Driven By Environmental Protection And Performance, The Brake Pad Industry Enters A New Cycle Of High-Quality Development——Shandong Huaruifeng Leads The Wave Of Technological Iteration
Since the start of 2026, China's brake pad industry has officially stepped into a high-quality development phase centered on "green manufacturing, precise adaptation, and global compliance," driven by policy dividends, market demand, and technological innovation. Data shows that the domestic brake pad market scale grew from 18 billion yuan to 24 billion yuan between 2021 and 2025, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3%. It is expected to exceed 32 billion yuan by 2030, among which environmentally friendly and new energy-specific products have become the core growth engines. As a representative enterprise in Shandong's industrial cluster, Shandong Huaruifeng Machinery Co., Ltd., relying on years of technical accumulation and precise market layout, is empowering industry transformation with an innovative product matrix and emerging as a key force promoting industrial upgrading.
Strengthened Policies and Regulations: Environmentally Friendly Products Become the Industry's "Hard Threshold"
With the in-depth advancement of the "dual carbon" strategy, environmental standards for the brake pad industry have been continuously upgraded. GB/T 46581-2025 "Road Vehicles - Brake Lining Friction Materials - Test Method for Wear Particle Emission," issued by the State Administration for Market Regulation in October 2025, will be officially implemented on May 1, 2026, marking a new era of "particulate emission control" in China's brake pad industry. Meanwhile, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's "2025 Guidelines for Green Manufacturing of Auto Parts" clearly requires that by 2027, the proportion of environmentally friendly products among newly produced passenger car brake pads shall not be less than 60%, forcing the industry to accelerate the elimination of traditional high-copper and high-dust products.
In the international market, environmental regulations are equally tightening. California and Washington State in the United States have legislated that the copper content in brake pads shall be below 0.5% after 2025, and the EU REACH regulation has also imposed strict restrictions on heavy metal emissions. This trend is driving the global brake pad market towards "copper-free, low-dust, and low-noise" transformation. As early as 2023, Shandong Huaruifeng launched the R&D of environmentally friendly formulas. Its latest ceramic-based copper-free brake pads control copper content below 0.3%, not only meeting the domestic mandatory standard GB5763-2018 but also successfully passing the ECE R90 certification, complying with European and American market access requirements, and laying a solid foundation for the enterprise to expand overseas business.
NEV Boom Restructures Demand: Customized Technology Becomes the Core of Competition
The explosive growth of new energy vehicles (NEVs) is reshaping the demand structure of the brake pad industry. By the end of 2025, the ownership of NEVs in China exceeded 28 million units, with a market penetration rate of over 45%. Their regenerative braking systems reduce brake pad wear rate by 30%-50% and extend the replacement cycle to 60,000-80,000 kilometers, but impose higher requirements on product thermal stability, low-temperature responsiveness, and noise reduction. Addressing this pain point, Shandong Huaruifeng has developed NEV-specific brake pads in collaboration with university research teams, adopting a composite formula of ceramic fibers and aramid fibers. The friction coefficient remains stable at 0.35-0.45 in the temperature range of -30℃ to 600℃, the braking response time is shortened by 15%, and at the same time, low dust emission and an ultra-long service life of 60,000 kilometers are achieved. Currently, the company has established supporting cooperation with multiple NEV manufacturers.
In the traditional passenger car and commercial vehicle sectors, product structure upgrading is also evident. Data shows that the market share of ceramic brake pads reached 28.7% in 2025, an increase of nearly 10 percentage points compared with 2021, while the proportion of semi-metallic brake pads continued to decline to 42.3%. Accurately grasping market changes, Shandong Huaruifeng has built a full-series product system covering passenger cars, commercial vehicles, and NEVs: launching low-noise ceramic brake pads for passenger cars to meet the comfort needs of mid-to-high-end models; creating high-wear-resistant low-metallic products for commercial vehicles, adapting to high-frequency braking scenarios in logistics and transportation; and developing carbon-ceramic composite brake pads for special working conditions such as heavy-duty trucks, which improve thermal fade resistance by 30% and can withstand high-temperature braking above 1000℃. Currently, these products are widely used in large domestic logistics groups.
Prominent Advantages of Industrial Clusters: Intelligent Production Consolidates the Foundation of Quality
China's brake pad industry presents a competitive pattern of "head concentration and regional agglomeration." Regions such as Shandong, Zhejiang, and Guangdong have formed industrial clusters relying on complete industrial chains, with a capacity utilization rate maintained above 85%. Based in Shandong's industrial cluster, Shandong Huaruifeng integrates local raw material supply chain resources and establishes a full-process production line from friction material R&D, backplate stamping to finished product assembly. By introducing automated hot-press forming equipment and online detection systems, the company controls the consistency error of products within ±2% and reduces the defect rate to below 0.3%, far lower than the industry average.
In terms of cost control and supply chain stability, the enterprise has established long-term strategic cooperation with core raw material suppliers such as copper powder and phenolic resin through vertical integration of the supply chain, effectively resisting the risk of raw material price fluctuations. Since 2023, facing the market environment of high copper price volatility, Shandong Huaruifeng, relying on the technical advantages of copper-free formulas, not only reduced its dependence on copper materials but also achieved a 12% cost reduction of environmentally friendly products through large-scale production, making high-performance environmentally friendly brake pads accessible to more end users.
Industry Outlook: Technological Innovation and Global Layout Lead the Future
Looking ahead to 2026-2030, the brake pad industry will usher in a new round of reshuffling. Technological innovation, green transformation, and global layout will become the core competitiveness of enterprises. With the gradual increase in market concentration, it is expected that the CR10 will rise from the current 35% to more than 45% by 2030, and enterprises with material R&D capabilities and international certification qualifications will dominate the market. A relevant person in charge of Shandong Huaruifeng stated that the company will continue to increase R&D investment, focusing on breaking through cutting-edge technologies such as carbon-ceramic composite materials and intelligent braking friction materials, while expanding overseas emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and the Middle East, striving to increase the proportion of overseas sales to 30% by 2028.
Against the backdrop of the automotive industry's transformation towards electrification and intelligence, brake pads, as core components ensuring driving safety, their technological upgrading and product innovation are directly related to vehicle performance and user experience. Adhering to the development concept of "safety first, environmental protection priority, and innovation as the soul," Shandong Huaruifeng will deepen the segmented market, empower the coordinated development of the upstream and downstream industrial chains, and inject lasting momentum into the high-quality development of China's brake pad industry.
