The MLCC industry develops rapidly and the market demand for nickel powder continues to rise.

Nickel powder is one of the key raw materials of MLCC and is widely used as internal electrode material of MLCC, greatly reducing the cost. Nickel powder has the characteristics of low cost, high conductivity, low electric mobility, good corrosion resistance and heat resistance to solder, high sintering temperature, and good high-temperature co-firing with ceramic dielectric materials.

Chip multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) account for more than 90% of the ceramic capacitor market due to their advantages such as large capacity, long life, small size, high temperature and high pressure resistance, high quality and low price, and are widely used in electronics, automobiles, military, and industry. In other fields, its consumption continues to grow steadily. The MLCC market size has continued to grow in recent years, reaching 102 billion yuan in 2020. Global MLCC shipments increased from 2.4 trillion yuan in 2011 to nearly 4.6 trillion yuan in 2020; the market size increased from 101 billion yuan in 2020. It will further grow to 114.8 billion yuan in 2021.

According to the “In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report on Nickel Powder Industry 2022-2026” released by the Industrial Research Center, benefits from The global MLCC industry is developing rapidly, and the market demand for nickel powder continues to rise. In 2020, the global nickel powder market for MLCC was approximately 4.8 billion yuan, and is expected to reach 6.8 billion yuan by 2025.

In terms of MLCC applications, the current smartphone market share is relatively high, about 37%, followed by PCs accounting for 20% and automobiles accounting for 17%. The development of automotive electronics will drive the MLCC market demand to continue to rise. Automotive-grade MLCC has a high technical threshold and high added value, and currently there are few companies that can produce it. Automotive-grade MLCCs are gradually developing towards small size and large capacity, and have higher requirements for nickel powder. In the future, nickel powder will develop towards high-end. The particle size of nickel powder continues to shrink, from 0.2μm to 0.1μm.

At present, the nickel powder methods for industrialized production of MLCC include CVD, liquid phase method, and PVD. Among them, PVD has obvious advantages. The products produced by CVD have higher purity and small size; the products produced by CVD have low crystallinity, poor dispersion, and low impurity content. High; the particle size of nickel powder produced by the liquid phase method is uncontrollable, and the production will produce waste liquid, which poses a greater threat to environmental protection.

There are few companies in the world that can mass-produce nickel powder, mainly Japanese companies, such as Shoei Chemical, Sumitomo Metal Mining, Toho Titanium, etc. Domestic Boqian new material companies are more competitive in the market. Zhaorong Chemical is the world’s largest nickel powder manufacturer, with a market share of about 40%, while the domestic Boqian New Materials market share is 11%.

Industry analysts said that MLCC has obvious advantages and has high application demand in automotive electronics, smartphones, PCs and other fields. Nickel powder is an important raw material in MLCC production. Benefiting from the rapid development of the MLCC industry, the demand for nickel powder applications has increased, and the industry has developed rapidly. In terms of market competition, there are few companies that can produce nickel powder on a large scale. Japanese companies have a relatively high share of the global and domestic markets, and domestic companies do not have a competitive advantage.