From "Material First" to "Paradigm Reconstruction": China's New Material Industry Entering a New Stage of High-quality Development

[February 1, 2026] Against the backdrop of an accelerating global carbon‑neutral transition and a new wave of technological revolution, the new materials industry is undergoing a profound transformation—from functional substitution to systemic empowerment. According to the latest data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, China’s new materials industry is expected to see its total output value exceed RMB 8.5 trillion by 2025, maintaining double-digit growth for 15 consecutive years. Behind this figure is the change of the underlying logic of materials science-new materials are no longer just part of the product, but become the "source variable" that defines the industrial boundary, drives the technical route and even reshapes the manufacturing paradigm ".

The fusion of 1. technology has given birth to "material intelligence" traditional material research and development relies on the "trial and error-iteration" model, which has a long cycle and high cost. Today, the deep integration of artificial intelligence, quantum computing and high-throughput experiments is building a new research and development paradigm of "AI materials. Taking a new material enterprise in Shenzhen as an example, it designed a composite substrate material with high thermal conductivity and electromagnetic shielding performance in only 3 months through self-built material gene database and generative AI model, and the development efficiency was improved by more than 5 times. "Future materials will have the ability to perceive-respond-learn." Wang Liping, director of Ningbo Institute of materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences, pointed out that "intelligent materials such as self-healing polymers, shape memory alloys and electronic skin have moved from laboratories to real scenes such as humanoid robots and wearable devices, and the materials themselves have become part of the system intelligence."

2., the whole life cycle carbon footprint of the material has become a key indicator. Bio-based materials, recycled metals, degradable polymer and other green materials rise rapidly. Madonna Lao China started to use PLA (polylactic acid) packaging in 2025, with an annual plastic reduction of over 5800 tons. Livbio FDCA/PEF system has been certified by ISCC PLUS, which is a non-grain raw material to prepare high-performance polyester-fu. More worthy of attention is the material recovery technology breakthrough. to increase the recovery rate of salt lake lithium to more than 95%, and PetroChina-to provide engineering verification for closed-loop recycling of battery materials.

The 3. industry chain is moving towards "vertically integrated regional cluster" and the new ecological new material industry presents the highly coupled characteristics of "upstream resources-midstream manufacturing-downstream application. The Yangtze River Delta focuses on semiconductor materials and new energy vehicles lightweight, the Pearl River Delta deep-cultivated electronic chemicals and biomedical materials, the Bohai Sea relying on scientific research advantages layout superconducting, low-dimensional materials. This "regional division of labor and cross-regional collaboration" model is promoting the formation of a number of world-class new material industry clusters. At the same time, leading enterprises to accelerate the construction of "materials-devices-systems" integration capabilities. Tieneng Group through the "three-level research and development system" to open sodium ion battery from basic research to vehicle application, Zhonglun new material new generation BOPP capacitor film directly adapt to the new energy vehicle film capacitor demand, to achieve "material definition product performance".

4. standards and data governance into a new infrastructure As material complexity increases, the industry demands higher standards and data interoperability. In January 2026, the "Guidelines for Artificial Intelligence Data Governance in the Field of New Materials" group standard was formally implemented, formulated by 27 institutions led by Shenzhen New Materials Association, and systematically standardized the rules for material data collection, labeling, sharing and safe use for the first time. "Without high-quality data, there is no trusted AI model." Industry experts said that the construction of the "new material big data center" has been incorporated into the national new infrastructure layout, and the future will support material research and development from "experience-driven" to "data-driven".