher, capital accumulation is greater, and investments often reach billions of yuan. Any investor would only dare to enter with the assurance of stable and reliable returns. Taking Lianzhou, Guangdong as an example, the Lianzhou calcium carbonate industry flourished in the early 21st century and has always been a leading industry in the region, holding an important position in the national industry. However, in recent years, mining resource integration and the reclamation of mines have led to a shortage of raw materials for many enterprises. Some enterprises have purchased raw materials from other places, resulting in increased costs and loss of competitive advantage; some enterprises have simply ceased production, and the development of the Lianzhou calcium carbonate industry has almost stagnated.

　　Second, only by establishing a reliable and stable resource allocation method can the establishment of full-chain large enterprises be achieved.

　　Currently, in the investment attraction process, some local governments control mining rights through platform companies and then allocate them uniformly to enterprises, controlling and managing resource utilization. Under this model, the government has absolute control over resources, but enterprises are in a weak position and are severely restricted by resources. Small enterprises, due to their small scale and investment, can accept this situation. However, for large-scale enterprises, with billions of yuan in heavy asset investment, without long-term, stable, and reliable resource guarantees, and influenced by unstable factors such as varying levels of government credibility and changes in government leadership, large-scale investment projects lack confidence under this mining resource supply model. Small enterprises, however, cannot bring about long-chain industrial investment. Without resolving this contradiction, large-scale enterprises will not be established, and the goal of full-chain and clustered development of the local calcium carbonate industry will be difficult to achieve.

　　Currently, China's calcium carbonate industry is in a period of painful industrial upgrading, and various problems are inevitable. However, it is encouraging that in recent years, the situation of foreign enterprises monopolizing the high-end calcium market in China has eased. Guangxi A preliminary "one-stone-multiple-uses, complete utilization" circular industrial chain has been established, encompassing "stone mining-slabs and crafts-waste recycling-heavy calcium carbonate ultrafine powder-synthetic artificial stone-new materials (paints, plastic masterbatches, new building materials, etc.)-comprehensive utilization and recycling of calcium carbonate solid waste." This provides a pilot model for the clustered development of the domestic calcium carbonate industry. We believe that after this period of transformation and upgrading, the calcium carbonate industry will eventually be transformed, achieve qualitative upgrading and development, and China will become a strong calcium carbonate industry power in the near future.