Currently, driven by both the "dual carbon" goals and the "14th Five-Year Plan" for new materials industries, the global vacuum coating industry is undergoing profound transformation. Market size continues to grow, technological iteration is accelerating, policy regulation is becoming stricter, and the competitive landscape is characterized by "high-end concentration and mid-range dispersion." As a major global manufacturing country, my country's vacuum coating industry has developed rapidly by leveraging its downstream industry advantages, while simultaneously facing challenges such as high-end technology bottlenecks and environmental pressures. The industry is gradually transforming towards green, high-end, and standardized development.
I. Market Size: Continuous Expansion, Emerging Fields Driving Growth
The global vacuum coating industry market size has maintained steady growth. By the end of 2025, the global vacuum coating equipment market size had exceeded US$22 billion, and it is expected to maintain an annual growth rate of over 8% in 2026. As the world's largest vacuum coating application market, my country benefits from the rapid development of downstream industries such as electronics, automobiles, and new energy, and its market size growth rate is higher than the global average. In 2024, the market size of new coating-related materials in my country reached RMB 48.7 billion, a year-on-year increase of 29.6%, with photovoltaic, semiconductor and new energy vehicle sectors contributing the main growth momentum. In terms of market structure, physical vapor deposition (PVD) equipment dominates the equipment market, with magnetron sputtering equipment accounting for nearly 50% of the market share. Atomic layer deposition (ALD) equipment has the fastest growth rate, with a projected compound annual growth rate of 20% over the next five years. In the materials market, the demand for high-purity metal targets and green coating materials continues to increase. Water-based coating materials have a penetration rate of 28% and 19% in the building and electronics fields, respectively, gradually replacing traditional solvent-based materials [4]. II. Policy Environment: Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency Constraints Guide the Green Transformation of the Industry The national and local governments have issued a series of policies to strengthen environmental protection and energy efficiency control while supporting high-end technology research and development and industrialization, thus promoting high-quality development of the industry. At the national level, the "Implementation Plan for Carbon Peaking in the Industrial Sector" clearly requires that clean production audits be fully implemented in the coating industry by 2025, and that coating processes using fluorine- and chlorine-containing organic solvents be replaced at the source to reduce VOC emissions. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's revised energy efficiency standards, for the first time, incorporate the comprehensive energy consumption per unit product of vacuum coating equipment into the evaluation system, setting a benchmark level of ≤0.85 tons of standard coal/10,000 square meters, requiring enterprises that fail to meet the benchmark level by the end of 2025 to upgrade or exit the market within a specified period.
Local policies are becoming more refined and differentiated. Guangdong Province has issued an action plan requiring the Pearl River Delta region to eliminate open solvent-based spraying processes, promote solvent-free vacuum coating technology, and establish a 2 billion yuan special fund for green manufacturing. Jiangsu Province stipulates that from 2025 onwards, newly built coating projects must be equipped with waste heat recovery systems, and strictly control the electricity consumption per unit product. By the end of 2024, 18 provinces and municipalities across China had included coating enterprises in key pollution discharge supervision, linking environmental credit ratings with green credit and pollution rights trading. In 2024, the industry's outstanding green loans reached 12.7 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41%, with policy and financial synergy driving industry compliance upgrades.
III. Competitive Landscape: High-end Monopoly, Mid-range Full Competition
The global vacuum coating industry exhibits highly concentrated competition, with leading companies dominating the high-end market due to their technological, patent, and supply chain advantages. The top five global equipment suppliers collectively hold over 70% of the market share, especially in semiconductor front-end ALD equipment and large-scale sputtering equipment for display panels, where concentration is even higher. Foreign companies monopolize the high-end market with core technologies, while domestic companies mainly focus on the low-to-mid-end sectors.
my country's vacuum coating industry has a large number of enterprises, mainly small and medium-sized enterprises. Competition is concentrated in the low-to-mid-end equipment and general coating processing sectors, resulting in severe homogenization and low profitability. A few domestic companies have made breakthroughs in high-end technology bottlenecks through continuous research and development, achieving localization breakthroughs in magnetron sputtering and ALD equipment. In 2024, the localization rate of coating equipment in my country increased to 61%, and the investment cost per line decreased by nearly 40%. At the same time, domestic companies have begun to cultivate niche markets, achieving partial breakthroughs in the traditional pattern in fields such as photovoltaic coating and consumer electronics decorative coating, thanks to their high cost-effectiveness and rapid customization capabilities [4]. IV. Industry pain points: High-end shortcomings and environmental pressure coexist
my country’s vacuum coating industry faces two major pain points: First, high-end technology and equipment rely on imports. The core components of high-end technologies such as atomic layer deposition and molecular beam epitaxy (such as high-precision vacuum pumps and plasma sources) are still monopolized by foreign companies. Domestic companies have insufficient R&D investment and few core patent reserves. The relevant valid invention patents in the world are mainly concentrated in foreign leading companies. In the past five years, the number of new patents worldwide has exceeded 5,000 per year. Domestic companies face high licensing costs and infringement risks. Second, environmental protection and energy consumption pressures are prominent. Some small and medium-sized enterprises still use traditional high-pollution and high-energy-consumption processes. It is difficult to meet the standards for VOCs emissions and hazardous waste treatment. The investment in green transformation is insufficient and they face the risk of elimination. In addition, the utilization rate of metal resources in the industry needs to be improved. Although the comprehensive recovery rate has been increased to 68.4% through technologies such as target material regeneration, there is still a gap with the international advanced level[4].
Post time: 2026-02-21 15:11:29