​The laser industry has entered the "platinum" era! We must pursue the light and go out to sea with our heads held high

June 14, 2024

1. Practice internal skills and reject internal price wars


"The current industry has entered a new development cycle and is taking the road of high-quality development. The competition method must

 

be more cautious." At the beginning of the forum, He Lidong, chairman of Huari Laser, took the lead in proposing that he hopes to avoid

 

vicious competition in the industry. Deng Jiake, general manager of HGLASER, also said, "Enterprises should take products rather than costs

 

as their core competitiveness. Only by making high-end equipment can enterprises have dignity." According to statistics from the Laser

 

Processing Committee, in 2023, the output value of China's laser industry will be about 98 billion yuan, an increase of 9% over the previous

 

year. In the development of the "golden decade" of lasers, the average growth rate of China's industrial laser and system sales reached more

 

than 16%.


Faced with the shrinking incremental space, some companies began to "roll prices", and the phenomenon of "increase in volume but not in

 

revenue, and increase in revenue but not in profit" appeared. At the forum, when a company said that "the market is vibrant and the operating

 

pressure is great", it instantly resonated with other entrepreneurs. Chen Yan, vice president of Han's Laser, analyzed the reason why the

 

entire industry is "rolling" now that everyone is doing the same thing, and competing on cost is the only way many companies can think of to

 

deal with it. He said that entering the "Platinum Decade", the laser industry still has huge development opportunities, and the opportunity lies in

 

digitalization. "In the next ten years, with the application of vision and AI technology, the entire laser industry will be greatly improved." Chen

 

Yan said that companies should find their correct positioning and should not pursue width, but work hard on precision and depth to catch up

 

with the opportunities of the "Platinum Era". "At present, Raycus has introduced AI in after-sales service and manufacturing processes." Yan

 

Dapeng, vice chairman of Raycus Laser, further proposed that not only in the manufacturing process, companies should also think about how

 

to use AI deeply in design. In addition to empowering through digitalization, Jept also proposed another path to practice internal skills: tracking

 

customer needs and providing deep customization and optimization. Liu Jian, general manager of Jept, introduced that through this method,

 

the company has successfully entered the laser battery manufacturing business, occupied 90% of the relevant customers, and opened up

 

more business space. Min Dayong, chairman of Everbright Huaxin, believes that in the "golden decade" of industry development, fighting

 

alone can make a lot of money. Entering the "platinum decade" means that the industry has entered a stage where development quality is

 

more valued. Therefore, forming a value circle through ecological collaboration is still the best solution to achieve the healthy development of

 

the industry.


2. Win with quality and go overseas with dignity


Facing increasingly fierce domestic competition, many laser companies have also keenly perceived overseas demand and chose to go

 

overseas for development. With the increasing number of laser companies going overseas, the quality of laser products going overseas has

 

become one of the most concerned topics in the industry.


Chen Yan said that markets such as Europe, the United States, and Japan have very high requirements for product reliability. Once stability

 

cannot be achieved, there will be great legal risks. If the "price war" is simply extended from domestic to overseas, it is very likely to face

 

"selling a 400,000 yuan device and then spending 400,000 yuan on a lawsuit." The view that "learning from the lessons of other industries

 

going overseas to avoid the same problems in the laser industry" was also unanimously recognized by the entrepreneurs present. "If the

 

quality of the products and services are not guaranteed, it will be very troublesome to go overseas." He Lidong said at the forum that quality

 

and safety are the prerequisites for laser companies to go overseas. It is very necessary to establish a common standard for products to go

 

overseas, which is also the bottom line for production. The current complex international situation has also caused many companies to have

 

great doubts about going overseas. "Although there is a certain degree of uncertainty in the external environment, this itself is one of the

 

factors that must be faced when going overseas." Min Dayong said that when companies go overseas, they must do a good job of localization

 

based on business rules and local compliance requirements. These are also compulsory courses that all companies going overseas must go

 

through. From a product perspective, Deng Jiake believes that true internationalization is also a process of producing high-end equipment by

 

higher international standards. "Only in this way can Chinese laser products truly gain a foothold abroad."