China's traditional building materials industry accelerated its structural optimization amid headwinds in the first quarter of this year, with green development emerging as a core growth engine.
As the traditional building materials industry steps up its green transformation, a cumulative total of 29.8 million tons of low-efficiency production capacity has been phased out, reversing the decline of capacity utilization, industry data showed.
The industry of advanced inorganic non-metallic materials, represented by photovoltaic glass, glass fiber and its products, experienced rapid growth. Demand for photovoltaic glass accounted for nearly 50 percent of total flat glass demand, and the total profit of the industry of glass fiber and its products surged by 130 percent year on year.
Meanwhile, green building materials recorded growth in both volume and profitability. By the end of the first quarter, China's certified green building materials increased by 5 percent compared with the end of 2025, and the industry's total profits grew 16.2 percent year on year.
"Ten government departments, including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, have jointly issued an implementation plan for high-quality development of the green building materials industry, guiding the green transition of the sector. In the first quarter of the year, the total revenue of the green building materials industry exceeded 61.1 billion yuan (about 8.99 billion U.S. dollars), maintaining a rapid growth of 12 percent and laying a solid foundation for achieving the annual revenue target of 300 billion yuan," said Yan Xiaofeng, president of the China Building Materials Federation.
China’s traditional building materials industry speeds up green transition in Q1
