As is well known, sand and gravel are essential raw materials and bulk mineral products for infrastructure construction, which are related to the overall high-quality development. However, for the traditional and emerging sand and gravel industry, it has been in a micro circulation and "doorstep" business for many years, and the construction of a large market has always been a weakness. Building a green digital sand and gravel market based on regions and targeting the whole country is more urgent and necessary, and it is also an inevitable choice to solve the current contradiction of oversupply in the sand and gravel industry and achieve healthy and orderly development of the industry.

As is well known, sand and gravel are essential raw materials and bulk mineral products for infrastructure construction, which are related to the overall high-quality development. However, for the traditional and emerging sand and gravel industry, it has been in a micro circulation and "doorstep" business for many years, and the construction of a large market has always been a weakness. Building a green digital sand and gravel market based on regions and targeting the whole country is more urgent and necessary, and it is also an inevitable choice to solve the current contradiction of oversupply in the sand and gravel industry and achieve healthy and orderly development of the industry.
Especially in recent years, with the successive construction and operation of a large number of large-scale sand and gravel mines, the domestic sand and gravel market has sharply declined, with a trend of "mountain rain is about to come, wind fills buildings, black clouds are pressing down on cities, ready to destroy". Many sand and gravel mining enterprises are in chaos, with a growing sense of pessimism. From a few years ago when they were full of vigor and confidence, they have suddenly fallen to the current state of lethargy and despair. How to regroup and reshape the market through the construction of a large market has become an urgent task.

For the sand and gravel industry, it is an undeniable fact that 'wolves have come', but this does not mean that the sand and gravel industry will be dark and have no development opportunities from now on. The country needs to develop, cities need to be built, infrastructure needs to be strengthened, and housing conditions for urban and rural residents need to be improved. These still require a large amount of sand and gravel, but it is just a matter of whether the demand is high or low. If we can seize the rare development opportunity of building a unified national market and establish a provincial-level or regional green digital sand and gravel market, we can still achieve great success.

Significant significance and far-reaching impact

To build a good green digital sand and gravel market, it is necessary to fully understand its significance and far-reaching impact from an ideological perspective. Building a green digital sand and gravel market is an important part of building a unified national market. Currently, the Party Central Committee and the State Council are accelerating the construction of a unified national market. After the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council issued the "Opinions on Accelerating the Construction of a Unified National Market" in March 2022, the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China explicitly proposed to "build a unified national market, deepen the reform of factor markets, and establish a high standard market system". The State Council executive meeting held in May 2023 will study and implement the overall work plan and recent measures for building a unified national market. The State Council executive meeting held on December 18, 2023 will accelerate the construction of a unified national market once again. The meeting emphasized the establishment of various institutional rules that are conducive to the construction of a unified national market and the elimination of various obstacles and constraints that are not conducive to the construction of a unified national market.
Sandstone, as the largest bulk mineral product in terms of production and consumption in China, is an important part of the unified national market. It is imperative to build a unified large market for sand and gravel, and it should be done sooner rather than later. ”Hu Youyi, President of the China Sand and Gravel Association, said.

Building a green digital sand and gravel market is also an inevitable requirement for the healthy and orderly development of the sand and gravel industry. In March 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and 15 other ministries issued the "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Sand and Gravel Industry", which pointed out that "we should accelerate the construction of a regional supply and demand balance, reasonable prices, green environmental protection, high-quality and efficient sand and gravel industry system, and provide strong support for infrastructure investment and construction and stable economic operation". Based on the actual situation, exploring the construction of a large sand and gravel market in key provinces and regions can better release advanced sand and gravel production capacity, eliminate disorderly competition, achieve supply-demand balance, and promote high-quality development of the sand and gravel industry. In addition, building a green digital sand and gravel market is also an important measure to achieve efficient utilization of sand and gravel resources and protect the ecological environment. By building a regional sand and gravel market, it is possible to achieve efficient development and utilization of sand and gravel resources through top-level design, unified planning, scientific allocation, and efficient utilization within the region. This can control and close sand and gravel mines in ecologically fragile areas, encourage the mining of sand and gravel mines in easily accessible areas, and ultimately achieve efficient development and utilization of sand and gravel resources.
Of course, building a green digital sand and gravel market can also achieve traceability of sand and gravel products, ensure product quality, and guarantee engineering construction quality. At the same time, it can effectively promote production, transportation, and sales, and cultivate new quality productivity in the sand and gravel industry through green mining and standardized transactions, enhancing the core competitiveness of sand and gravel mines.

Everything is ready. The east wind blows

More importantly, the sand and gravel industry now has the basic conditions to establish a large market based on provinces or regions. In the past, sand and gravel mines were small and scattered, and the sales radius of sand and gravel products was small, making them truly "street vendors". In recent years, China's sand and gravel industry has achieved green development through resource integration, closure of small sand and gravel mines, and elimination of a large number of outdated production capacity. At the same time, a large number of large-scale and super large green sand and gravel mines, led by central state-owned enterprises and representing advanced productivity, have been built. With the increasingly perfect railway and water transportation systems, the sales radius of sand and gravel mines with convenient transportation has expanded, and their sales target markets are relatively fixed. For example, some of China Power Construction's large-scale sand and gravel mines in Guangdong mainly target the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area; The main target areas for the sand and gravel mines laid out by Zhejiang Jiaotou Resources Company are Zhejiang and Shanghai, while the main target areas for sand and gravel mines along the Yangtze River are the Yangtze River Delta. The main target areas for sand and gravel mines in other provinces are local, laying the foundation for building large-scale production within the province or region.

In fact, some sand and gravel enterprises have voluntarily established their own large markets. Zhejiang Jiaotou Resources Company relies on its own marketing platform to actively build a local sand and gravel market in Zhejiang. At the same time, it collaborates with multiple shipping and concrete companies in Shanghai to explore and develop this market in Shanghai. Hubei Wuxue Minben Group aims to target areas such as Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai, and has opened up a large market by building a network freight platform. In 2023, the output value of the network freight platform alone will exceed 100 million yuan. Henan Resources Group is also leveraging its advantage in sand and gravel resources to plan the construction of a green digital building materials market in Henan Province with leading enterprises in production, transportation, and utilization, in order to achieve the goal of "Yu material Yu use". As a domestic solution service provider to promote the development of China's sandstone industry chain with Internet technology, the "Stonewall Aggregate E-commerce Platform" independently developed and built by Shaanxi Stonewall integrates market transaction, logistics transportation, data traceability, information interaction, supply chain management and financial services. It is a leading all channel, all link, and all scene e-commerce platform in the domestic sandstone industry, and has accumulated experience for building a digital sandstone market and exploring a new ecosystem of the sandstone supply chain.

Everything is ready for the east wind. In recent years, a series of policy deployments by the government to accelerate the construction of a unified national market have brought significant benefits to the construction of a digital platform for the sand and gravel industry, which will undoubtedly help the industry overcome difficulties and achieve high-quality development.

A good strategist seeks power. The sand and gravel industry, which is currently in crisis, can only seek opportunities in the midst of danger, closely follow national strategies, be good at planning and doing, make good use of the favorable policy of building a unified big market in the country, and build a digital big market platform for the sand and gravel industry in order to break through the encirclement and achieve "unique scenery here".