“Sand used to be sold by the truckload, but now it’s starting to be weighed by the pound.”
Recently, a media report said that with the explosive growth in demand, sand consumption has exceeded the natural growth rate, and some scholars believe that sand is likely to become an important strategic resource for countries in the future.
Sand is in short supply and sand prices have skyrocketed. Data show that currently, in mainland China, the selling price of river sand in some areas has exceeded 200 yuan per ton, up at least 12 times from 2010. Among them, some consumers reflect that in Jining, Shandong Province, sand are beginning to sell by the pound.
Global sand emergency
According to CCTV Finance, the United Nations Environment Programme statistics show that the global sand usage has increased by 200% compared to 20 years ago, partly due to the rapid development of urbanization. Projects such as building buildings, bridges, roads, and land reclamation all use large amounts of sand.
According to CNBC, the world loses more than 40 billion tons of sand each year in construction alone. If the sand is used to build a wall 27 meters high and 27 meters wide, this sand wall can circle the earth. The United Nations Environment Programme predicts that by 2030, the global demand for sand and gravel will be close to 50 billion tons per year.
It is worth mentioning that although one-third of the earth is covered by deserts, the sand is not suitable for construction because it is too smooth and round as the main source of sand in “sandstorms”. Therefore, located in the desert of Dubai, the United Arab Emirates, spending at least $ 400 million a year, from all over the world to import sand.
The vast majority of angular sand suitable for construction comes from rivers – which cover less than 1% of the earth’s surface area. Although river sand is a renewable resource, sand consumption has outpaced natural growth as demand has exploded.
The huge consumption has caused a global sand emergency. Some scholars believe that in the future, sand is likely to become an important strategic resource for all countries.
The price of river sand has increased more than 12 times in 11 years
Sand and gravel are the most basic and indispensable construction materials in engineering construction. It is understood that sand for construction is divided into two categories: natural sand and mechanism sand. Among them, natural sand includes river and lake sand, land sand, sea sand, and mechanism sand is made of sand and gravel by mechanical crushing.
According to the research report of CTS, sand and gravel, as aggregate (a generic term for materials such as sand and gravel), are mainly used in concrete, accounting for about 6/7 of the mass of concrete.
Mainland China is the world’s largest consumer market for sand and gravel aggregates. Data show that between 2008 and 2019, total sand and gravel aggregate consumption in mainland China more than tripled from 10 billion tons to 21.3 billion tons. The China Sand and Gravel Association predicts that the annual demand for sand and gravel aggregates in mainland China will reach a high level of 25 billion tons during 2020-2030 and then run smoothly.
After years of large-scale mining, sand and gravel resources in mainland China have gradually decreased, and since 2019, several places had faced sand and gravel shortages. In 2019, it is reported that in Hubei Province, key projects such as high-speed railways, airports and highways have been halted due to the cut-off of sand and gravel supply, and residents have even had to go to the village committee to buy sand for renovation; according to calculations by the relevant departments in Fujian Province, from 2019 to 2021, the average annual construction sand forecast for the province is about 110 million cubic meters, with a shortfall of 75%.
The contradiction between supply and demand has led to a sharp rise in sand prices. Take river sand as an example, according to CCTV Finance, in the 1980s, in China, river sand was as little as two or three dollars a ton, and in 2010 it rose to about 15 yuan per ton, while from the second half of 2018, the price of river sand began to surge, and in many places it even rose to two or three hundred yuan per ton.
Data show that as of February 2021, the selling price of river sand in some parts of the country exceeded 200 yuan per ton, up at least 12 times from 2010.
“Sand used to be sold by the truckload, but now it’s all starting to be weighed by the pound, at 9 cents a pound.” Mr. Chang of Jining, Shandong Province, told China New Economic Times (micro signal: jwview). According to Mr. Chang, five years ago, the Family spent 100,000 yuan to build a small yard, and now, due to the rise in the price of sand and other construction materials, the construction of the same small yard will have to spend at least 170,000 yuan, of which the cost of sand accounts for about 5%.
Mr. Jin, who does construction work in Anhui, also felt the rise in sand prices. “In our area, the price of river sand is currently 140 yuan per ton, up about 20 yuan from two years ago.” Mr. Jin stated.
Looking for sand alternatives
With sand in short supply, the world is actively looking for alternatives. In mainland China, man-made sand is now widely used.
Manufactured sand, also known as mechanism sand mentioned in the previous article, is sand and gravel made by humans using mechanical processing and other means to process some natural and waste materials according to scientific standards.
Given the advantages of abundant resources and policy encouragement, manufactured sand is widely used in China. Data from China Sand and Aggregate Network shows that the consumption of mechanism sand in mainland China reached 19.41 billion tons in 2019, and the proportion of mechanism sand consumption in the total consumption of sand and aggregate increased from 36.0% in 2008 to 91.1% in 2019.
“The proportion of mechanism sand consumption continues to rise rapidly, and mechanism sand forms a complete replacement trend for natural sand. The processing of mechanism sand and gravel in the future will also reach new heights both in terms of scale production and technical level.” Zhongtai Securities mentioned in the research report.
Mr. Jin also told CNA that at present, he has mostly chosen mechanism sand for concrete in the construction process, and river sand is used for wall painting and so on.
It is worth mentioning that in March 2020, the CPC National Development and Reform Commission jointly with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Natural Resources and other fifteen departments and units issued the “Guidance on Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Sand and Gravel Industry” (hereinafter referred to as “Guidance”) mentioned that we should gradually and orderly promote the use of sea sand mining, actively promote the use of alternative sources of sand, etc..
At that Time, the person in charge of the relevant departments of the CPC introduced in a question-and-answer session, according to incomplete statistics, in the field of housing construction and municipal infrastructure projects, purification of sea sand in the total amount of sand accounted for about 6%. In recent times, due to geographical and cost factors, purified sea sand has become an important source of sand for construction in some coastal areas.
However, it should be noted that the high chloride content of sea sand, the direct use of the main structure of the construction project will bring hidden dangers. 2013, there were media reports, Shenzhen frequently exposed to residential building floor cracking, wall cracks and other problems, according to the Shenzhen Municipal Government’s investigation results show that the root cause of the problem is the use of a large number of sea sand when building.
The above “guidance” points out that the use of sea sand standards should be strictly enforced to ensure that the quality of sea sand in line with the use of requirements; strict control of the use of sea sand, construction projects are strictly prohibited from using sea sand in violation of the standard specification requirements.
In promoting the alternative use of sand sources, the “Guiding Opinions” proposed to support the comprehensive use of waste rock tailings, encourage the use of solid waste resources to manufacture recycled sand and gravel.
Other countries are also looking for solutions, such as Zurich, Switzerland, which uses 98% renewable concrete when constructing buildings; Amsterdam, the Netherlands, which has pledged to cut natural resource consumption in half by 2030 and achieve 100% recycling by 2050. Other researchers are looking at options to replace sand with volcanic ash, agricultural fertilizer, fly ash or fine quartz sand.
According to the Daily Mail, some environmentally conscious entrepreneurs are also studying the use of mushrooms as an environmentally friendly building material, and some engineers are already experimenting with mushroom bricks.
Sand has these other uses
In fact, in addition to being used in the construction field, sand has many other uses. Sand is used in smartphones, laptops, glass bottles used for new vaccines and even chip manufacturing.
It is understood that sand is an important source of silicon materials – the industrial sector uses carbon and silicon dioxide at high temperatures to react to make silicon, which is then used to produce solar cells, integrated circuit chips and so on.
Sand is also one of the main raw materials for glass manufacturing
Ltd. engineer Lin Jafu introduced to China New Economy, in the production process of photovoltaic glass, the amount of silica sand (also called silica or quartz sand) accounts for about 70% of the total raw materials, with a daily melting volume of 32,000 tons, which can consume 81.76 million tons per year, while float glass, which is widely used in the construction field, has a larger annual consumption for silica sand than photovoltaic glass.
“Unlike ordinary river sand, etc., glass silica sand has high requirements for the content of silica, generally higher than 99.3%. At present, there are several major domestic glass silica sand base, including Anhui Fengyang, Guangdong Zhanjiang, etc.” Lin Jiafu said, at present, the domestic supply of glass silica sand is relatively adequate, but its price is significantly higher than river sand and other construction sand.
According to Lin Jafu, at present, the factory price of silica sand for super-white glass in the industry is at least 350 yuan / ton (including tax), and the factory price of silica sand for ordinary glass has also reached 200 yuan / ton (including tax).
Lin Jiafu told CNN Jingwei that this year, due to the popularity of the new crown vaccine, the demand for silica sand has increased relatively, but the overall smaller, the impact on the market is not significant.
“Compared to photovoltaic glass and float glass, the overall usage of silica sand for cell phone screens and vaccine bottles is currently not large. Silica sand is still mainly used in the construction industry.” Lin Jiafu said.
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