The global laser source market exceeds 16 billion U.S. dollars

According to Laser Focus World data, the scale of the global laser source market continued to grow from 2017 to 2018. In 2019, due to the continuous escalation of the Sino-US trade war, as well as the weakness in some European markets and the sharp drop in fiber laser product prices, the global laser market has declined to $14.7 billion. Although affected by the covid-19 epidemic, economic recession in some regions, and social and political turmoil in 2020, the global laser source market still maintains a relatively stable growth. In 2020, the total revenue of the global laser source market will increase to 16.5 billion U.S. dollars.

Material processing and lithography are the main application areas of global laser sources

Laser sources have a wide range of applications. Laser Focus World divides the global laser market into six major market segments, which are material processing and communications, communications and optical storage markets, scientific research and military markets, medical and beauty markets, instrumentation and sensor markets, and the entertainment, display and printing markets.

In the global laser application market in 2020, material processing and lithography will still be the main global laser source application market, accounting for 39.28%; followed by communications and optical storage, accounting for 24.35%, which are the few that have benefited from the covid-19 epidemic In one of the markets. The revenue of laser source for communication has increased significantly due to the demand for employees' office work; scientific research and military have maintained a high growth rate, accounting for 14.04%, and will increase by more than 23% year-on-year in 2020. This is an important factor driving global laser revenue; medical and beauty market is most affected by the epidemic in the short-term, with revenue falling 25% year-on-year and accounting for 5.84% in 2020; instruments and sensors have not been affected by the epidemic in the short term, accounting for 12.84%; In the entertainment, display and printing markets, many orders were shelved and the growth rate slowed down due to the covid-19 epidemic  , accounting for 3.65%.

The growth rate of the global industrial laser source market will slow down in 2020

In 2020, the covid-19 epidemic broke out in Wuhan (the hometown of industrial laser technology in China), and then the epidemic soon swept the world, the world's manufacturing industry was hit hard, and the growth of the global industrial laser source market almost stagnated. However, while western countries are still jointly formulating measures to deal with the covid-19 epidemic, the Chinese government has achieved effective prevention and control of the covid-19 epidemic, preventing the further spread of the epidemic, and Chinese companies have basically resumed normal operations. Therefore, in the third quarter of 2020, the industrial laser source market picks up, prompting low-single-digit revenue growth throughout 2020. According to the preliminary calculations of Laser Focus World, the global industrial laser market in 2020 will be approximately US$5.157 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.42%.

Fiber laser source is the most important industrial laser variety

The global industrial lasers are mainly divided into four categories, namely fiber lasers, solid-state lasers/disc lasers, conductor lasers/excimer lasers, and CO2 lasers.

In 2020, the total revenue of fiber laser source was US$2.717 billion, accounting for 52.68% of the total revenue of industrial lasers; followed by solid-state lasers, especially kilowatt products for metal cutting, with total revenue of US$861 million, accounting for 16.69%; Kilowatt-level CO2 lasers for additive manufacturing, fine metal and non-metal processing, total revenue of 804 million US dollars, accounting for 15.59%; excimer lasers, mainly used for annealing of mobile communication device displays, total revenue of 776 million US dollars , accounting for 15.04%.

Metal cutting is the main application field of global industrial laser source

Global industrial lasers are mainly used in metal cutting, welding/brazing, marking/engraving, semiconductor/PCB, display, additive manufacturing, precision metal processing, non-metal processing and other fields.

In 2020, metal cutting applications accounted for 40.62% of the entire industrial laser application market, and continued to show a growth trend, partly due to the increase in orders. With the spread of the covid-19 epidemic in advanced manufacturing countries, the growth rate of the cutting market has dropped to about 2% for the first time in recent years. Followed by welding/brazing applications and marking/engraving applications, accounting for 13.52% and 12.60% respectively.