Policy to help speed up the development of green building materials

Abstract Recently, it was learned from the 2013 China Building Materials Enterprise Development Forum that the implementation of green building materials projects has become a key focus in industry management and is now the main driving force for the transformation and upgrading of the sector. Currently, relevant government departments are actively working on drafting the “Green Building Materials Promotion and Application Action Plan,” signaling that the development of green building materials is about to enter a period of rapid growth.

Insights from Top 500 Enterprises

The China Building Materials Enterprise Management Association recently released the 2013 rankings of the top 500 building materials companies, as well as the top 100 private and most rapidly growing enterprises. According to the data, the growth rate of the top 500 companies has slowed down compared to previous years, reflecting challenges in both overall and individual company scales. For example, in 2012, the total sales revenue of the top 500 companies reached 1.869 trillion yuan, marking a 15% increase from the previous year—the lowest growth since 2010.

“The data shows that the Chinese building materials industry is experiencing slower growth, but the pace of industry consolidation is accelerating,” said Zhang Dongzhuang, president of the association. Facing overcapacity and weak growth, he emphasized the need for the industry to align with national policies, optimize its structure, eliminate outdated production capacity, and promote energy efficiency and low-carbon development.

Compared to the top 500 Chinese enterprises overall, the building materials sector remains relatively small in scale. In 2013, the top 500 building materials companies generated 1.87 trillion yuan in sales, while the total sales of the top 500 Chinese companies reached 50.02 trillion yuan—meaning the building materials segment accounted for just 3.73%.

Industry experts suggest that analyzing these top 500 data points provides valuable insights into the current state of the building materials industry. It helps guide government policy-making and supports innovation within the sector. “Overall, our industry is becoming larger and stronger, but there’s still a long way to go,” Zhang added.

Moving from Big to Strong

As the building materials industry stands at a critical stage of transformation, the question is: how can it achieve sustainable growth?

Pan Aihua, deputy director of the Raw Materials Industry Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, stated that promoting green building materials is a concrete step toward implementing the 18th Party Congress’ vision and serves as a foundation for industrial transformation. This year, the promotion of green building materials has been prioritized in industry management.

Based on the analysis of the 2013 top 500 enterprise data, Jiang Yuan, a senior engineer at the China Building Materials Industry Planning and Research Institute, emphasized the importance of not only expanding the industry but also focusing on internal transformation. Enterprises must optimize their structures, extend supply chains efficiently, and increase the proportion of green building materials in their product mix.

To accelerate the development of green building materials and support the industry's transformation, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have established a coordination group to promote the application of green materials. Additionally, new mandatory energy efficiency standards are expected to be introduced soon, further supporting the growth of the green building materials sector.

Promoting Standards First

According to industry sources, under the Green Building Action Plan, the goal is to build 1 billion square meters of new green buildings and retrofit nearly 600 million square meters of existing buildings during the 12th Five-Year Plan period. This will drive a market demand of trillions of yuan for green building materials.

“The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development are currently drafting the ‘Green Building Materials Promotion and Application Action Plan,’” Pan Aihua revealed. “A series of specific measures for the implementation of green building materials projects are already underway.”

However, one major challenge remains: standardization. Due to lagging specifications, the development and application of green building materials have not yet reached their full potential. There is an urgent need to strengthen the standard certification system and improve coordination between upstream and downstream sectors.

Taking cement standards as an example, Luo Tiejun, deputy director of the Raw Materials Industry Department, noted that in 2012, the clinker coefficient in China dropped from 62.6% to 60.2%, compared to over 80% in developed countries. Only 27% of cement products were grade 42.5 or higher, with most being low-grade 32.5 products. Nearly half of these were composite cements with inconsistent ingredients. Therefore, revising cement standards and phasing out 32.5 composite cement is essential.

In addition to updating product standards and construction guidelines, relevant departments plan to compile a list of promoted green building materials, establish evaluation criteria, and organize pilot and demonstration projects to accelerate the adoption of sustainable solutions.