Glass and the processed products are widely used in construction, transportation, decoration, electronic information, solar energy utilization and other emerging industries. Among them, about 70% of the float glass is used in construction and decoration fields. Applications of glass in automobile and new energy fields also gradually expand. The glass industry is a resource and energy-dependent raw material industry in the national economy. Both changes in upstream raw materials and evolution of downstream demand industries of glass will influence prices of glass.

By the end of 2011, there were 3,344 glass and glass product manufacturing enterprises in China. The total asset of the industry was CNY 510.59 billion, with an increase of 22.52% YOY.

With the rapid development of China's economy, the glass industry also rapidly develops. China is a major producing country of glass, and the output of flat glass ranks the first worldwide for 20 consecutive years, accounting for over 50 % of the global output. Due to the generally low technical levels of China's glass products, the main share of global glass market is still monopolized by international giants such as Asahi Glass and Nippon Sheet Glass of Japan, Saint-Gobain of France and Guardian of the United States. The export amount of China's glass is relatively low annually.

In 2011, the output of China's domestic glass products reached 13,736,800 tons, with an increase of 11.94% YOY; the output of flat glass reached 738 million weight cases (about 50 kilograms per weight case), with an increase of 15.84% YOY; the output of laminated glass was 59,786,900 square meters, with an increase of 23.20% YOY; the output of toughened glass was 265 million square meters, with an increase of 22.45% YOY.

In 2011, the export amount of major products of China's glass and glass product industry was USD 4.294 billion, with an increase of 17.76%.

China's glass consuming market can be divided into four main sections. The primary is the real estate market, accounting for about 75% of the total glass consumption nationwide; the second is the automobile industry, accounting for 10% of the total nationwide; export ranks the third, accounting for 5% of the total nationwide; the rest 10% is mainly applied in fields of new energy industries such as solar energy, electronics, instrumentation, lamps and crafts. In recent years, changes in supply and demand of real estate and automobile markets are relatively large, which also accordingly leads to changes in prices of glass. Over 80% of the flat glass is mainly applied in fields of real estate, automobile manufacture, etc. The periodicity of these two industries is substantially prominent, which leads to remarkable cyclical characteristics in demand for flat glass.