Entering late September 2026, the iteration of China's white carbon black industry continues to speed up. The fundamental shift in industrial competition logic has taken place, with product value instead of production capacity becoming the core for enterprises to compete in the market. The market differentiation pattern keeps deepening. The oversupply of ordinary precipitated white carbon black remains a prominent problem. The recovery of downstream industries such as traditional rubber and general coatings is relatively slow. End-users purchase goods on demand with sluggish market transactions. The prices of basic grades stay low for a long time, continuously squeezing corporate profit margins. Homogenized price competition keeps undermining the foundation of industrial development. In contrast, in the market of high-end special white carbon black, demand for functional powder including modified white carbon black and fumed silica rises steadily. Emerging tracks such as new energy tires, high-end organic silicone sealing materials, electronic packaging and lithium battery diaphragm coatings deliver strong demand pull. High-end products maintain stable orders and obvious premium advantages, acting as the core engine driving industrial growth.

　　The upstream raw material market remains stable. Prices of sodium silicate, soda ash, sulfuric acid and other major raw materials fluctuate within a narrow range, and the cost side’s driving effect on white carbon black prices is greatly weakened. In the past, market price changes mainly followed raw material cost fluctuations. Nowadays, product performance, modification technology and supporting technical services become the key determinants of product pricing. Most small and medium manufacturers can only produce general filling-type white carbon black with single product categories and insufficient R&D capacity for modification. They can only compete for orders by cutting prices and are vulnerable to market fluctuations. Leading enterprises rely on refined production platforms, devote themselves to powder surface modification technology, develop customized grades for different downstream application scenarios, and gain sustained profits through stable product quality and supporting technical solutions.

　　Capacity elimination in the low-end white carbon black track moves forward, with backward capacities exiting the market at an accelerated pace. A large number of small and medium production lines focus on the general filling market with severe product homogenization, whose application scenarios are limited to ordinary rubber products, low-grade industrial coatings, conventional silicone filling and other fields. Downstream traditional manufacturing industries operate at low load rates, and end customers have no willingness for large-scale stockpiling, resulting in slow sales. Coupled with the continuous tightening of domestic energy consumption control and environmental supervision, the rectification pressure on old high-energy-consumption production lines keeps rising. Small and medium factories lacking capacity for technical renovation exit the market one after another, and industrial resources keep concentrating on leading enterprises with large-scale production and R&D innovation capabilities.

　　High-end functional white carbon black achieves breakthroughs in multiple fields, with multiple emerging downstream industries releasing demand simultaneously. In the new energy tire sector, as the penetration rate of new energy vehicles keeps increasing, higher requirements for tire lightweighting and low rolling resistance are put forward. Highly dispersible white carbon black can effectively reduce tire rolling resistance and improve wet grip performance. Tire manufacturers continuously raise its proportion in formulas. Orders for high-end grades are sufficient and delivery cycles of some products are extended. In the advanced organic silicone new material sector, hydrophobically modified white carbon black, as a core reinforcing filler, is widely used in high-end sealants, liquid silicone rubber, thermal conductive silicone gel and electronic silicone materials. It can significantly improve the mechanical strength and aging resistance of finished products and optimize the dispersion effect of powder in the system. In photovoltaic encapsulation materials, energy storage buffer materials, lithium battery diaphragm coatings and other fields, demand for ultra-high-purity special white carbon black keeps growing. Domestic powder speeds up import substitution, continuously expanding the market increment space.

　　The foreign trade export market shows a clear layered pattern. The export of ordinary precipitated white carbon black faces fierce international competition. New production capacities in Southeast Asia and the Middle East have been put into operation one after another, seizing the global low-end powder market with low labor and land costs. Export prices of domestic basic grades are under pressure and export profits keep shrinking. High-end modified white carbon black, highly dispersible white carbon black and fumed silica gain rising recognition in global high-end supply chains. Overseas buyers no longer merely compare unit prices. They pay more attention to batch stability of products, low-carbon production qualification, supply guarantee and supporting technical services. The export volume of domestic high-end white carbon black increases steadily, pushing forward import substitution and overseas market expansion at the same time.

　　Low-carbon production and carbon footprint certification have gradually become the access threshold for high-end supply chains. When screening suppliers, European and American multinational purchasers require enterprises to provide carbon footprint reports, production traceability documents and environmental compliance certificates, in addition to physical and chemical test reports of products. Leading domestic enterprises actively develop circular production processes, using rice husk ash and various industrial by-products to replace traditional mineral raw materials for preparing white carbon black, reducing production energy consumption and carbon emissions to smoothly enter the global high-end supply chain system. Restricted by outdated equipment and high energy consumption, small and medium low-end production lines can hardly complete low-carbon transformation and upgrading, gradually losing cooperation opportunities with high-end foreign trade buyers and major domestic clients, which further widens industrial polarization.

　　In terms of technological research and development, the pace of domestic substitution of domestic special white carbon black keeps accelerating. Domestic enterprises have conquered multiple key production processes for ultra-pure fumed silica and nano-modified special white carbon black, which once relied heavily on imports. They continuously iterate technologies in purification, surface activation, precise regulation of microstructure and other directions, developing special grades tailored for cutting-edge fields such as pharmaceutical excipients, high-end cosmetics, 6G high-frequency substrates, flexible sensing materials and biodegradable composite materials. The business model of the industry has also upgraded. Leading enterprises are no longer just suppliers of powder raw materials. They transform into formula R&D partners for downstream customers, providing one-on-one customized modification plans and full-set application technical support combined with customers’ production conditions and formula system requirements.

　　Market forecast: The structural divergence trend of the white carbon black industry will continue in Q4 2026, and there will be no price surge across the whole industry. Low-end filling-grade white carbon black will remain trapped in low-price competition with limited room for price growth, and the phase-out of backward capacities will speed up. Demand for high-end functional, modified and ultra-high-purity special white carbon black stays robust. Downstream tire, organic silicone, coating and new energy enterprises launch the year-end stocking cycle in Q4, which may bring periodic growth in orders for high-end products. From a medium and long-term perspective, the white carbon black industry has completely bid farewell to the era of capacity competition. Future industrial competition focuses on four directions: functional modification technology, low-carbon green production process, supporting capacity for emerging industries and customized technical services. Leading enterprises that master core technologies and stable high-end customer resources will continuously reap dividends from industrial upgrading.