1. Polarizer

The full name of polarizer is polarizer, which is a polymer material composite film composed of polarizing film, inner protective film, pressure-sensitive adhesive layer and outer protective film. It is mainly used for liquid crystal display.

The imaging of liquid crystal displays must rely on polarizers. All liquid crystals have two front and rear polarizers attached to the liquid crystal glass to form a liquid crystal film with a total thickness of about 1mm. The lower polarizer of the liquid crystal screen is used to convert the light beam generated by the backlight into polarized light, and the upper polarizer is used to analyze the polarized light after being electrically modulated by the liquid crystal to produce a contrast between light and dark, thereby generating a display image. If any polarizer is missing, the liquid crystal film cannot display images.

The manufacturing process of polarizer mainly includes stretching method and coating method. At present, the stretching method is the mainstream process of the polarizer, and the stretching method can be divided into dry stretching and wet stretching according to the stretching process of the PVA film. The polarizer produced by wet stretching is superior to dry stretching in terms of color uniformity and durability. Therefore, major global polarizer manufacturers such as Japan, South Korea and Chinese manufacturers basically use the wet extension process to produce polarizers.

2. Polarizer Industry Chain

The polarizer industry chain includes the upstream raw materials that make up the polarizer, the midstream polarizer manufacturing, downstream panels and other end applications.

Upstream constitutes the optical material of the polarizer, the material cost accounts for about 73% of the total cost of the polarizer. In the material cost, TAC film (56%) and PVA film (16%) account for the majority, and the rest are brightness enhancement film (10%), protective film (8%), sub-sensitive adhesive (5%) and others (Including release film and retardation film, etc., a total of 5%)

The global TAC film production capacity is approximately 1.735 billion square meters, of which the three Japanese TAC film manufacturers (Fuji Pictures, Konica Minolta, Zeon Zeon) account for about 68.88% of the global TAC film production capacity, and the Korean manufacturers Hyosung and SKI account for 10.95 %. The global PVA film production capacity is dominated by Japanese manufacturer Kuraray, which accounts for 70% of the total shipments of LCD PVA films. However, the domestic production rate of PVA film and TAC film in my country is still relatively low. At present, only some companies have a layout on TAC film, such as East Fluoroplastics, Xinlun Technology and China Lucky.

Midstream polarizers are mainly involved in the production of four types of panels: TN type, STN type, TFT type and OLED type depending on the type of panel. At present, global polarizer manufacturers are mainly concentrated in Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and China. South Korea's polarizer production capacity ranks first in the world, accounting for about 40%. Major companies include Sumitomo Chemical's South Korean subsidiary Toyo Precision Chemical, Nitto Denko's Korean subsidiary Koreno, LG Chem and Samsung SDI. Japan ranks second, accounting for about 32%. Major companies include Nitto Denko, Sumitomo Chemical, Sanlizi, and Baolai. Taiwan's production capacity ranks third, accounting for approximately 20% of its production capacity. Major companies include Chi Mei Materials and BenQ Materials, and Sumitomo Chemical's Taiwan subsidiary Sumika Electronic Materials Technology Co., Ltd., etc. The proportion of China's production capacity in the global production capacity has been increasing year by year, and the current production capacity is about 9%. Major companies include LG Chem's Chinese subsidiary LG Chemical (Nanjing) Information Materials Co., Ltd., Shengbo Optoelectronics, and Sanli Spectrum.

Downstream terminal applications include consumer electronic displays and meters such as mobile phones, computers, LCD TVs, industrial control electronic product displays such as automotive electronics, and other applications such as 3D glasses. Among them, consumer electronics LCD and OLED panels are currently the mainstream application markets for polarizers.

From the perspective of the specific fields of LCD and OLED, polarizers for TN and STN LCD panels have low display performance, narrow application fields and small market scale, while OLED panels have not yet completed technical problems such as low yield and short life. The solution has not been applied on a large scale. The current global polarizer market is dominated by polarizers for TFT-LCD panels. (In the global $10 billion polarizer market in 2017, TN and STN types are expected to account for less than 5%, OLED polarizers account for about 2-3%, and the remaining 92-93% are TFT polarizers.)

3. Polarizer market

Polarizer is one of the key raw materials for liquid crystal panels, and the future supply and demand situation and growth of the market are closely related to the liquid crystal panel market. In recent years, the growth of terminal markets including mobile phones, computers, and LCD TVs, as well as the rapid development of new application markets such as wearable products, smart homes, etc., have driven the increase in polarizer market capacity and supply and demand.

Displaybank data shows that global polarizer production capacity is expected to increase from 582 million square meters in 2014 to 728 million square meters in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate of 5.75%. The global supply of polarizers is expected to increase from 441 million square meters in 2014 to 531.4 million square meters in 2019, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 3.7%. The global polarizer market demand is expected to increase from 391 million square meters in 2014 to 498.9 million square meters in 2019, with a five-year compound annual growth rate of 6.28%. From 2014 to 2019, the glut values ​​used to assess the supply and demand conditions were 13%, 10%, 14%, 15%, 11% and 7%. On the whole, the global polarizer market's production capacity and supply and demand have maintained steady growth, of which the supply and demand performance is basically For tight balance condition.

From the perspective of area, the global demand for large, medium and small size polarizers has also continued to grow. Among them, the market share of polarizers for large-size (9-inch and above) TFT-LCDs has decreased from 91% in 2014 to 90.5% in 2019. The area required for polarizers for small and medium-sized TFT-LCDs is basically the same. 33.3 million square meters increased to 33.6 million square meters in 2019, and the market share decreased from 8.5% in 2014 to 6.7% in 2019. Polarizers used in AMOLED increased from 1.8 million square meters in 2014 to 13.9 million square meters in 2019. The compound growth rate is 67%, and the market share has increased from 0.5% in 2014 to 2.8% in 2019.

my country's polarizer industry started late. At that time, relying on the spring breeze of global panel industry transfer and the support of relevant government policies, China guided polarizer manufacturers to actively follow up and expand R&D investment, resulting in continuous expansion of production capacity. Up to now, my country has become the world's largest LCD panel manufacturing country and the world's largest LCD panel consumer.

The high production capacity and consumption of LCD panels have made my country the market with the largest new demand for polarizers in the world. According to OFweek Industrial Research Institute data, the domestic market for polarizers in 2017 was US$3.54 billion, a rapid growth of 27.3% year-on-year, accounting for 31.2% of the global market. It is estimated that by 2020, the domestic polarizer market will reach 5.32 billion U.S. dollars, increasing its global market share to 40.2%. The compound growth rate during 2015-2020 is expected to be 14.6%, which is much higher than the overall global market.

Although about 60% of the world’s LCD TVs are produced in my country every year, domestic LCD panels are in short supply and still need to be imported in large quantities. In 2015, my country's LCD panel imports reached 39.7 billion US dollars, second only to integrated circuits, petroleum and iron ore. According to IHS data, from 2014 to 2020, my country's polarizers will always have a supply gap of 30%-50%. The market demand is huge, and a large number of imported polarizers are needed to meet the needs of panel manufacturers.