During his 2022 LPMS presentation, Dr. Bo Gu, president and CTO of Bos Photonics, gave an overview of the Chinese laser market and advice to help multinational companies navigate recent changes.

“The Chinese laser market grew at 18.3% in 2021, and 10% in 2020, and reached $12.9 billion in 2021 with strong growth in laser cleaning, welding, additive, micromachining, and medical markets,” Gu says.

The Shanghai Stock Exchange STAR Market, a science and technology equities market, is helping catalyze the Chinese laser industry to make it more competitive globally.

Chinese laser industry segmentation

China now has more than 170 large-scale laser manufacturers—with 56% of them in laser materials processing and the lasers and laser systems business. In 2021, the Chinese laser market reached $12.9 billion, with an annual growth rate of 18.3%.

The industrial laser market segmentation in 2021 (see figure) was split into cutting (40%), welding (14%), marking (13%), semi/display (12%), precision machining (9%), non-metal processing (7%), and all others (6%).