NEWS
Chinese laser firms outperform European and US brands in China Li was part of a delegation from the
European and American brands, including Trumpf and IPG, are losing ground to Chinese laser firms in China, according to data presented by Guozhong Li at a meeting on lasers and material processing organised by the European Photonics Industry Consortium (EPIC). Li is deputy chief editor for the Chinese publication, Laser Manufacture News, and was speaking at the event in Vilnius, Lithuania on 8 September. Trumpf’s turnover in China was
€360 million – down two per cent for its 2015/2016 financial year compared to the previous year – while IPG posted sales of US $96.4 million in China for Q2 2016, equating to four per cent growth. Han’s Laser, which is based in
Shenzhen in Guangdong province, had total sales of US $467.44 million for the first half of 2016, growing 22.7 per cent, while HG Tech, based in Wuhan in Central China’s Hubei province, recorded total sales of US $246.14 million and growth of 30.4 per cent in the first half of 2016. Han’s Laser recently acquired the
majority of Canadian optical fibre and fibre laser manufacturer, CorActive High-Tech. The move represents a strategic acquisition to help boost Han’s Laser’s capabilities in fibre laser manufacturing and to help the group expand into new applications and geographical regions. The Chinese laser processing
market reached US $6,837 million in 2015, according to Li, with Guangdong and Hubei being the two main hubs of laser processing, making up 31 per cent and 21 per cent respectively of the Chinese market. There are a total of 1,134 Chinese
laser companies, Li said. The main sector is laser marking, although laser cutting and welding are both growing, taking 30 per cent and 15 per cent of market share respectively. The price of laser equipment has
also dropped considerably in the last five years, Li said – a 20W pulsed fibre laser that cost US $12,500 in 2010 has halved in price to around US $6,000 in 2015, while a 1,500W laser cutting machine that would have cost US $180,000 in 2010 is now priced at US $100,000.
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Guangdong Laser Institute Association (GDLIA) attending the EPIC event, alongside Ruohong Hou, president of Sunshine Laser and GDLIA. Chinese companies are willing to
adopt new technology from firms that are less well known than more recognised brands, Lynn Sheehan, director of global applications at laser producer NLight, said at the EPIC meeting in Vilnius. Sheehan has a lot of experience working in the Chinese
market; 70 per cent of NLight’s sales are in China, he estimated. ‘In Europe and the US it’s just the
opposite; the adoption rate is slow, it’s very conservative, and brand recognition is a big part of the choice,’ he added.
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ISSUE 33 • WINTER 2016 LASER SYSTEMS EUROPE 5
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