In order to mitigate the impact of the pandemic to the flat glass industry and stabilize the production, pricing, and confidence in the industry, the China Architectural and Industrial Glass Association convened a national video conference for flat glass market analysis on April 9, 2020. Baiheng Zhang, the president of the association and Hui Zhao from the Department of Raw Materials of MIIT delivered speeches at the conference. About 200 people including the heads of sales from float glass manufacturers nationwide, the heads of regional self-regulatory organizations, and some deputy presidents of the association attended the meeting. The secretary general of the association, Zhiwu Zhou presided over the conference.
Mr. Baiheng Zhang pointed out in his speech that the industry is facing some adverse changes in the internal and external contexts as the outbreak has seriously affected the normal operation of the industry. In terms of external factors, the pandemic has exerted severe impact on China’s macro-economy. Although most industries are accelerating their pace to resume production, the market still needs time to recover. The supportive policies may not provide immediate relief to real estate, automobile, photovoltaic, and other key markets that suffered heavily during the outbreak. The great uncertainty of pandemic overseas inevitably affects the export markets. From the perspective of internal factors, the continuity characteristics of the production process make it difficult to adjust the production capacity. Since the outbreak, despite the active or passive reduction of pulling strength, inventory continues to increase. With output being larger than sales and inventory remaining high, prices fluctuate greatly. It is one of the basic market principles that price will drop when supply exceeds demand. It is hoped that business leaders and industry elites can coordinate and make collaborative efforts to overcome the difficult time, stabilize the production, and strengthen the confidence in recovery.