The evening of the 18th, zirconium material "big" Oriental Zirconium Industry (002167.SZ) announced its 2021 performance forecast, its net profit increased by nearly 200%. Last year, due to the upturn of the downstream market and the surge in demand for zirconium materials, the major zirconium merchants made a lot of money. In addition to the oriental zirconium industry, the performance of another zirconium family, Sanxiang New Materials (603663.SH), is also expected to improve. Looking forward to the whole year of 2022, some people in the supply chain told reporters that the prices of zirconium products may continue to rise due to the reduction in the supply of zircon sand, and the industry is facing challenges.
Oriental Zirconium Industry announced that the company is expected to have a net profit of 140 million yuan to 180 million yuan belonging to shareholders of listed companies in 2021, an increase of 187.05% Murray 211.92% over the same period last year, and a loss of 161 million yuan in the same period last year. At the same time, the company said that in 2021, the zirconium product market gradually warmed up, at the same time, the company acquired Jiaozuo Wiener Technology Co., Ltd., the company's main product volume and prices rose, product sales revenue and gross profit margin increased greatly, the company's zirconium industry chain competitive advantage has been fully reflected.
"Last year's performance was very good, and the price of zirconium sand increased by more than 80%, but there was no shortage of goods to sell, and we did make a lot of money," a supplier of zircon sand upstream told reporters. In 2021, due to the surge in demand for 5G, dental and other hot tracks, the quantity and price of zirconium materials rose. Take the oriental zirconium industry as an example, according to incomplete statistics by a reporter from the Financial Associated Press, it issued at least eight price increase letters last year, and the price of zirconium dioxide products rose by more than 30,000 yuan per ton.
It is not only the oriental zirconium industry that has made a lot of money, but also a big increase in the performance of Sanxiang new materials. The company's net profit after deducting non-recurring gains and losses last year is expected to be about 93 million yuan to 98 million yuan, an increase of 55.54% to 63.90% from a year earlier, its announcement said. In this case, the performance of other domestic zirconium merchants such as national porcelain materials (300285.SZ) is also worth looking forward to.
"although we made a lot of money last year, it's hard to say this year's market. At present, zircon sand is very scarce and it is no longer easy for us to get the goods, "the supplier told reporters. Looking back at 2022, there is a question mark over whether zirconium traders can continue to achieve such a high performance.
A zirconium material manufacturer told reporters that the price of zircon sand continues to rise, with prices exceeding US $2200 per ton. According to Ruidao Metal net, in the first quarter of 2022, the prices of zircon sand products from Iluka and Tronox, which are suppliers of zircon sand in the world's head, have increased significantly by more than 220USD / ton.
The rise in prices has been accompanied by a reduction in supply from the source. Iluka mentioned at the Macquarie Western Australia Forum in 2021 that Iluka's U+Th < 500ppm zircon sand products will be reduced in the future.
The above-mentioned manufacturers told reporters, "the bigger problem is that many businesses simply cannot directly purchase enough zircon sand, so they can only turn to the market for goods at high prices." As for the impact of this phenomenon on the market, the person said that after a long time, downstream customers are afraid to control costs by reducing the use of zirconium materials, which will do great harm to the industry.
