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　　According to Fleck Research, China's connector production accounts for 34% of global demand. This article analyzes the characteristics and product structure of the Chinese connector market, points out the future technological development trends of the connector industry, and predicts market trends.

　　In 2001, the global connector market experienced a negative growth of 18.9%, with total output value dropping from US\$31.6 billion in 2000 to US\$25.6 billion in 2001. Despite the downturn in the global connector market, the Chinese market remained strong. According to Fleck Research, in 2001, China's connector production accounted for 34% of global demand. In addition to local companies, Taiwanese companies accounted for 37.5% of the market share, and European and American companies accounted for 14.1%. With China's accession to the WTO, more and more international companies will move their production to China. This will offer more choices for Chinese connector users. This article analyzes the characteristics and product structure of the Chinese connector market, points out the future technological development trends of the connector industry, and predicts market trends. It is expected that chip connectors, fiber optic connectors, high-speed IEEE1394 and USB2.0 connectors, wired broadband connectors, and fine-pitch connectors for various portable/wireless products will be the hottest products in the future.

　　Characteristics of the Chinese Market

　　In recent years, due to the rapid development of upstream industries for connectors, including the 3C industry (computers, communication products, and consumer electronics) and data transmission services, the development potential in China is vast. In 2000, the size of the Chinese connector market reached 7.25 billion yuan, a 25.9% increase compared to 1999. In 2001, due to the impact of the international market, it only increased by 9.1% compared to 2000. Since 2002, the output of consumer electronics, optical communication, and network equipment products in China has increased rapidly, driving the development of the connector industry. It is estimated that the demand for the Chinese connector market in 2002 will be 8.8 billion yuan, an increase of 11.3% compared to 2001. At the same time, foreign and Taiwanese connector companies have invested and set up factories in China, resulting in a rapid expansion of connector production scale, reducing foreign imports. The resulting economies of scale have also reduced the manufacturing cost of connectors.

　　Currently, there are about 600 companies in China engaged in connector production or processing. State-owned connector companies are generally not large in scale, while privately owned and joint-venture companies are growing larger, with increasing investment each year, and rapidly occupying a large share of the Chinese supporting market. State-owned connector companies are generally small in scale, with 85% of manufacturers having fewer than 500 employees. China's labor-intensive products, such as wire harnesses, terminals, microswitches, power cords, plugs and jacks, have certain advantages in the international market.

　　By comparing the data in Table 1 and Table 2, the following characteristics of the Chinese connector industry can be found:

　　(1) Due to the large scale of China's electronic information industry, the demand for the connector market is also among the world's leading. In 2001, when the world's electronic information industry was sluggish, production still maintained a growth of 5.3%, and there is a trend of accelerated development in 2002;

　　(2) The share of production by foreign-invested enterprises is gradually increasing, thus promoting a continuous increase in exports;

　　(3) In terms of both quantity and quality, connectors produced in China still cannot meet the needs of China's electronic information product manufacturing. Some high-end products still rely on imports from abroad. Connector import and export trade is in a deficit state, but with the shift of overseas connector manufacturing centers to mainland China, the trade deficit is gradually decreasing.

　　Product Structure

　　The market structure of various connector products in 2001 is shown in Table 3. Specifically, rectangular connectors occupy the mainstream position in the market, with a production volume of 1.53 billion units in 2001, accounting for 31.5% of the total output.

　　Among various connectors, fiber optic connectors are particularly noteworthy. In the previous few years, due to China's vigorous development of cable television networks, fiber optic connectors were generally in short supply. After 1998, due to the increase in production scale and the weakening of demand trends, the supply and demand situation reversed. The future development trend of China's fiber optic connectors can be described as "increased volume and decreased price." In the next three years, the annual growth rate is generally estimated to be around 10%.

　　Another major development direction for connectors is connectors for mobile phones. Currently, the production of mobile phones in China is developing rapidly, and the demand for connectors is also strong. However, as a new field, Chinese manufacturers still have great shortcomings in terms of technological strength and production experience.

　　Surface mount connectors are mainly used in mobile phones. They are a new type of miniaturized, high-density connector installed by mounting. Each mobile phone needs one RF board connector and one battery connector, and about 6 other connectors, totaling about 8 connectors, with a total price of about 8-12 yuan. The products on the Chinese market are mainly produced by Taiwanese and Japanese companies. The demand for mobile phone connectors in China is shown in Table 4.

　　In addition, due to strong domestic and international market demand, China's PCB connector industry is also showing rapid development. With the emergence of many joint ventures, China is expected to become a world-class manufacturing center for PCB connectors. Recently, the market demand for PCB connectors in Japan and Hong Kong has decreased by 10-13%. However, industry insiders believe that the PCB connector industry still has a bright future and is expected to recover in the next few months, with demand increasing by 30%. Driven by the market in communications, IT, and consumer electronics, China's PCB connector industry is showing strong growth. Currently, there are about 200 PCB connector companies in China, mainly located in Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Sichuan, and Fujian provinces. In 2001, the output of PCB connectors in China reached 60 million units, and the increase in 2002 is expected to reach 50%.

　　Currently, the main export markets for China's PCB connectors are Europe, America, and Southeast Asia. Although these regions have been affected by the economic crisis, Chinese PCB connector manufacturers are still confident about the export situation in 2002, and the export growth rate is expected to reach about 30%.

　　A/V connectors are used in consumer electronics, communications, and computer products. The prosperity of these industries has driven the continuous growth in demand for A/V connectors. The main application areas are VCD, DVD, and MP3 players, TVs, laptops, and PDAs. The demand for digital A/V connectors for these products will further increase.

　　There are currently about 500 A/V connector manufacturers in China. Newly established manufacturers are mainly joint ventures invested by Hong Kong or Taiwan. The driving force behind the development of China's A/V connector industry mainly comes from the rapid development of consumer electronics, communications, and PC products. In 2001, due to oversupply in the consumer electronics industry, production reached its bottom, leading to a downturn in the connector industry. In 2001, the demand for A/V connectors in China was 160 million units.

　　The A/V connector market is now rapidly shifting from analog to digital, mainly concentrated in computers, televisions, VCDs, DVDs, cameras, game consoles, and speakers. From January to June 2002, the output of color TVs and VCD players increased by 36.5% and 21.6% respectively, strongly driving the growth of the A/V connector market.

　　Application Area Comparison

　　All electrically related products require connectors, and the connector market has a very wide range of applications. Table 5 shows the proportion of connectors in different application areas in the Chinese market in 2001.

　　Computers account for the largest proportion of connectors, at 43%, across various fields. Connectors used in communication products account for 20%. In the next 5 years, five segments are expected to experience the fastest growth: high-speed connectors (e.g., 2.5Gbps and 5.0Gbps connectors), wireless product connectors (mobile phones, base stations, wireless LANs), fiber optic connectors, wired broadband connectors, and fine-pitch connectors (1.27mm/1.0mm/0.8mm/0.5mm/0.4mm/0.3mm). The international average growth rate is 22.9%, the most outstanding performance, and it is also the product project that international giants TYCO/AMP, Amphenol, Molex, and FCI pay the most attention to.

　　Market Forecast

　　Over the next 5 years, the Chinese electronic information product market will continue to maintain a growth rate of 15-30%. The overall trend is that as time goes on, the driving force of new growth points on the industry is released, the industrial scale base is getting larger and larger, so the growth rate gradually slows down.

　　The forecast shows that in 2005, China's connector market sales will reach 14.58 billion yuan, ranking among the top three in the world. The demand forecast for various connector sub-markets is shown in Table 9.

　　Overall, the strong demand for future business and home data communication and the vast market for various optical communication equipment mean that fiber optic connectors can maintain a growth rate of no less than 30% per year. The maturity of the home optical network market in 2005 will further amplify this speed. Another promising product is the chip connector. Because it caters to the requirements of miniaturization and low cost, the proportion of chip connectors will gradually increase in the future, and it will be widely used in various handheld and small electronic products. The market for bar-type, PCB, and RF connectors basically follows the overall market development trend of electronic information products, but it is slightly lagging behind.

　　Technological Development Direction

　　With the booming development of various computers, mobile communications, laptops, and PDA products, miniaturization, high density, and high transmission speed have become the development trends of connectors. In order to adapt to the needs of market development and improve their market share, global connector manufacturers have successively launched their new products. Among them, substrate-mounted small-pitch/miniature connectors, high-speed signal transmission connectors, memory stick connectors, and connectors for digital devices are the products they focus on developing and researching.

　　1. Small-pitch/Miniature Connectors

　　Currently, the overall appearance of products using connectors integrates miniaturization, thinness, and high performance, which also promotes the development of connector products towards miniaturization and small spacing. Currently, in board-to-board connector products, various manufacturers have begun to mass-produce 0.5mm chip-type connectors. In mobile information terminal products, various manufacturers have also begun to mass-produce smaller 0.4mm narrow-strip connectors. In laptops and PDAs, FDC connectors are mostly used. In this field, the application of 0.3mm-0.5mm pitch FDC connectors will be even wider.

　　2. High-speed Transmission Connectors

　　Since connectors mainly transmit signals, improving efficiency will better meet the needs of information products and multimedia products. USB and IEEE1394 are currently the two mainstream high-speed transmission standards in the market.

　　USB is a unified standard connector jointly formulated by PC and communication industry manufacturers such as Intel, Microsoft, NEC, IBM, and HP. It can connect up to 127 computers. USB 1.1 has a maximum transmission speed of 12Mbps, surpassing related products of D-Sub connectors. It can connect low-speed devices such as keyboards, mice, and printers, and is a relatively common product on the market. USB 2.0 has now been developed, with a maximum transmission speed of 480Mbps, which has a significant impact on the development of information multimedia.

　　IEEE1394 was first proposed by Apple and became a formal transmission standard in 1995. Its biggest feature is that it supports peer-to-peer transmission, meaning that the transmission entity does not need to go through a PC, and the transmission speed can reach 100Mbps to 3.2Gbps. Therefore, almost all devices requiring high frequency and high speed use the IEEE1934 standard, such as digital TVs, DVCs, and high-pixel digital cameras. Because USB and IEEE1394 have different market demands, their future development should be coexistence.

　　Memory Stick Connectors

　　The application of memory stick connectors in electronic products such as digital cameras and mobile phones has expanded significantly. Currently, the latest product attracting much attention from users is the SD memory stick connector.

　　Connectors for Digital Devices

　　Laptops and other electronic products are increasingly using high-precision LCD screens. To this end, the SX-GA LCD connector for such high-precision LCD screens has been officially launched. In addition, DVI connectors for LCD screens and other digital displays are also favored by users.

　　In addition to the above products, the market demand for fiber optic transmission connectors used in WDM and DWDM and small coaxial connectors related to wireless LAN is also gradually expanding.

　　In general, China has the greatest potential for connector market development. However, due to the low starting point of the development of China's connector industry, weak innovation capabilities, and serious lagging behind of new technology products, the product technology performance and production process technology are still about 5-10 years behind international standards, and a large number of demands rely on imports. Currently, Chinese companies mainly focus on mid-to-low-end products, and few companies can produce chip connectors and miniature high-speed connectors, which have market development potential. For example, Chinese fiber optic connector manufacturers currently mainly use imported or domestically produced parts for assembly, requiring small investment and simple processes. There are more than 60 companies producing these products, resulting in oversupply and fierce competition. Looking forward to the future of China's connector market, Chinese companies must accelerate the process of technological innovation and establish a sound institutional foundation in order to catch up and gain a foothold in the competition.