Nearly 90% of scientific instruments rely on imports, how can "domestic products" break through

 In terms of quantity, the domestic supply of nuclear magnetic spectrometers, liquid-mass spectrometers, and X -ray diffractometers accounted for: 0.99%, 1.19%, 1.32%...

In late June, at the inauguration ceremony of the Independent Innovation Application Demonstration Base of Chinese Scientific Instruments held by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Han Li, deputy director of the Institute of Electrical Engineering, Chinese Academy of Sciences, used a chart to show the status of my country's high-end scientific instruments-the basics of various scientific instruments. Monopolized by foreign manufacturers, the market share of domestic manufacturers of certain types of instruments has even approached zero.

Not long ago, at the 20th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the 15th Academician Conference of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, and the 10th National Congress of the Chinese Association for Science and Technology, General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out that we must proceed from the urgent and long-term needs of the country. The key core technologies of natural gas, basic raw materials, high-end chips, industrial software, crop seeds, scientific test equipment, chemical preparations, etc. will be fully tackled to accelerate breakthroughs in a number of key core technologies in the fields of medicines, medical devices, medical equipment, and vaccines.

The development of scientific instruments is a marathon. Those international companies with a long history are all professional players, and they are already on the road. Some people describe that domestic instrument companies are still flexing their muscles and want to catch up in a short period of time, which is a huge challenge.

But the situation is changing.

"The development of domestic instruments has ushered in a new spring and a big wind." Wu Aihua, Secretary-General of the Analytical Instruments Branch of the China Instrument and Control Society judged, "If you give domestic instruments more company and time, the problem will be solved little by little."

Break the market monopoly a little bit

When domestic products are made, the arrogance of foreign instruments will also be beaten down

Scientific instruments, known as the "eyes" of scientists, are likened to the jewel in the crown of high-end manufacturing.

Wu Aihua introduced that the 2018 National Science and Technology Fundamental Resource Survey showed that among the large instruments with an original value of more than 500,000 yuan, the share of domestic products was about 13.4%.

The instrument industry is not large in size, but it has the effect of "two-two-handedness". Take analytical instruments as an example. In 2019, the scale of my country's analytical instrument industry will be 35 billion yuan. In the early 1990s, the National Bureau of Standards of the US Department of Commerce issued a report: The total output value of the instrumentation industry accounted for only 4% of the total industrial output value, but its impact on the national economy reached 66%.

Han Yugang, director of the Protein Science Research Platform of the Institute of Biophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, emphasized that scientific instruments are the basic conditions for scientific research, an important form of scientific and technological innovation, and an important support for the development of the national economy.

If you rely too much on imported instruments, firstly, there is a risk, and scientific research work will be controlled by others; secondly, instrument users have to spend a lot of money to buy high-priced products.

"Almost 99% of the scientific instrument electron microscope market share is divided by five companies in the world." He Wei, general manager of Spotlight Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., introduced the electron microscope field he is familiar with. He told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that in 2020, the global market sales of such products will be around 3.5 billion U.S. dollars, and the domestic sales will be about 6 billion yuan. But even the top domestic companies can only get 1% to 2% from this cake.

Founded in 2015, Spotlight Technology is one of the few high-tech companies in the world that can independently design and produce a complete set of high-end field emission electron microscope systems. "This kind of income cannot support the development of high-end instrument companies. We invest as much as 30 to 40 million yuan in research and development each year." He Wei said frankly.

Wu Aihua introduced that in 2018, my country's imports of optical instruments, electronic measuring instruments, testing machines, and experimental analysis instruments were 21.73 billion U.S. dollars, or about 139.6 billion yuan. Taking high performance liquid chromatography as an example, the survey shows that there are dozens of manufacturers in China, 6 in North America, 3 in Europe, and 3 in Japan. However, the share of domestic products is only 20%, and 80% is dependent on imports.

"Overall, domestic instrument companies have a large number, small scale, thin foundation, lack of star companies, and nearly 80% are small and micro enterprises. From the perspective of income scale, we do not have the world's top instrument companies." Wu Aihua said.

Not without good news.

Liu Wenyu, president of Haineng Future Technology Group Co., Ltd., is a "veteran" in the instrument industry. He has worked in this industry for 36 years and has worked for the international instrument company Shimadzu for 17 years. He can feel that in the past ten years, the domestic instrument industry has changed: there have been more private enterprises, more high-end overseas returnees, and more capital operations.

A number of high-quality companies have come to the fore, leaving behind the second and third places, and are able to compete with foreign companies.

Liu Wenyu told a reporter from Science and Technology Daily about Beijing's Universal Analysis. This company was established in 1991 and has been doing UV spectrophotometers and atomic absorption spectrometers.

In 1997, Liu Wenyu's old boss Shimadzu built a factory in Suzhou. He remembered that since the introduction of Universal Instruments, "Shimadzu's price has dropped, by 30 to 40%. Moreover, the sales of spectroscopic instruments at the Shimadzu Suzhou factory have not increased."

When domestic products are really excellent, the arrogance of foreign instruments will also be beaten down.

Some companies have found a blank market that no one has set foot in yet, and use "people without me to have" to cut into the "blue ocean."

Guoyi Quantum, headquartered in Hefei, is doing quantum precision measuring instruments. Fu Yongqiang, deputy general manager of the company's marketing center, told the Science and Technology Daily reporter that their quantum diamond single-spin spectrometer, quantum diamond atomic force microscope, diamond quantum computing teaching machine and other instruments are the world's first exclusive products and face less competition. For products such as electron paramagnetic resonance spectrometers and scanning electron microscopes, the main goal is to achieve domestic substitution. "We have gone from'can't look forward to foreign companies' to the stage of following, parallel running, and even part of the lead." Fu Yongqiang said.