Global and China Industrial Laser Industry Report 2019-2025

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The laser industry, playing an important role in modern high-end manufacturing, is observably boosted by the upgrading of laser equipment and the new applied scenarios. The world market size of laser (the core component of laser equipment) is ballooning. The global industrial laser market surged from $2.63 billion in 2014 to over $4.59 billion in 2018, showing the CAGR of 14.9%, and it will present a CAGR of 6%-8% between 2019 and 2025.

In 2018, China's industrial laser market was worth approximately RMB5.07 billion (or $770 million by the exchange rate of 1:6.6174), up 8.9% year on year and commanding a global share of 16.7%. Spurred by the policy, China's industrial laser technology has been improved radically, propelling the market to develop steadily with an expected AAGR of roughly 13.0% from 2019 to 2025.

The Chinese industrial laser market in recent years is featured as follows:

First, fiber lasers are widely used. Fiber lasers occupy the most of industrial lasers, exceeding 44% in 2018. The fiber laser market size soared from RMB720 million in 2014 to RMB1.90 billion in 2018, with the CAGR of 27.7%, and the size will be excess of RMB7 billion in 2025 with breakthroughs are being made in fiber laser technologies.

Second, ultrafast lasers spring up. Ultrafast laser, indeed, brings cold processing into a reality, enjoying superiority in precision machining (especially in 3C manufacturing). The ultrafast laser sales in China increased from 40 units in 2015 to 850 units in 2018, with the CAGR of 177%; but more than 80% of ultrafast lasers in China are still imported. Ultrafast laser will find wider application with maturity of production process and cost reduction.

Third, emerging fields drive demand growth. Affected by volatility in demand and trade wars, the capital expenditure of industrial enterprises have been downsized since the second half of 2018. Furthermore, weak innovation or extended production expansion cycle of low-power fields such as consumer electronics, panels, etc., the industrial laser sector saw a slowdown in year-on-year growth rate. The market demand for industrial lasers will rebound in the wake of more application in new energy vehicles, power batteries, OLED and semiconductors,

Fourth, the localization process has accelerated. Up to date, medium and low-power fiber lasers made in China have almost substituted for imports. Due to high technical barriers, high-power fiber lasers only saw a localization rate of 34.5% in 2018. Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies, a Chinese fiber laser giant, has realized independent production of core components such as pump sources, fiber combiners, laser transmission cable assembly and special fiber. Also, high-power semiconductor lasers and ultrafast lasers are in the process of substitution.

Global industrial laser suppliers consist mainly of Trumpf from Germany, Coherent, IPG and nLIGHT from the United States, and Chinese peers such as Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies, Han's Laser, Maxphotonics and JPT Opto-electronics. Global top 5 manufacturers held a combined market share of 72.6% in 2018, of which IPG ranked first with a market share of 26.9%, followed by TRUMPF with 18.4%; meanwhile, Wuhan Raycus Fiber Laser Technologies, the largest industrial laser vendor in China, seized 4.4% market share worldwide.