The price signal in the water treatment filter media market is becoming unusually flat. On July 19, Henan Kaijie Water Treatment Co., Ltd. reported an identical price of 15,500 RMB/ton for its ordinary fiber balls across three specifications—30mm, 40mm, and 50mm diameters. In the industrial filter media sector, where pricing is typically graded by size, this price flattening is uncommon. It points not to market calm, but to a structural game unfolding across the supply chain.
Price Stagnation: The Intersection of Overcapacity and Demand Divergence
The prolonged stagnation of fiber ball prices is first linked to the transmission mechanism of upstream raw material costs. The primary raw material for fiber balls is polyester staple fiber, whose price has been range-bound since the second half of 2025, with volatility narrowing to within 5%. This stability in raw material costs provides a pricing anchor for downstream filter media companies.
However, the deeper cause lies in supply-side overcapacity. Over the past three years, domestic fiber ball production capacity has expanded far faster than demand growth, with more than 40 new production lines added in Henan, Shandong, and Hebei alone. The rapid capacity release has shifted the market from a seller's to a buyer's market, triggering price competition among companies vying for orders. The 15,500 RMB/ton price is essentially an equilibrium point near the industry's average cost line—below this, small and medium manufacturers struggle to cover depreciation and labor; above it, large customers quickly switch to alternatives.
Regional Industry Belt Differentiation and Concentration
Henan Kaijie's quotation is not an isolated case. The central region centered on Zhengzhou has emerged as a major fiber ball production cluster in recent years. Leveraging the transportation and logistics advantages of the Central Plains Economic Zone, Henan companies can cover northern water treatment projects at relatively low costs. Meanwhile, traditional filter media production bases in Jiangsu and Zhejiang are under environmental pressure, with some capacity shifting to central and western regions, further intensifying competition in Henan.
This differentiation is also reflected in product structure. The fact that Henan Kaijie quoted the same price for three specifications suggests that the company is not using differentiated pricing to guide customer choices. This mirrors a common market phenomenon: severe product homogeneity, with companies lacking the ability to create premium through specification segmentation. For buyers, this means limited bargaining room; for factories, it means continuous margin compression.
Structural Changes in Downstream Application Scenarios
Fiber balls are mainly used in industrial wastewater treatment, municipal sewage treatment, and circulating water filtration. In the first half of 2026, the number of municipal sewage upgrading projects fell about 12% year-on-year, but demand from industrial wastewater treatment—especially in chemical and steel industries—remained steadily growing.
This structural shift directly impacts fiber ball buyers. Industrial wastewater treatment demands higher acid-alkali resistance and mechanical strength from filter media, areas where ordinary fiber balls are not strong. Some end users have started switching to modified fiber balls or composite filter media, squeezing the market space for ordinary products. Henan Kaijie's stable pricing is, to some extent, a defensive strategy in response to changing demand structure—maintaining price to retain existing customers while waiting for market direction.
Price Expectations and Inventory Strategy
Historically, fiber ball prices usually see seasonal upticks in July and August, driven by summer water usage peaks and maintenance periods. But the July 2026 quotation showed no such seasonal fluctuation, indicating that supply-demand fundamentals have overwhelmed seasonal factors.
For buyers, the current price level may be near the bottom. However, given that overcapacity is unlikely to change in the short term, price rebound potential is limited. Companies should avoid blind stockpiling due to low prices, and instead adopt rolling procurement based on actual project schedules. Meanwhile, it is advisable to monitor price trends for differentiated products like modified fiber balls, which may form a new price center in the next 2-3 years.