The optical fiber market is booming. What is left behind for the comprehensive rise of China's optical communications?
China's optical communications industry was very prosperous in 2015.
The promotion of the "Broadband China Strategy", the issuance of FDD licenses, "optical reform", speed increase and fee reduction... the introduction of a series of favorable policies and plans have brought a large amount of "real money" to optical fiber. The communications industry has injected strong development momentum.
From a demand perspective, after China Telecom and China Unicom obtained FDD licenses in 2015, they accelerated the pace of 4G network construction. Each has a scale of approximately 500,000 4G base stations, becoming one of the best FDD networks in the world.
China Telecom and China Unicom have also vigorously promoted the fiber optic transformation of access networks and built several "all-optical provinces" in 2015.
China Mobile has not changed its true nature as a local tycoon. In 2015, the centralized procurement volume of optical fiber and cables reached nearly 100 million core kilometers, and one operator accounted for 30% of the world's total.
From a market perspective, China’s optical communications industry is unique in the world.
From an industrial perspective, the performance of Chinese optical communications manufacturers in 2015 was also remarkable, especially optical fiber and cable manufacturers. Not only did they make steady progress in the Chinese market, but their progress in overseas markets began to accelerate in all aspects, and they were on par with international giants. Taiwan competition.
In the field of submarine cables, known as “the crown jewel of cable manufacturing,” Chinese manufacturers have also appeared.
Under the appearance of prosperity,Has China's optical communications industry fully emerged?
Attack on fiber optic manufacturers
From the supplier's perspective, it is divided into three major sectors: system equipment, optical fiber and cable, and optical devices.
Optical communication is said to be the field with the smallest gap between China's high-tech and the world's advanced levels. The reason is that two well-known national enterprises, Huawei and ZTE, are leaders in the optical equipment market. They have defeated, It defeated many international communications giants and captured most of the market share.
Local manufacturers such as Huawei, ZTE and FiberHome occupy an absolute advantage in the optical equipment market in the Chinese market and can also account for half of the overseas market.
Achieving a dominant position in the world not only relies on China's low costs, but also requires advanced technology and complete solutions.
From 100G to 400G and even the more cutting-edge 1T research fields, Chinese manufacturers have gradually moved from catching up to peers, and even leading in some fields, and are no longer inferior to those established giants with deep accumulation.
At the same time, we can see that the achievements of Chinese manufacturers in the field of optical equipment are being copied in the field of optical fiber and cable in 2015.
As early as 2015, Chinese optical fiber manufacturers had already controlled the Chinese market and occupied a large share of overseas markets.
In the first half of 2015, YOFC, Hengtong Optoelectronics, FiberHome Communications, etc. Optical fiber manufacturers respectively announced their efforts in low loss and large effective areas. It has made breakthroughs in the field of optical fiber and released products suitable for 100G/400G backbone networks to seize the high-end backbone network optical cable market.
It is understood that overall, these product technologies are close to or reaching the world level. Leading level
At the same time, through the "anti-dumping" of optical fiber preforms, unfair competition in the optical rod market was standardized in 2015, which has won valuable development opportunities for China's "infant" optical rod suppliers. In the future After several years of market consolidation, there will definitely be a few remaining manufacturers that are strong enough to dominate the market. .
There are two typical examples: Hengtong Optoelectronics has more than 30 million core kilometers of fiber drawing and all optical rods are self-sufficient; YOFC and Shin-Etsu Chemical jointly built an optical rod factory, which will provide more comprehensive services. The rod-making process consolidates its leading position as the world's largest optical rod supplier.
With the help of cost, scale advantages and technological catch-up, Chinese fiber optic manufacturers not only deeply explored the domestic market in 2015, but also quickly went overseas.
Hengtong Optoelectronics successively acquired Indonesian cable leader Voksel in 2015 30% of the shares, 75% of the shares of Aberdare, South Africa’s largest cable manufacturer, and 100% of the shares of Aberdare Europe Holdings Co., Ltd., the “555 Strategy” accelerated its layout; YOFC within one year, expanded its operations in Indonesia and Myanmar , South Africa and three countries have established subsidiaries, the pace is eye-catching
In addition, Chinese optical fiber manufacturers have also made initial breakthroughs in the field of submarine cables, and have seen greater development prospects since 2015.
It can be said that after 2015, Chinese optical fiber manufacturers will be restricted from expanding Technical barriers to global markets will gradually Gradually being overcome, it is a high probability event to follow the footsteps of Huawei and ZTE to conquer the global market.
It must be pointed out that the “One Belt, One Road” strategic concept advocated by China has provided Chinese optical fiber manufacturers with opportunities to go overseas. Historic opportunity
The unspeakable pain of chips
Chinese optical fiber manufacturers performed brilliantly in 2015, while Chinese optical device manufacturers seemed very quiet in comparison.
The silence does not refer to the market. In fact, in 2015, with the help of strong investment from the three major operators , the business of Chinese optical device manufacturers is very is hot, especially in the access network market where the technical threshold is low.
However, in the high-end 100G optical components, backbone network transmission components and other markets, there are only a few Chinese manufacturers, and their overall strength is far less than that of international giants such as Finisar. .
Even in the optical access network market, most of the chips for basic PON products are imported from Taiwan or Japan. As China evolves from G/EPON to 10GPON, chips can only be purchased externally. .
Not to mention more difficult research areas such as photonic integration, the United States and Japan are already far ahead, and there is almost no hope of Chinese optical device manufacturers catching up in the short term.
On the one hand, the reason is that China has not paid enough attention to photonic chips.
The United States launched the "National Photonics Plan" as early as 2014, guiding it from the government level Industry, academia, and research institutions support the development of photonic integration technology. In 2015, the United States also established the "Integrated Photonics Manufacturing Innovation Institute" AIM Photonics, which has received a total of more than 610 million U.S. dollars in investment funds.
China currently has. No similar organization has been created yet.
The second reason is that Chinese optical device manufacturers are generally small in scale and weak in strength, and it is difficult to bear the high cost of high-end optical devices and optical chips alone. Amount of R&D expenses.
There is only one optical device company in China, Guangxun Technology, whose sales are among the top ten in the world.
The research and development of optical chips requires a lot of funds and lacks national support. In the absence of R&D platforms, it is difficult for Chinese optical device manufacturers to accumulate a large amount of technology on their own and catch up with international giants.
The third reason is the investment-return ratio of optical chips.
Recently it was revealed that China has more than 3,000 pen factories, producing more than 40 billion ballpoint pens a year, but the ball at the core of the ballpoint pen Pearls are 90% dependent on imports, and optical core The film has the same purpose.
The overall market size of optical chips is not large. If there is not enough motivation to invest heavily in research and development, high risks may not necessarily lead to high returns. I am willing to be like Lei Feng and Cheng Xianxian. There are not many manufacturers.
At present, data centers are being constructed on a large scale in China and even around the world. The interconnection of data centers also relies on optical communications. This is another huge market. Some Internet giants have surpassed operators and become the main purchasers of optical communications products.
Photonic integration technology is the foundation of data center optical interconnection , China must face up to the current backwardness of basic technology, increase investment in R&D as a whole, learn and catch up with the latest technology, and consolidate the foundation of the optical communications industry.
China's optical communications industry is about to lead the world, and it only lacks key technologies. The last link.
