Refractories are used in various fields of national economy, such as iron and steel, non-ferrous metals, glass, cement, ceramics, petrochemical, machinery, boilers, light industry, electric power, military industry, etc. They are essential basic materials to ensure the production operation and technical development of the above-mentioned industries, and play an irreplaceable important role in the development of high-temperature industrial production.

Since 2001, the refractory industry has maintained a good growth momentum, and has become a major producer and exporter of refractories in the world, driven by the rapid development of high-temperature industries such as steel, non-ferrous, petrochemical and building materials. In 2011, China's refractories accounted for about 65% of the world's total production and sales, ranking first among the world's refractory materials.

The output of refractory raw materials and products increased steadily from 2001 to 2010, of which the output of refractory products at the end of the tenth five-year plan was about twice that of 2001; the output of refractory products at the end of the Tenth Five-Year Plan reached 28.08 million tons in 2010, about three times that at the end of the tenth Five-Year plan. By 2011, China's refractory industry had a total of 1917 enterprises with more than 3 million employees, with sales revenue of 337.679 billion yuan and sales profit of 47.737 billion yuan.

However, due to the low level of disorderly mining and processing technology, low level of comprehensive utilization of resources and serious waste, the above-mentioned mineral resources, especially high-grade refractory raw material resources have become less and less, saving resources and comprehensive utilization of resources has become an urgent task.

Song Zhenyu holds that refractory industry must guide the raw material mines to organize scientific mining, optimize the comprehensive utilization of resources, especially the homogenization treatment of different grade mineral deposits, stop the indiscriminate mining and digging, gradually promote the rational utilization of resources, so as to maximize the role of limited resources and achieve sustainable development.

The development of refractories industry is closely related to the quantity of mineral resources in China. Bauxite, magnesite and graphite are the three major refractory materials. China is one of the world's three largest bauxite exporters, magnesite reserves the world's first, or graphite exporters, rich resources to support China's refractories through a decade of rapid development.

At the same time, there are many refractory enterprises in China, the scale of enterprises, process technology, control technology, equipment level is uneven, advanced production mode and backward production mode coexist. The overall clean production level of the industry is not high, and the task of energy saving and emission reduction is arduous.

With the accelerated elimination of backwardness and high energy consumption during the 12th Five-Year Plan period, China will focus on the development and promotion of new energy-saving furnaces and kilns, the development of comprehensive energy-saving technologies, the development of energy management, the emission control of "three wastes" and the recycling of "three wastes". Dedicated to the use of refractory resources and reuse, reduce solid waste emissions, improve the comprehensive utilization of resources, comprehensively promote energy conservation and emission reduction.

According to the Refractories Industry Development Policy, the unit consumption of refractories in China's iron and steel industry is about 25 kilograms per ton of steel, which will drop to less than 15 kilograms by 2020. By 2020, China's refractories will have a longer life, more energy-saving, pollution-free and functionalized product, which will meet the needs of the national economic development of metallurgy, building materials, chemical industry and emerging industries, and increase the technical content of export products.