Ceramic products are divided into two categories: traditional ceramics and advanced special technical ceramics. Advanced ceramics generally refer to ceramics with high chemical purity, ultra-fine artificial synthesis or selected inorganic compounds as raw materials, with precise chemical composition and excellent characteristics. Compared with traditional ceramics, advanced ceramics are more demanding in terms of raw materials, technology, and performance. Advanced ceramics can be divided into structural ceramics and functional ceramics according to their characteristics and uses.In 2018, the domestic functional ceramics market accounted for 70%, including electronic ceramics, photothermal functional ceramics, etc .; the structural ceramics market accounted for 30%, including oxidation Ceramics, non-oxide ceramics, nano-ceramics, etc.
According to GrandView Research data, the global advanced ceramics market size in 2018 was USD 72.74 billion and CAGR (2015-2018) was 8.66%; and the global advanced ceramics market is forecast to reach USD 133.9 billion by 2025 and CAGR (2018-2025) is 9.1%. Among them, electrical and electronics are the largest application fields of advanced ceramics. In 2018, global demand accounted for 56.8%, followed by automobiles (12.5%), environment (11.2%), and medicine (10.5%). In terms of materials, high-purity alumina is the most commonly used due to its high hardness and high melting point. In 2018, it occupied a market share of 35.2%; in terms of products, monolithic ceramics are currently more applied than ceramic coatings and ceramic-based composite materials. Widely used, accounting for 78.9% of applications in 2018.
Industry trend 1: MLCC, high-purity alumina and other sub-species are expected to achieve import substitution.
According to online statistics of new materials, the global advanced ceramic industry in 2016 was mainly concentrated in North America and Japan. At present, the domestic advanced ceramics market is relatively small, with electronic ceramics as the main product, and its sales account for only 1-2% of the world's total. However, a phased technological breakthrough has been achieved in MLCC, high-purity alumina, and nano-zirconia. Is expected to achieve import substitution.
1) High-purity alumina: China has several companies with SDGC ceramic materials, HBPD advanced ceramic materials and other enterprises with a production capacity of 1,000 tons. The method is the most advanced, with lower cost and short production cycle.
2) MLCC ceramic powder: Major domestic manufacturers include SDGC ceramic materials, China Star Electronics, etc. SDGC ceramic materials are the first in China and the second in the world to use hydrothermal method to produce barium titanate manufacturers, which is 30% cheaper than Japanese homogeneous products % -50%, can successfully replace imported high-end barium titanate.
3) Nano-sized zirconia: Major domestic manufacturers include SDGC ceramic materials, DFGY zirconium material technology, etc. Its SDGC ceramic materials have a capacity of 2,500 tons / year, and it is the first manufacturer in the world to produce zirconia microspheres using the titration method. Dense, high strength, high toughness, low wear and other properties.
Industrial Trend 2: Demand for products such as honeycomb ceramics and nano-zirconia ceramics is expected to accelerate.
1) Honeycomb ceramics: Benefiting from the stricter emission limit of National Sixth Standard, the volume ratio of catalyst to honeycomb ceramic support has increased from 1: 1 of National V to 0.5 ~ 0.8: 1 of National Six, and DPF installation The proportion is increased from 50% to 100%, and the demand for honeycomb ceramics is expected to grow rapidly. According to the SDAF environmental prospectus, China's automotive honeycomb ceramic carriers are expected to increase from 97 million liters in 2017 to 260.1 million liters in 2025, with a CAGR of 13.1%.
2) Nano-sized zirconia ceramics: The 5G era is coming. Due to the metal backplane shielding the mobile phone signal, the zirconia ceramic backplane has the characteristics of no signal shielding, high hardness, and high heat dissipation performance, but the cost is relatively high. In the future Expected to accelerate penetration in the high-end model market. Global mobile phone shipments in 2018 were 1.4 billion. If 1.5 billion mobile phones are sold in 2021, the ceramic backplane penetration rate will reach 10%, and the single value of zirconia ceramics will be 60 yuan, the market size of mobile nano-zirconia ceramics in 2021 will be Reached 9 billion yuan.
We believe that the core barriers of technology construction industry are mainly based on the following three points:
1) The complexity of the process. In order to ensure the high hardness of the fired advanced ceramics, the sintering temperature needs to be high near the melting point, but the ceramics
Low thermal conductivity can easily lead to uneven heating, so the firing process is required. At the same time, due to the large number of advanced ceramic subdivisions, it also results in a large number of processes and large differences, and most of them do not have fungibility. The richness of technology reserves basically determines the number and quality of customers and the corresponding sales revenue.
2) Downstream demand is innovating. For example, honeycomb ceramics, in the process of upgrading the downstream automotive emission standards from National IV to National VI, the wall thickness is required to be thinner and thinner to increase the open porosity and reduce the back pressure. The thermal expansion coefficient is also required to be continuously reduced. Various technical indicators are continuously Upgrade; MLCC industry oligarchs have begun to shift production capacity to high-end markets such as miniaturization, RF components and high-capacity vehicles, which require the use of a large number of high-voltage, large-capacity, high-temperature MLCC devices.
3) Dispersion of downstream demand. Due to the large variety of advanced ceramics and the scattered downstream demand, generally speaking, the market for single varieties is limited, and the industry is highly differentiated and competitive. The path for the company's growth is to continue to expand its product line to meet the needs of different customers. Except for outbound M & A, internal technology research and development is a more conventional method.
At present, the advanced ceramic industry is still in a highly decentralized state. Due to the decentralized demand and the existence of certain technical barriers across varieties, the concentration of large enterprises is low, and the participants are still mainly small and medium enterprises. According to Fact.MR statistics, the advanced ceramics manufacturers in the United States can be divided into three levels. Tier1 includes companies such as Kyocera of Japan, CeramTec of Germany, and Morgan New Materials. The market share is about 13% -17%. Annual revenue (only Tier2 includes companies such as General Electric and Toto of Japan with a market share of approximately 35% -40%; Tier3 includes companies such as Lauschel Group and McDanel advanced ceramic technology in the United States, with a market share of approximately 50% -54%.
Domestic advanced ceramics companies have approached the Japanese and American standards in terms of their many subdivisions.