The "deeper" the UV LED is, the more attractive it is. Although UV-A currently has a relatively large market share in UV LED market applications, the applications of UV-B and UV-C in disinfection, sterilization, and medical treatment are even more ecstatic.
As mentioned earlier, the UV LED market has maintained a compound annual growth rate of 28.5% from 2008 to 2014, and there is currently 85% room for expansion of UV LEDs in the traditional UV market. The fact is not only that, from 1978 to 2008, UV disinfection and sterilization equipment achieved double-digit sales growth in the 30 years, the global annual sales of UV disinfection and sterilization products nearly 4 billion yuan (about 550 million US dollars). When blue LEDs were born, LEDs became commercial and universal, and the LED industry was busy replacing traditional light bulbs and fluorescent tubes with LEDs. Another group of insightful people had a special liking for UV LEDs. By 2007, more LED industry players began to pay attention to UV LEDs.
Compared with traditional UV, the advantage of UV LEDs is that they can even concentrate all electric energy into a narrow wavelength range between 260nm-262nm, and have high efficiency and long service life. Some people may say, "Isn't it disinfection and sterilization, it's too simple?" However, have you ever calculated how many fields, scenes, and number of products need to use disinfection and sterilization functions.
For example, a water purifier whose main function is disinfection and sterilization. Although bottled water can meet the drinking water needs of residents to a certain extent, the truly healthy way to drink water is to use household water purifiers, which can fundamentally solve the problem of secondary pollution of water quality. In Europe, America, Japan, South Korea and other countries, the household penetration rate of water purifiers has reached about 70%. Among about 400 million households in China, the ownership rate of household water purifiers in 2013 was only 5%, which is far lower than the level of developed countries. . In recent years, the sales volume of water purifiers in China has increased at an average annual rate of 35%-45%. The output of water purifiers in 2015 is estimated to exceed 160 million units. Not only for households, but also for industry, water purification systems have a potential market in terms of sewage reuse, aquifer restoration, and groundwater storage. Water is the source of life. Broadly speaking, as much water as there is on the earth, there will be as much water that needs to be purified to varying degrees.
Disinfection cabinets and dishwashers are also mainly used for disinfection and sterilization. With reference to the market demand for water purifiers above, there are about 400 million households in China. If a quarter of the households use disinfection cabinets and dishwashers, the demand for disinfection cabinets and dishwashers will be 100 million.
The products whose main function is disinfection and sterilization also include air purifiers. Although air purifiers are only products used by well-off or wealthy families, the market capacity cannot be underestimated. In recent years, the domestic air purifier market has shown a continuous expansion trend. In 2013, the growth rate of the domestic air purifier market exceeded 160%; although the growth rate of the air purifier market slowed down in 2014, it still maintained a steady expansion trend. The overall market growth rate exceeded 30%; in 2015, China's air purifier sales were estimated to reach 6.77 million units, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%.
Products with high additional functions of disinfection, such as refrigerators, air conditioners, washing machines, etc. These are the most commonly used in families. Generally speaking, high-end products account for 5%. In 2015, China's domestic household refrigerator market output reached 89.928 million units, while high-end refrigerators were 8992.8*5% = 4,496,400 units. In 2015, China's domestic air-conditioning terminal retail sales (excluding online sales) reached 43.79 million units, while high-end air-conditioning units were 4379*5%=2,189,500 units. In 2015, the domestic sales of washing machines in China reached 39.05 million units, while the high-end washing machines were 3905*5%=1.9525 million units.
The market with high additional functions of disinfection and sterilization also includes car air conditioning, car interior purification, car maintenance and beauty. This is a new market that has boomed in recent years. There is no need to say how big the market for ordinary cars and the market for new energy cars is.
At present, LEDs increasingly tend to be "cabbage price", while UV LEDs still maintain a high gross profit "noble" value. Based on the average price of 10 yuan per UV LED and the average use of 20 UV LEDs per product, the sales revenue of the above series of products to the UV LED industry is conservatively calculated to exceed 10 billion yuan. Moreover, in addition to the above examples, UV LED has countless applications in clean water sterilization, air sterilization, food sterilization, medical equipment sterilization, and other aspects. Moreover, the above mentioned is only the Chinese mainland market, and has not yet been included in the Chinese Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and global markets.
UV LED meets people's desire and trend of pursuing a healthy and high-quality life. The industry generally believes that disinfection, sterilization and purification purposes will become the key to the growth of the UV LED market in the next three years. This is the fulcrum of leveraging the UV LED market.
