Since 2025, the butyl rubber market for insulating glass in southern China has shown development characteristics of "accelerated high-end substitution, diversified scene expansion, and strong overseas momentum" under the dual effects of technological innovation and policy guidance. As the core cluster area of China's doors, windows, and curtain wall industry, the consumption of butyl rubber for insulating glass in the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area and surrounding areas will reach 31000 tons in 2024, accounting for 33% of the total national demand. It is expected that the market size will exceed 620 million yuan by 2025, a year-on-year increase of 17.5%, of which high-end products adapted to new processes account for 38%.
Rigid policy constraints promote the upgrading of industrial quality. The "2024-2025 Energy Conservation and Carbon Reduction Action Plan" of Guangdong Province clearly requires that new flat glass projects must reach the energy efficiency benchmark level, and by the end of 2025, the proportion of energy efficiency benchmark production capacity in the flat glass industry must reach 20%. This policy has forced downstream door and window enterprises to accelerate technological upgrades. In 2024, the proportion of insulated glass using 4SG warm edge sealing technology in new buildings in the Pearl River Delta region has reached 27%, an increase of 12 percentage points from 2023. This kind of technology puts forward higher requirements for butyl rubber performance - it needs to form a collaborative sealing system with reactive thermoplastic sealant, the argon leakage rate is controlled within 3%, and the anti-aging life needs to exceed 50 years. Driven by policies, the penetration rate of two-component butyl rubber in commercial buildings in core cities such as Guangzhou and Shenzhen has exceeded 70%, far exceeding the national average level.
The popularization of new technologies has stimulated the demand for high-end products. The practical application of 4SG glass technology has become an important growth pole in the market. It adopts a combination scheme of flexible butyl rubber strips, molecular sieves, and argon gas filling, which can completely eliminate metal thermal bridges, reduce the U-value of insulated glass by 0.4W/m ² · K, and improve energy efficiency by more than 30%. To adapt to this process, South China enterprises are accelerating product iteration: the 4SG special butyl rubber developed by Foshan Silicon Treasure New Materials has passed extreme environmental testing at -40 ℃~100 ℃, and the argon gas retention rate still reaches over 95% after 10 years. It has been supplied to landmark projects such as the West Kowloon Commercial Center in Hong Kong; The warm edge system butyl rubber strip launched by Dongguan Huatu Sealing Technology has a low water vapor transmission rate of 0.14g/m ² · d, and has been widely applied in the curtain wall project of Shenzhen Bay Super Headquarters Base. According to industry estimates, the amount of butyl rubber used per square meter of 4SG glass has increased by 40% compared to traditional processes, driving a year-on-year increase of 68% in demand for high-end products in the region.
The pattern of outward oriented development is gradually taking shape. Relying on the advantages of ports and manufacturing clusters in the Pearl River Delta, South China's butyl rubber enterprises have accelerated the development of overseas markets, and their products have been exported to Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Europe and America. In 2024, the export volume of butyl rubber for insulating glass in Guangdong and Fujian will reach 8200 tons, accounting for 55% of the total export volume in China, with the Southeast Asian market accounting for over 60%. This growth is attributed to the regional enterprises' ability to adapt to international standards: Zhongshan Jincheng Sealing Materials' butyl rubber products have passed the EU EN1279 standard certification and have been recognized by the LEED Platinum certification project. The export value in 2024 increased by 42% year-on-year; Xiamen Sibaiwei New Materials has optimized the heat and humidity resistant formula of butyl rubber for Southeast Asia's high temperature and high humidity climate. The product accounts for 30% of the affordable housing project in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Industry data shows that the average price of exported products is 18% to 25% higher than that of domestic sales, significantly improving the profitability of enterprises.
Collaborative solution of process adaptation challenges in the industrial chain. In response to the requirements of new processes for the compatibility between butyl rubber and equipment, South China enterprises have established a collaborative system of "materials equipment application": Guangzhou Jitai Chemical and Austria's Lisec Group have customized and developed high fluidity butyl rubber to meet the production needs of 8-meter ultra large 4SG glass, solving the problem of internal overflow caused by traditional product thermal expansion and contraction; Shenzhen Haichuan Intelligent has launched a fully automatic butyl rubber coating production line, which is compatible with the rubber strip products of local enterprises, ensuring that the production accuracy error is controlled within ± 0.3mm. On the raw material side, Maoming Petrochemical's 200000 tons/year high-performance polyisobutene plant has been put into operation, increasing the self-sufficiency rate of butyl rubber raw materials in South China from 65% in 2023 to 81% in 2024, and reducing raw material procurement costs by 10 percentage points.
Expanding into diverse scenarios opens up growth opportunities. In addition to the traditional construction field, the demand for special scenarios is rapidly rising: in the high-end shipbuilding field, the Zhuhai Gree Marine Glass Project will consume 1200 tons of specialized butyl rubber in 2024, which needs to meet the requirements of salt spray corrosion resistance; In the construction of the data center, Huawei Songshan Lake Base in Dongguan uses flame-retardant butyl rubber, with an annual usage exceeding 800 tons. In addition, the existing building energy-saving renovation market continues to release demand, with the Guangzhou 2024 old window renovation project alone consuming 1900 tons of butyl rubber, driving a 15% increase in sales of single component butyl rubber.
Industry experts point out that the butyl rubber market for insulating glass in South China has entered a critical stage of "technology adaptation+global layout". It is expected that by 2027, the proportion of high-end products adapted to new processes such as 4SG in the region will exceed 55%, and the proportion of export value is expected to increase to 28%. The future industry will focus on three major directions: research and development of bio based butyl rubber. Currently, a pilot product from a company in Shenzhen has a bio based content of 32%; Upgrade intelligent production and increase capacity utilization from the current 84% to over 92%; Establish a unified product performance evaluation system for the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area through regional standard collaboration. Driven by technological innovation and global layout, South China is becoming an important growth pole for the high-quality development of China's insulating glass butyl rubber industry.
