Changes Of Brands in China's Fiber Laser Market

In 2018, the domestic market share of European and American companies exceeded 60%, of which IPG accounted for nearly half of the domestic market share, accounting for over 49%, ranking first, while Coherent and nLIGHT also occupied the fourth and fifth positions respectively. Location. However, in recent years, with the rise of domestic fiber laser manufacturers, domestic substitution has continued to deepen. In 2020, the sales of foreign companies such as IPG, nLIGHT, and Coherent in the Chinese market declined to varying degrees. IPG's fiber laser share in China has further shrunk from 41.9% in 2019 to 34.6% in 2020. Coherent receded from fifth to sixth place, and its market share dropped to 3.8%; nLIGHT's position remained unchanged, and sales declined slightly.

In contrast, the domestic fiber laser brand, Raycus, has increased its market share from 17.3% in 2018 to 24.4% in 2020, catching up with IPG; its revenue has increased to 3.41 billion yuan in 2021, almost the same as IPG China's market share (IPG 2021). The revenue of fiber lasers in the Chinese market is 550 million US dollars, equivalent to 3.48 billion yuan). MAX has also grown from a single-digit share of 8.9% in 2018 to 16.6% in 2020; in addition, domestic brands such as JPT, FEIBO, BWT, GW, and RECI have also risen rapidly, squeezing the market share of European and American brands. It can be seen that the degree of localization of fiber lasers is further deepening, and it can compete with European and American brands. It is expected that in 2022, the sales share of fiber lasers in China may be reshuffled.

Due to the continuous improvement of the performance and efficiency of fiber lasers and the continuous efforts of domestic manufacturers, after 2017, the power of fiber lasers has increased rapidly, and the sales of domestic lasers at the kilowatt level in 2019 have achieved an overtake. From the power point of view, in the domestic market, low- and medium-power fiber lasers have been completely replaced by localization. However, the competition in the domestic market of the 3-10 kW product segment tends to be fierce, and the main battlefield of the price war has also shifted from the 1-3 kW product segment to the 6-10 kW product segment. The trend of domestic substitution is also gradually extending to 10,000 watts.

In recent years, manufacturing upgrades, high-end manufacturing, and intelligent manufacturing have gradually become new directions of attention in the domestic laser industry. Laser technology applications are becoming more and more extensive, and the requirements for laser power are getting higher and higher. In order to meet high-end manufacturing applications Market demand, higher power and even 10,000-watt fiber lasers came into being.

At present, Raycus, MAX, FEIBO, GW, DK, etc. have successively launched 10,000-watt high-power fiber lasers, while downstream equipment manufacturers such as HANS, PENTA, HSG, BODOR and other companies have concentrated on launching laser cutting equipment with a power of more than 20,000 watts. Domestic high-power laser cutting equipment is expected to substantially replace foreign products. Therefore, the shipments of domestic high-power fiber lasers in the 6-10 kW power segment have increased significantly in the past two years. Raycus' 2021 financial report shows that its 10,000-watt lasers will sell more than 2,380 units in 2021, of which more than 5,900 high-power lasers of 6 kW and above will be sold.

Compared with the import of core components in the past few years, with the enhancement of capital strength and the improvement of independent research and development strength, the shipments of imported brands and domestic brands in the power segment above 10 kW have been comparable. This is mainly due to the breakthrough of domestic high-power core components, such as high-power fiber gratings, laser chips, etc., which have been replaced to varying degrees, and have begun to catch up with foreign levels.