The Market Size Of FPC Key Materials Is Expected To Exceed 7.2 Billion Yuan This Year

PI film has superior performance and wide range of downstream applications

PI film has superior performance and wide range of downstream applications. The product forms of polyimide include film, foam, fiber, photosensitive polyimide and polyimide-based composite materials, etc. Among them, PI film accounts for more than 70%, which is the most important product form in the polyimide industry. . The manufacture of PI film requires production processes such as resin polymerization, casting, directional stretching, imidization and post-treatment. The product has excellent properties such as high heat resistance, strong mechanical properties, low dielectric constant and low expansion coefficient. Known as the "gold film", it is widely used downstream in high-tech industries such as consumer electronics, high-speed rail, wind power, aerospace and flexible displays.

Foreign giants occupy the mainstream of the market, and domestic production capacity gradually follows up

The domestic PI film started late, and there is a gap between the production capacity, process, technology and other aspects of the foreign giants. As the advanced production technology is mostly mastered by the United States, Japan, South Korea and other countries, the domestic production mainly focuses on the production of low-end electrical PI films, and the high-end products still rely on imports. In recent years, with the continuous accumulation of domestic technology and capital, many new material companies have successively put into production PI films, and domestic production capacity has gradually expanded.

From the perspective of the global market, American, Japanese and Korean companies, including DuPont in the United States, Zhongyuan Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. in Japan, Toray Co., Ltd. in Japan, Ube Industries Co., Ltd. in Japan, and SKC Kolon PI in South Korea, occupy the entire industry. nearly 80% capacity. In recent years, domestic professional manufacturers have accelerated their development, and domestically produced PI films have gradually achieved import substitution. Among them, Shenzhen Ruihuatai Film Technology Co., Ltd.'s product sales account for about 6% of the global market, marking the official entry of domestic PI film manufacturers into global competition ranks.

It is estimated that the domestic market size will reach 7.24 billion yuan, and there is a broad space for import substitution

From 2017 to 2020, the compound growth rate of the global PI film market is nearly 8%. At the end of 2019, the global PI film market reached 1.8 billion US dollars, an increase of 11.1% over the previous year, and reached 2.05 billion US dollars in 2020. At present, among the downstream applications of PI films in the world, FPC for flexible circuit boards accounts for the largest proportion, accounting for about 48%, followed by special products including aerospace materials and flexible display materials accounting for about 29%, and the remaining application fields account for 23%.

The growth in the output value of flexible circuit board FPC has promoted the continuous expansion of the electronic-grade PI film market: flexible copper clad laminate FCCL is an important substrate for the manufacture of flexible circuit board FPC, which has become an important component of electronic products and equipment due to its lightness, thinness and flexibility. The global FCCL market size has grown from US$2.64 billion in 2014 to US$4.48 billion in 2019. As the main raw material of FCCL, the demand for electronic-grade PI film has grown simultaneously with FCCL. In 2019, the global FCCL industry demand for PI film reached 14,877.5 tons, and domestic The demand is 4869.0 tons, and the growth rate is 8%. From the perspective of FPC output value, the domestic FPC output value increased from 29.07 billion yuan to 52.60 billion yuan in 2014-2020, with a compound growth rate of 10.4%. In recent years, the growth rate of FPC demand has slowed down, but the development of new downstream electronic products will inject new growth momentum into the FPC industry. It is expected that the output value of FPC will increase to 54.44 billion yuan in 2021, thereby promoting the continuous expansion of the electronic-grade PI film market.

The rapid development of commercial aerospace and flexible screens has driven the growth of the special-grade PI film market: In the aerospace field, PI film has been used as a rocket protective material due to its excellent weather resistance and radiation resistance. Since 2015, thanks to With policy support and the development of private enterprises, the number of domestic launch vehicle launches has gradually increased, and launch revenue has grown rapidly. In 2019, the market size of the entire commercial aerospace industry chain exceeded 800 billion yuan, with a compound growth rate of 22.1%. Since the raw material cost of a single launch vehicle can account for 35% of the total cost, the localization of raw materials is bound to greatly reduce the manufacturing cost, thereby promoting the growth of special-grade PI films. In the field of flexible screens, flexible CPI films are the screen cover materials used by most foldable mobile phone manufacturers. With the continuous commercialization of flexible displays, folding mobile phones have gradually become a new form of mobile phones. According to relevant forecasts, global shipments of folding mobile phones will reach 45.3 million units in 2024, and domestic shipments will reach 13.2 million units. The core components of mobile phones will promote the continued growth of special-grade PI films.

Consumer electronics are gaining momentum, and thermally conductive grade PI film is ushering in greater demand space: thermally conductive graphite film is a downstream product of thermally conductive grade PI film, which is mainly used in the fields of LED substrates and electronic components for heat dissipation. . In recent years, the domestic thermal interface material market has gradually expanded, from 660 million yuan in 2014 to 1.27 billion yuan in 2020, with a compound growth rate of 9.9%. With the advent of the 5G era, domestic 5G mobile phone shipments increased rapidly from 12.982 million units in 2019Q4 to 55.096 million units in 2020Q4. The drive of 5G technology will bring greater demand for thermally conductive PI films.

The market of wind power and high-speed rail industry is rising steadily, and the scale of electrical-grade PI film industry continues to expand: electrical-grade PI film is mainly used in high-grade insulation systems such as variable frequency motors and generators, and finally used in wind power generation, high-speed rail transit and other fields. In the wind power industry, China is the world's largest wind power development market. By the end of 2020, the cumulative installed capacity of domestic wind power reached 282GW, a year-on-year increase of 34.3%, and the cumulative installed capacity accounted for 36% of the global total. In the context of advocating new energy, with the localization of the wind power industry chain, electrical PI films will have broader market prospects. In the high-speed rail transportation industry, China's high-speed rail operation mileage ranks first in the world, accounting for more than 60%. By the end of 2019, the domestic high-speed rail operating mileage reached 35,000 kilometers, and the number of EMU locomotives reached 29,000. The mileage of high-speed rail will reach 37,000 kilometers, and the market size of electrical PI films will continue to expand.

According to the calculation of the growth rate of the global and domestic downstream industries, it is estimated that by 2022, the total size of the global PI film market will reach 2.45 billion US dollars, and the total domestic PI film market will reach 7.24 billion yuan. The film is 2.69 billion yuan, the thermal conductivity grade PI film is 950 million yuan, and the electrical grade PI film is 970 million yuan.