Laser is a special kind of light that has the characteristics of light, but it is purer in color and has more energy than ordinary light. The wavelength of laser is the same as that of ordinary light, ranging from infrared to ultraviolet. The wavelength is on the order of several thousand nanometers or less. The closer to the ultraviolet region, the shorter the wavelength of the laser, which can be hundreds of nanometers or even smaller.
The generation of laser is not mysterious. It is to take the light into a device composed of two mirrors. As the light beam is reflected back and forth, the light is continuously strengthened in the device and the wavelength becomes single. Finally, from A small hole comes out, which is the laser we see every day. The intensity of the laser is directly proportional to and inversely proportional to the power of the energy source and the emitted spot area respectively.
Compared with traditional processing methods, laser processing has the characteristics of non-contact processing, high energy density, and finely adjustable beam. The processing accuracy and processing efficiency are relatively high. Lasers are the core components of modern laser processing systems, accounting for 30%-40% of the cost of laser equipment. Taking laser welding equipment as an example, the laser welding machine consists of a laser and a welding head, and the workbench consists of a mobile platform and a motion control system. After loading the automation system software, a complete set of automation equipment is formed.
Comparison between laser cutting and traditional cutting
Comparison between laser welding and traditional welding
Typical laser equipment styles
Lasers are in the entire laser industry chain The midstream, upstream and downstream are components and laser equipment respectively. Terminal markets include automobiles, 3C, communications and other fields.
In 2020, the global laser market size will be US$16.2 billion. From 2013 to 2020, the global laser industry revenue will have a compound annual growth rate of 8.8%.
In 2015, my country's laser market size was US$2.8 billion, accounting for approximately 29% of the global market, making it the world's largest laser market.
Laser production is located in the middle reaches of the laser industry chain
1. Material processing and communication fields are the main application markets of lasers
In 2019, global laser application fields:
1. The material processing and lithography market size is US$6.53 billion, accounting for 44.3%.
2. The communications and storage market size is US$3.95 billion, accounting for 26.8%.
In 2019, global industrial laser sales revenue was US$5.15 billion, with a compound annual growth rate of 14.4% during 2014-2019.
Industrial lasers can be divided into fiber lasers, solid lasers, gas lasers, semiconductor lasers, etc.
Fiber laser is a laser that uses rare earth-doped optical fiber as the medium. A typical fiber laser mainly consists of four parts: optical system, power supply system, control system and mechanical structure.
Main laser classification
Typical fiber laser optical system
According to the working mode of the laser, fiber lasers can be mainly divided into pulsed fiber lasers and continuous fiber lasers.
According to the output laser power, it can be divided into low power section (below 100W), medium power section (100W-15kW), and high power section (above 15kW)
Fiber laser is highly efficient The characteristics of multi-purpose and low maintenance cost are favored by downstream customers and have gradually become mainstream in the field of industrial applications. < /p>
The global fiber laser market size was US$840 million in 2013 and reached US$2.74 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 21.8%.
The global fiber laser market share in industrial lasers increased from 33.8% in 2013 to 53.3% in 2019, becoming the largest laser variety in the market.
From 2014 to 2020, the compound growth rate of my country's fiber laser market reached 22%, reaching 9.42 billion in 2020.
At present, fiber lasers account for about 60% of the market size of industrial lasers in my country.
In China's fiber laser market, low-power fiber lasers (below 100W) have basically completed import substitution.
In 2019, the market share of domestic low-power lasers was as high as 99%.
The localization rate of high-power fiber lasers (above 1.5kW) reached 55.6% in 2019.
In 2019, the domestic shipment volume of 3-6kW ultra-high power lasers was 3,000 units, an increase of more than 4 times compared with the previous year’s 700 units, and the domestic shipment volume of products above 6kW was 800 units, an increase of more than 4 times compared with the previous year. Add 500 units.
Sales of 100-1500W fiber lasers in China
Sales of fiber lasers above 1500W in China
Price comparison of domestic and imported lasers
2 , Fiber laser competitive landscape
In the global fiber laser market, IPG, the United States, dominates the market, with a market share of approximately 46.8% in 2019. Relevant Chinese companies include Raycus Laser, Chuangxin Laser, JPT, etc. In 2019, Raycus Laser ranked second with a global market share of 10.3%.
From 2018 to 2020, in the domestic fiber laser market, IPG’s share fell from 52.6% to 34.6%. As for domestic leader Raycus Laser, its market share increased from 16.9% in the previous year to 24.4%.
In 2020, IPG’s revenue was US$1.2 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 8.7%, Raycus Laser’s revenue was US$2.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%, and JPT’s revenue was US$850 million, a year-on-year increase of 50.4%.
During 2016-2020, Raycus Laser's revenue grew at a compound annual growth rate of 49.2%, while IPG's growth rate was 5.9% during the same period, and JPT's growth rate was 27.3%.
The revenue ratio between Raycus Laser and IPG has gradually increased from 0.5% in 2014 to 29.7% in 2020. The gap with the global leader has gradually narrowed, and it has now become the leader in the domestic fiber laser industry.
Raycus Laser has gradually realized self-made core components, and combined with the increase in the sales proportion of high-end products, the gross profit margin has increased from 18.08% in 2014 to 45.32% in 2018, and the gap with IPG is only 9.50%.
The net profit margin of Raycus Laser has rapidly increased from 5.8% in 2014 to 29.4% in 2017, surpassing IPG for the first time to become the first in the industry, and has remained so to this day.
Starting in 2018, a price war began in the domestic fiber laser market. At the same time, demand from downstream industries such as consumer electronics and automobiles has slowed down, which has had a great impact on the profit margins of manufacturers in the industry.
As the price war slows down, Raycus Laser took the lead in coming out of the trough in the first quarter of 2021, with gross profit margin recovering from 29.1% in the previous year to 36%, and net profit margin recovering from 13.5% in the previous year. 20.3%, the largest rebound in the industry.
3. Analysis of Raycus Laser
Founded in Wuhan in 2007, Raycus Laser is the first domestic enterprise specializing in the research and development of fiber lasers and core devices and achieving large-scale production.
my country’s first 100W, 1kW, 4kW, 6kW and 10kW continuous fiber laser products have been developed and mass produced. The company is the second company in the world besides IPG to master 10kW laser technology.
The company’s actual controller is China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation, a subsidiary of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission. The state-owned enterprise platform is conducive to the company’s equity stability and long-term development, and can also develop military business in the future.
The company has a professional and excellent technical leadership team. Three executives, Yan Dapeng, Li Cheng and Lu Kunzhong, are core technical leaders and are experts in the field of fiber lasers under the national "Thousand Talents Plan".
The company's main products
The company's equity structure
From 2015 to 2020, the company's annual laser sales increased from 7,957 units to 75,200 units, with a compound growth rate of 57 %. The number of customers increased from 367 in 2015 to more than 1,600 in 2020, with a compound annual growth rate of more than 34% during the period.
In 2020, the company’s revenue was 2.32 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.3%. Among them, continuous fiber laser sales revenue was 1.76 billion, accounting for 76% of the revenue. Gross profit margin is 32.8%. Pulse fiber laser sales revenue was 340 million, accounting for 15% of the revenue. The total proportion of revenue reached 90.4%, and the gross profit margin was 12.4%.
In 2020, the company’s cumulative sales of 10,000-watt lasers exceeded 800 units, a year-on-year increase of 543%. The number of welding laser units sold increased by 152% year-on-year, and the shipment volume of cleaning lasers increased by 148%.
In 2020, the company invested 170 million in R&D, a year-on-year increase of 47%. R&D investment accounted for 7.5% of revenue, a new high in recent years.
The number of R&D personnel in 2020 is 425, which has doubled compared with 208 in 2018. R&D personnel account for 16.8% of the total number of employees, a new high in the past three years.
In 2020, the company's revenue was 2.32 billion and net profit was 300 million, a year-on-year increase of 15.3% and a decrease of 9% respectively. However, split into quarters, we can see that the company's production and operations have gradually recovered from the epidemic. come over.
In the first quarter of 2021, the company's gross profit margin was 36% and revenue was 580 million, a year-on-year increase of 331% and an increase of 46% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
In the first quarter of 2021, the company's net profit was 110 million, a year-on-year increase of 902% and an increase of 10% compared to the first quarter of 2019.
The company’s revenue and growth rate
The company’s net profit attributable to parent companies and its growth rate
4. Future highlights
(1) Cost advantage
In terms of cost structure, the proportions of materials, labor, and expenses in the cost structure of Raycus laser products are 84%, 7%, and 9% respectively. During the same period, the three cost segments of IPG accounted for 45%-52%, 29%-36%, and 19% respectively.
With advantages such as labor costs, the cost per watt of Raycus' continuous fiber lasers is already lower than that of IPG. In the future, as the company's upstream component self-sufficiency rate increases, Raycus's cost advantage is expected to be further expanded.
Currently, the company is studying the technical path of replacing double-ended pumping with single-end pumping and replacing multi-mode with single-mode. According to research, this path can reduce the material cost of fiber lasers by about 26%.
Labor accounts for more than 30% of IPG’s cost structure
For continuous fiber lasers of the same power, Raycus’ cost per watt is lower than that of IPG
(2) Acquisition< /p>
In 2019, the company acquired Guoshen Optoelectronics and entered the field of ultrafast lasers
In 2018, the global ultrafast laser market reached US$1.37 billion, a year-on-year increase of 44%. More than $1.5 billion.
China’s ultrafast laser market size is expected to exceed US$770 million in 2020, accounting for more than 50% of the global market.
Guoshen Optoelectronics was established in 2011, and its products have entered the world's top three LED chip manufacturing companies and Apple's foundry.
In 2019, Guoshen Optoelectronics’ revenue increased by 48.49% year-on-year, reaching 29.03 million.