Entering September 2026, domestic sectors including new chemical materials, rubber and plastic additives and new‑energy supporting industries have stepped into the traditional peak‑season recovery cycle. Downstream operating sentiment is picking up, and the market expects a release of peak‑season demand. Nevertheless, the overall market performance of precipitated silica shows no comprehensive upturn for this year’s Golden September. The sector has completely broken away from the previous cyclical pattern of broad‑based price hikes in peak seasons, forming a new landscape featuring weakened cost‑driving effects, sluggish low‑end demand, robust high‑end demand and intensified structural divergence. Benefiting from large‑scale capacity expansion in recent years, the overall domestic capacity base of precipitated silica has risen sharply. Supply of general‑grade precipitated silica remains in persistent surplus, market inventories stay at a high level over the long term, and homogeneous competition grows fiercer. Raw‑material price fluctuations have a diminishing driving force over market trends. The focus of industrial competition has fully shifted to product quality, modification technology, application adaptability and customized services. The bipolar pattern of slim‑profit rivalry for low‑end grades and stable volume‑price performance for high‑end varieties becomes increasingly prominent.

　　From the perspective of upstream raw‑material costs, core feedstock such as soda ash, quartz sand and industrial sulfuric acid keep fluctuating at low levels throughout the third quarter, with procurement costs notably lower than the annual highs. Meanwhile, prices of supporting energy resources including coal, electricity and process steam remain stable without periodic surges. Comprehensive production cost pressure continues to ease, and the overall cost floor of the industry keeps moving downwards. However, lower costs have not translated into improved corporate profitability; instead, price games in the low‑end market have accelerated. Plagued by severe overcapacity, abundant market supply and high substitutability, general‑purpose precipitated silica faces strong price‑cut willingness from downstream buyers, and low‑cost materials continuously circulate in the trading market. Profit margins generated by falling raw‑material prices are completely eroded by disorderly industrial competition. Ordinary industrial‑grade precipitated silica has long been trapped in the dilemma of “declining costs, flat quotations and no profit growth”. Profit space in the low‑end segment keeps shrinking, and most small‑and‑medium manufacturers operate at break‑even or marginal profit levels.

　　Demand recovery from traditional downstream sectors is insufficient to shore up the whole‑industry market. Tire enterprises launch routine autumn stock‑up activities, yet the recovery of terminal consumption for passenger and commercial vehicles proceeds slowly with limited growth in automobile production and sales. In addition, overseas tire export orders fluctuate and external demand lacks stability. Tire producers maintain prudent operating rates and adopt a procurement strategy of on‑demand replenishment and small‑batch rolling restocking, rather than large‑scale stockpiling or locked‑in bulk purchases, which delivers relatively limited pulling force for traditional rubber‑reinforcing precipitated silica. Moreover, demand in mature traditional fields such as ordinary silicone rubber, construction sealants, general industrial coatings, daily‑use chemical additives and rubber‑plastic shoe soles has become saturated. Finished downstream products are shipped at a steady pace with no new incremental support. Growth ceilings have appeared in traditional application tracks, which fail to drive a market rebound for general‑grade precipitated silica, and low‑end products keep fluctuating weakly over the long run.

　　Against the backdrop of a sluggish overall market and intensified low‑end competition, high‑end modified functional precipitated silica maintains a high‑boom performance against the trend and serves as the only core track with stable profits across the industry. At present, emerging domestic industries including new‑energy lithium batteries, photovoltaic energy storage, high‑end equipment, precision electronics, biomedicine and special anti‑corrosion materials are expanding rapidly. End‑products keep iterating and upgrading, putting forward extremely strict customized requirements for precipitated silica in terms of dispersibility, purity indicators, pore structure, hydrophobic weather resistance and system compatibility. Specialty precipitated silica optimized through exclusive surface modification processes effectively addresses the drawbacks of conventional varieties such as particle agglomeration, poor dispersion, single functionality and weak adaptability. It can be precisely applied in high‑end scenarios including lithium‑battery separator coatings, photovoltaic sealants, electronic potting materials, premium matting coatings, food anti‑caking agents, pharmaceutical carriers and high‑temperature‑resistant composite materials. These modified products feature high technical barriers, exclusive formulation characteristics and limited market competitors. Completely isolated from the low‑end price war system, manufacturers retain stable bargaining power, full order backlogs and orderly delivery cycles, with profitability far exceeding that of general‑purpose products, which continuously consolidates the profit foundation of the whole industry.

　　The structural upgrading trend in the export market is distinct, and the profit gap between high‑end and low‑end export products keeps widening. Burdened by multiple pressures such as substitution from overseas local production capacity, international tariff barriers and low‑cost foreign competitors, low‑end general‑purpose precipitated silica faces persistently sluggish overseas inquiries and stagnant export order growth, with traditional foreign‑trade dividends gradually fading away. In contrast, high‑purity, low‑impurity and high‑dispersity functionally modified precipitated silica gains continuous recognition from premium overseas clients in Europe, Southeast Asia, the Middle East and Latin America by virtue of excellent batch stability, controllable performance indicators, compatibility with high‑end systems and complete compliance qualifications. Long‑term strategic cooperation export orders grow steadily, and the proportion of foreign‑trade revenue keeps rising, becoming a vital incremental income channel for leading enterprises. Meanwhile, overseas purchasers impose increasingly stringent standards for low‑carbon production traceability, green manufacturing certification, product safety testing and full‑process quality control, continuously pushing domestic manufacturers to phase out extensive production techniques and accelerate the high‑end and refined upgrading of the industry.

　　Tighter domestic supervision over environmental protection, energy consumption and work safety promotes the supply‑side optimization and upgrading of the industry. Chemical parks nationwide raise access standards for three‑waste discharge, energy consumption quotas and work safety. Backward production capacities characterized by high energy consumption, heavy pollution, outdated processes and weak management are continuously subject to production limits, rectification or withdrawal. The phase‑out pace of inefficient industrial capacities accelerates, and the overall quality of market supply improves steadily. Leading enterprises with advantages in R&D innovation, modification techniques and green manufacturing keep optimizing production workflows, reducing unit consumption losses, enhancing batch‑to‑batch product consistency and iteratively developing differentiated and customized modified new products to precisely meet diversified demands in high‑end markets. Their market discourse power and competitiveness keep strengthening. Industrial capacity, orders and profits are further concentrated among leading players, and the trend toward intensive and high‑end industrial development becomes more obvious.

　　Judging from the logic of the whole industrial chain for market outlook, the structural divergence pattern of the domestic precipitated silica market will solidify in the short term. Restrained by overcapacity, high inventories and weak demand, conventional precipitated silica can hardly achieve a notable market improvement, fluctuating weakly overall with sustained profit pressure. Supported by long‑term rigid demand from new‑energy, new‑material and high‑end manufacturing sectors, high‑end modified functional precipitated silica maintains robust demand, stable quotations and sufficient profits, staying ahead of the whole industry. In the medium‑to‑long run, the precipitated silica industry has completely stepped out of the extensive era of production‑scale competition. Technological R&D, modification innovation, customized services and green manufacturing will become the core competitiveness of enterprises. As industrial reshuffling deepens and backward inefficient capacities exit at an accelerated pace, refined, functional, customized and high‑value‑added modified products will dominate industrial development, driving China’s precipitated silica sector into a new stage of high‑quality development.