Policy And Technology Drive Green Transition: Brake Pad Industry Embraces New Wave, Shandong Huaruifeng Breaks Through in High-End Market
With the in-depth advancement of the "dual carbon" strategy and the intelligent upgrading of the automotive industry, China's brake pad industry is undergoing a profound transformation centered on "environmental compliance, technological iteration, and cluster synergy." The domestic brake pad market scale reached 65 billion yuan in 2025 and is expected to climb to 70.525 billion yuan in 2026. Driven by both policy dividends and market demand, the industry is accelerating its transition from scale expansion to high-quality development. Local enterprises represented by Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd. are breaking through in the high-end market by virtue of technological innovation and industrial cluster advantages.
Policy Intensification Forces Industry Shuffle, Environmental Compliance Becomes Core Threshold
The GB/T 39875-2024 "Limits and Test Methods for Harmful Substances in Automotive Brake Linings," officially implemented on January 1, 2025, has significantly reduced the copper content limit in brake pads from 15% to 5% and tightened the VOCs emission limit to ≤50 mg/kg, aligning with the EU ELV Directive and the US SB 6557 Act. This marks China's brake pad industry entering the first tier of global environmental regulation. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "General Principles for Green Factory Evaluation" requires enterprises' comprehensive energy consumption per unit product to be no higher than 0.85 tons of standard coal per 10,000 pieces, with a carbon footprint tracking system covering the entire production process. The superposition of multiple policies is accelerating the industry shuffle. Data shows that 89 brake pad enterprises nationwide were deregistered or suspended in 2024, among which more than 90% were regional small factories with an annual output of less than 2 million pieces. In contrast, leading enterprises with low-copper formulas and green production capabilities have continuously increased their market share.
In the process of policy implementation, Shandong, as a major national brake pad production base, has taken the lead in responding by leveraging the advantages of its automotive parts industrial cluster. The industrial agglomeration area centered in Guangrao County has formed a complete industrial chain with an annual output of 53.5 million sets of brake pads. Through the "industry-university-research collaboration and upstream-downstream linkage" model, it has promoted regional enterprises to collectively break through environmental technology bottlenecks. As a backbone enterprise in this cluster, Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd. launched the green factory transformation as early as 2023, investing 10 million yuan in introducing RTO waste gas treatment equipment and MES energy management system. Its independently developed copper-free ceramic-based brake pad products control copper content below 3%, with a full-life-cycle carbon footprint as low as 23 kg CO₂e/piece, 18% lower than the industry average. The products have successfully passed TüV Rheinland environmental certification, becoming one of the local enterprises that first meet both national standards and the EU ECE R13 dual standards.
Technological Iteration Restructures Competitive Pattern, High-End Market Welcomes Domesticization Opportunities
The electrification and intelligent transformation of the automotive industry is restructuring the technical route of the brake pad industry. The increased weight of new energy vehicles and brake energy recovery systems put forward higher requirements for the thermal stability and low drag torque of brake pads; the popularization of intelligent driving has promoted the upgrading of brake systems towards "precise response and long service life," leading to the rapid penetration of high-end products such as ceramic-based and carbon-ceramic composite materials. In 2025, the penetration rate of ceramic-based brake pads in the OEM market rose from 28% in 2024 to 31%, and in the field of new energy vehicles, this proportion reached 45%. Technological upgrading has become the core grip for enterprises to seize the high-end market.
Facing changes in market demand, Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery focuses on the dual main lines of "material innovation and process upgrading," building a full-series product matrix covering passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and special vehicles. The company has collaborated with the Rubber Industry Research Institute of Qingdao University of Science and Technology to develop carbon nanotube-reinforced copper-free friction materials, with a stable friction coefficient in the range of 0.38-0.42, capable of withstanding high temperatures of 650℃, and a brake efficiency attenuation rate of less than 8% under extreme working conditions of 300℃, far exceeding national standard requirements. The low-drag brake pads customized for new energy vehicles have reduced drag torque by 25% through optimizing friction material formulas and steel back structure design, helping to increase the overall vehicle range by 3%-5%. At the same time, the company has introduced ultra-high-speed laser coating technology, reducing product wear by more than 60% and extending the service life by 2 times compared with ordinary brake pads. Relevant technologies have passed OEM certification by automakers such as Changan and Chery, and are batch-matched with new energy models.
Cluster Synergy Empowers Industrial Upgrading, Shandong Enterprises Lead Regional Competition
Relying on the synergy advantages of Shandong's automotive parts industrial cluster, brake pad enterprises are realizing the transformation from "individual combat" to "cluster operations." The industrial agglomeration area centered in Guangrao has formed a complete industrial chain covering rubber additives, steel back processing, friction material R&D, and testing and certification. Through the "industrial brain" platform, it realizes supply chain data sharing, and the provincial-level quality inspection center unifies testing standards, effectively reducing enterprise R&D and production costs. This cluster synergy effect has endowed Shandong's brake pad enterprises with natural advantages in high-end market competition-in 2025, Guangrao's annual brake pad production capacity reached 53.5 million sets, of which export products accounted for more than 30%, being sold to Europe, America, Southeast Asia and other markets.
Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery has deeply integrated into the regional industrial ecosystem and achieved efficient development through cluster synergy. By sharing the recycled material supply chain within the cluster, the company incorporates 30% recycled ceramic fibers and 20% recycled copper powder into the formula system, which not only reduces raw material costs but also reduces product carbon emissions by 22%, successfully meeting the recycled material usage ratio requirements in the National Development and Reform Commission's "Circular Economy Promotion Law (Revised Draft)." With the support of intelligent transformation policies within the cluster, the company's production line digitalization rate reaches 92%, hot pressing forming accuracy is controlled within 0.005 millimeters, and annual production capacity exceeds 3 million sets, making it one of the core suppliers of new energy vehicle brake pads in North China.
Future Outlook: Technological Innovation and Global Layout Are Key
Looking ahead to 2026, as the national car ownership exceeds 340 million, the replacement demand in the after-sales market will continue to be released. Coupled with the supporting increment brought by the expected new energy vehicle output exceeding 14 million units, the brake pad industry will maintain a steady growth rate of 8.5%. Industry experts point out that in the next five years, the penetration rate of ceramic-based and carbon-ceramic composite materials in the OEM market will rise to 52%, and the proportion of recycled materials used is expected to exceed 40%. The implementation of carbon footprint classification certification and green labeling systems will further intensify market differentiation. For enterprises, only by internalizing environmental compliance into technical advantages and transforming cluster synergy into cost advantages can they take the initiative in the global value chain.
As a local enterprise deeply engaged in the braking field, the general manager of Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd. stated that the company will continue to increase R&D investment, focusing on tackling key technologies such as carbon-ceramic composite materials and intelligent brake sensing technology, and plans to launch high-precision brake pad products adapted to L4-level autonomous driving in 2026. Meanwhile, relying on the "Belt and Road" initiative and the "joint overseas expansion" model of Shandong's industrial clusters, it will expand emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, striving to increase the proportion of high-end product exports to 40%. In the wave of the industry's green transformation, Shandong Huaruifeng is steadily moving towards the goal of "China's leading provider of brake system solutions" with technological innovation as the sail and industrial clusters as the rudder.
