Driven by the rapid development of the 5G communications industry, the LCP materials industry has entered an orderly development stage

LCP, the full name of industrial liquid crystal polymer, is a new type of polymer. LCP material has the characteristics of good self-reinforcing properties, good high temperature resistance, excellent flame retardancy, good electrical insulation properties, good low dielectric properties, strong corrosion resistance, etc. Its comprehensive performance is better than that of general engineering plastics, and it is a special engineering plastic. raw material.

There are various classification standards for LCP materials. According to different heat distortion temperatures, LCP materials can be divided into type I LCP materials (250-350℃), type II LCP materials (180-250℃), and type III LCP materials (100-200℃); According to different uses, it can be divided into film type, injection molding grade, and fiber grade LCP materials; according to different conditions for forming the liquid crystal phase, it can be divided into lyotropic liquid crystal LLCP (can only be formed in solution), thermotropic liquid crystal TLCP ( can be formed in the molten state).

LCP materials have a wide range of applications, mainly used in 5G communications, aerospace, fiber supplies, integrated circuits, fiber optic cables, glass fiber, household appliances, medical equipment, engineering plastics, automobile industry and other fields. Among them, the 5G communication field is the main application field of LCP materials. In this field, LCP materials have been widely used in antenna oscillators, mobile phone antennas, 5G high-speed connectors, 5G high-frequency circuit boards and other scenarios due to their excellent performance.

With the rapid development of the domestic 5G communications industry, the market demand for LCP materials continues to increase. According to data from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, 1.425 million 5G base stations have been opened in my country in 2021, and the number of 5G mobile phone terminal connections has reached 520 million. At the same time, the current domestic 5G network coverage is continuously improving. As of September 2022, my country has opened 222.0 5G base stations. Ten thousand, 5G mobile phone users reached 510 million. In this context, according to the “In-depth Market Research and Investment Strategy Suggestions Report on the LCP Industry 2023-2027” released by the Industrial Research Center It shows that my country has become one of the major consumers of LCP materials in the world. In 2021, my country’s LCP material consumption accounted for more than 50% of the global total.

LCP materials were first developed by DuPont in the United States around 1980. After development in recent years, the number of companies in this field is increasing. Among them, Celanese of the United States, Polyplastics of Japan, and Sumitomo Chemical of Japan are the three companies with the largest production capacity of LCP materials in the world, and the industry concentration is high.

Industry analysts said that my country’s LCP material industry started late. For a long time, the domestic market has been dominated by Leading foreign companies dominate. However, in recent years, as the demand for domestic LCP materials continues to increase, local companies are accelerating their deployment in this market. Major companies include Jujia New Materials, Kingfa Technology, Walter New Materials, Plite, Holita, etc. At present, local LCP materials companies are accelerating to catch up with the development pace of leading international companies, and the domestic LCP materials industry has entered an orderly development stage. In the future, as the domestic 5G communication construction process continues to accelerate, the domestic substitution process in the LCP material market is expected to continue to accelerate, and the industry has huge development potential.