Oct 13 2015
In 2014, the global sensor market valued at USD126 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of 19.4%. The United States, Japan, Germany and China occupied 72.4% share of the global sensor market together, in which China accounted for about 10.8%.
Benefiting from the rapid development of Internet of Things and other industries, the Chinese sensor market grew at an average annual growth rate of 23.6% in 2009-2014, and reached RMB86.5 billion in 2014; it is expected to value at RMB247 billion by 2018.
Consumer electronics and automobiles are two major fields of sensor application, and made up 41.0% and 14.8% of China's total demand for sensor in 2014 respectively. In future, smart cars, wearable devices, industrial robots and other intelligent industries will promote the development of the sensor industry as main engines.
As for enterprises, about 70% of the Chinese sensor market is mastered by STMicroelectronics, Freescale and other foreign companies, while Chinese companies represented by Hanwei Electronics, Dali Technology and HGTECH seize small market share.
STMicroelectronics: The world's largest MEMS supplier of consumer electronics and mobile devices gained the revenue of USD3.447 billion in the first half of 2015. In September 2015, the company integrated advanced motion sensors and proximity sensors in the mobile phone model --- OnePlus 2 made by China's local mobile phone vendor OnePlus.
Freescale: As a major semiconductor company in the world, Freescale mainly produces pressure sensors, acceleration sensors and other types of sensors. As of the end of June 2015, the total sensor shipment of the company had hit over 2 billion.
HGTECH: By the end of 2014, the company had been able to produce 500 million heat sensitive sensors each year. In 2015, it is constructing a new-type thermal ceramic sensor project, which will raise the company's capacity to 700 million/a after reaching production target. In addition, the company has achieved small batch production of high precision micro sensors.
Hanwei Electronics: The company focuses on gas sensors. The output amounted to 9.15 million in 2014. In the past two years, the company has made layout in flexible, micro-nano, MEMS and other sensor fields through the acquisition of Suzhou LEANSTAR and Zhengzhou Yidu.
Zemic: Following automotive testing equipment, the second business --- strain sensors contributed RMB115 million or 24.3% to the total revenue in the first half of 2015. The company's ongoing project involved with 4,300 sets of plate sensors and automotive testing equipment as well as 11,700 sets of new-type sensors and system products annually is expected be completed by the end of 2015, which will further improve its share in the Chinese sensor market.