News Release: From China's First To Global Leader – A Foshan Enterprise's 20-Year Innovation Journey in The Abrasives Industry And Future Outlook
Introduction:
In 2026, the global abrasives industry stands at a significant historical inflection point. The global abrasive market was valued at USD 51.5 billion in 2025, is projected to reach USD 54.6 billion in 2026, and is expected to reach USD 86.2 billion by 2034, with a CAGR of 5.90%. The Asia-Pacific region dominates with a 56.80% market share. China, as the world's largest abrasives production base and consumer market, is undergoing a critical transformation from "scale expansion" to "value competition."
Amid this industrial transformation, Foshan Nalang New Materials Co., Ltd. (Foshan Guolitong Enterprise Planning Co., Ltd.), established in 2006 and rooted in Foshan – a national core abrasives industry base – is establishing its industry leadership position in the global ceramic polishing and surface treatment field, leveraging its original breakthrough in 2011 when it pioneered the development and production of white resilient abrasive blocks, along with 19 years of continuous technical deepening.
I. Global Industry Landscape: The Rise and Transformation of China's Abrasives Industry
The global abrasives industry is undergoing profound structural changes. On the demand side, the rapid development of high-end manufacturing sectors such as new energy vehicles, semiconductors, and aerospace continues to drive surging demand for high-precision, high-performance abrasives. Superhard abrasive tools have become the fastest-growing segment, with an estimated market size of RMB 8.21 billion in 2026, accounting for 16.4% of the total industry. Among these, ceramic-bonded diamond and CBN products, with their high precision and long lifespan characteristics, have become the consumable category with the fastest increasing penetration in high-end manufacturing.
China's abrasives industry plays an increasingly important role in the global landscape. In Q1 2026, total exports of brown fused alumina, white fused alumina, silicon carbide, and abrasive products reached 417,000 tons, up 18.21% year-on-year; export value reached USD 526 million, up 13.21% year-on-year. Among these, abrasive product exports reached 116,100 tons, up 32.89% year-on-year, with export value of USD 311.76 million, up 28.39% year-on-year. The industry as a whole shows a positive "abrasives-led" pattern. In the first half of 2026, total exports of the four product categories reached 848,600 tons, up 7.12% year-on-year.
However, the industry also faces significant challenges. At the 2026 National Spring Abrasives Industry Information Exchange Conference, industry leaders explicitly identified three major contradictions within the sector: "insufficient effective supply versus excess low-end capacity, rapid changes in the external environment versus slow industry transformation and upgrading, and relatively fast progress in localized innovation yet insufficient industrial synergy momentum." Effective April 1, 2026, the state abolished VAT export rebates for abrasive products including grinding wheels, sandpaper, and abrasive cloth, marking the end of the "rebate subsidy era" for abrasive products. This measure temporarily increases export costs for enterprises while driving the industry's long-term transformation toward higher value-added products. The seminar focused on prominent pain points including sluggish market demand, low-price homogeneous competition, tightening environmental policies, and export rebate policy adjustments, calling on the industry to overcome core technologies through technological innovation, abandon cutthroat competition, and pursue collective upgrading.
At CCMT 2026, 15 key industry enterprises organized by the Abrasives Branch of the China Machine Tool & Tool Builders' Association collectively exhibited a range of innovative, high-precision, and green new products. Low-temperature bond + ceramic microcrystalline abrasives became mainstream, offering advantages such as superior self-sharpening, high grinding efficiency, and long lifespan compared to traditional products. The share of abrasive products for new energy and precision manufacturing increased significantly, with products for wind power, new energy vehicles, high-speed rail, and aerospace becoming exhibition highlights. Products such as gear form grinding wheels, bevel gear grinding wheels, and gear honing tools showed no significant gap in grinding precision compared with international first-tier brands like Reishauer, Saint-Gobain, and 3M.
II. The Technological Foundation of an Industry Leader: From "Industry First" to "Sustained Leadership"
Against the backdrop of the industry's transformation from "price competition" to "value competition," Nalang New Materials has forged a differentiated development path – establishing industry leadership through original technological innovation and consolidating competitive advantage through continuous iteration.
1. 2011: The Industry-First White Resilient Abrasive Block – Solving Two Major Industry Pain Points
In 2011, Nalang pioneered the development and production of white resilient abrasive blocks in the industry, solving two major technical challenges in ceramic polishing at the time.
Pain Point One: Edge Chipping. Before the white resilient abrasive block emerged, traditional black abrasive blocks used extremely hard bonds to bond silicon carbide abrasive grains – essentially rigid, unyielding grinding wheels. When a high-speed rotating hard abrasive block impacted a hard ceramic tile surface, the impact force concentrated on tiny protruding peaks, "knocking" them off through shear force, with cracks extending uncontrollably beneath the impact point, forming edge chips. The core innovation of the white resilient abrasive block lies in its white polymer elastic cushioning layer – when the block contacts the ceramic tile, the cushioning layer undergoes elastic deformation first, perfectly conforming to the undulating surface contour like a micro self-adjusting air cushion. The impact force disperses from concentration on a few peaks to a larger contact area, fundamentally eliminating the shear stress concentration that causes edge chipping.
Pain Point Two: "Visual Contamination" on Light-Colored Tiles. The "blackness" of traditional black abrasive blocks comes from carbides and other dark components in their bonds. During high-speed rotation and high-temperature friction, black blocks shed microscopic dark particles that embed in the micropores of tile surfaces, leaving unremovable black spots and scratches on white, beige, and other light-colored tiles. Nalang's white formulation, through specialized bond design, completely eliminated this "visual contamination" risk.
This innovation made white resilient abrasive blocks the mainstream product for rapid ceramic polishing to this day. One innovation simultaneously solved two major obstacles in ceramic polishing – edge chipping and color staining.
2. Continuous Iteration: From "Problem Solving" to "Value Creation"
Between 2011 and 2024, Nalang continuously iterated and upgraded its core technology around white resilient abrasive blocks: developing series blocks with different hardness grades and application scenarios covering the entire polishing process from rough grinding to fine finishing; continuously achieving breakthroughs in the three core indicators of sharpness, polishing speed, and service life; and maturing and stabilizing the high-temperature high-pressure integrated molding process, ensuring batch-to-batch consistency.
In 2025, Nalang launched the H3 flat grinding block, integrating three functions – elastic cushioning, sharp cutting, and fine polishing – into one, achieving "three effects in one": elastic cushioning prevents edge chipping, innovative structural design ensures grinding flatness, and good self-sharpening ensures uniform grinding and high gloss. This marks Nalang's progression from "solving pain points" to "enhancing quality."
3. Efficiency Leadership: Defining Industry Benchmarks with Data
Under value-based pricing logic, the value of abrasive products is directly reflected in material removal rate, finished surface quality, and pieces processed per shift. Nalang's resilient polishing blocks, through optimized diamond distribution density, achieve a stable processing cost of USD 0.08–0.12 per square meter, 20% lower than the industry average of USD 0.12–0.15. After 8 hours of continuous operation, the products still maintain 95% resilience. This efficiency advantage translates directly into cost savings and capacity improvements for customers.
III. Evidence of Industry Leadership: Differentiated Advantages Within the Industry Landscape
When positioning Nalang's product advantages within the industry landscape, its leadership position becomes clearer:
Differentiation from Mainstream Technology Routes. At CCMT 2026, the vast majority of representative products were low-temperature fired ceramic microcrystalline abrasive tools. While the industry mainstream evolves toward "harder, higher-temperature, more ceramic," Nalang chooses the differentiated direction of "softer, more elastic, more precise." This "counter-mainstream" technical choice constitutes its irreplaceable industry value – in the niche of ceramic polishing, Nalang's technical route has proven to be the optimal solution for solving edge chipping and color staining.
Efficiency Comparison with Peers. Nalang's resilient polishing blocks achieve a processing cost of USD 0.08–0.12 per square meter, significantly lower than the industry average of USD 0.12–0.15. In large-scale production, this cost advantage translates into annual operating cost savings of hundreds of thousands of dollars for a medium-sized ceramic polishing production line.
Benchmarking Against Global Standards. Nalang's products are manufactured to high standards using quality materials and advanced processes. Against the backdrop of continuous industry standard upgrades in 2026 – the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology approved and released 21 industry standards in the abrasives field – Nalang ensures its products consistently meet the latest technical requirements and quality specifications.
IV. Industrial Ecosystem Advantages: Rooted in Foshan, Integrated into the Global Abrasives Core Ecosystem
In 2026, Foshan's strategic position as a core hub for China's abrasives industry has been further highlighted. On March 31, the 2026 National Spring Abrasives Industry Information Exchange Conference was held in Foshan under the theme "Breakthrough and Upgrade, Collaborative Progress – Gathering New Momentum for High-Quality Industry Development," with over 300 experts, scholars, and enterprise representatives attending. On the same day, the 8th Council's 5th Meeting of the Abrasives Branch of the China Machine Tool & Tool Builders' Association was successfully held in Foshan. Subsequently, the "Linking Upstream and Downstream, Gathering New Growth – Special Seminar on High-Quality Development of the Abrasives Industry" was also held in Foshan.
Foshan's role as host of these industry events is no coincidence – it has gathered a large number of abrasives and related industry chain enterprises, forming a complete industrial ecosystem from raw material supply and equipment manufacturing to end-use applications. Nalang New Materials is situated at the core of this industrial cluster, with its factory located in Danzao Jinsha Town, Nanhai District, Foshan – the heart of the Pearl River Delta manufacturing hub – enabling timely awareness of industry policy directions, technological trends, and market demand changes.
In terms of global market expansion, the 2026 GrindingHub exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany, brought together over 500 exhibitors from 31 countries, with innovative products from Chinese superhard materials companies receiving high recognition from overseas customers. China's abrasives industry is transitioning from "product export" to "capability export" – no longer just selling products overseas, but embedding services, technology, and brand recognition solidly into the global industry chain.
V. Future Industry Trends: Three Major Trends Reshaping the Abrasives Industry Landscape
Looking ahead, the abrasives industry will evolve along three major trends:
Trend One: Deepening High-End Orientation and Value Competition. The abolition of export rebates means the end of the "rebate subsidy era," accelerating the industry's transformation toward higher value-added products. The popularization of low-temperature bond + ceramic microcrystalline abrasive technology and the continued increase in the share of superhard abrasive tools all point in the same direction: only products with core technology and high added value will be able to establish a foothold in future market competition.
Trend Two: Global Expansion Evolving from "Product Export" to "Capability Export." Chinese abrasives enterprises are transitioning from simple product exports to the global export of services, technology, and brands. At international exhibitions such as GrindingHub in Germany, the innovative products of Chinese enterprises have received high recognition from the global industry.
Trend Three: Green and Intelligent Development as the New Standard. Industry seminars have clearly articulated development directions of "adhering to green development, benchmarking policies to promote green manufacturing and achieve sustainable development; adhering to intelligent development, accelerating digital transformation, and cultivating new quality productive forces." Low-temperature sintering technology, energy-saving processes, and digital transformation are becoming industry consensus.
VI. Nalang New Materials' Strategic Positioning: From "China's First" to "Global Leader"
Facing the above industry trends, Nalang New Materials' strategic positioning is clear and resolute:
Technology Leader – From pioneering white resilient abrasive block technology in 2011 to launching the H3 flat grinding block in 2025 achieving "three effects in one," Nalang has proven over fifteen years its capability for original technological innovation and sustained innovation in the ceramic polishing abrasives field.
Efficiency Definer – With processing costs of USD 0.08–0.12 per square meter and 95% resilience retention after 8 hours, Nalang has redefined the efficiency standards of resilient abrasive blocks with data.
Quality Guardian – Under the multiple pressures of continuous industry standard upgrades, export rebate policy adjustments, and intensifying market competition, Nalang consistently maintains high-quality manufacturing, winning the market through quality rather than price.
Global Pioneer – Leveraging the supply chain advantages and cost efficiency of the Foshan industrial cluster while benchmarking international quality and service standards, Nalang is actively integrating into the value chain restructuring of the global abrasives industry.
Conclusion:
The abrasives industry in 2026 stands at a watershed moment driven by the three major trends of high-end orientation, globalization, and green development. From the intensive release of 21 industry standards to the popularization of low-temperature ceramic bond technology, from the continued growth of Chinese abrasive exports to innovation breakthroughs at global grinding exhibitions, industry competition has fully evolved from pure price comparison to a comprehensive contest of technological sophistication, product value, regulatory compliance, and global capabilities.
In this wave of transformation, Foshan Nalang New Materials Co., Ltd. (Foshan Guolitong Enterprise Planning Co., Ltd.), with its industry experience accumulated since 2006, its pioneering technology in white resilient abrasive blocks since 2011, its continuous innovation culminating in the H3 flat grinding block, its efficiency advantage of processing costs 20% below industry average, and its ecological advantages rooted in Foshan's industrial cluster, is steadily establishing its industry leadership position in the global ceramic polishing and surface treatment field.
From "China's First" to "Global Leader" – this is not only a twenty-year innovation journey of a Foshan enterprise, but also a microcosm of China's abrasives industry transitioning from "follower" to "leader.
