Analysis of China's UHF RFID Passive IoT Industry Chain

China is the main producer of UHF RFID tags and reader-writer products, so the UHF RFID industry chain is mainly concentrated in the Chinese market. The label products and reader-writer products in the UHF RFID market are two completely different industrial chains. Label products have low cost, high degree of standardization, and focus on production processes, while reader-writer products are characterized by high technical threshold, high degree of customization, and emphasis on solutions.

Upstream of the industrial chain

The upstream of UHF RFID is chip manufacturers and antenna manufacturers. UHF chip manufacturers have a relatively large number of players. For specific players, please refer to the "IOTE·China RIFID Passive Internet of Things Industry Map (2023 Edition)" in this report.

However, in recent years, the domestic UHF chip market has developed rapidly, and many new players have emerged. In many application markets, domestic UHF chips have gradually emerged, especially for price-sensitive or confidential projects, the application of domestic chips is becoming more and more popular. many.

  The production of antennas for UHF tags mainly uses etching processes. Antennas are a production-focused link. The production of antennas requires the use of a large amount of chemicals and heavy metals, causing great pollution to the environment. With the strict supervision of environmental protection policies in recent years, many small factories have been eliminated, and the manufacturers of UHF tag antennas have become more concentrated.

In addition to etched antennas, environmentally friendly antenna processes have gradually received attention in recent years. Common environmentally friendly antenna processes currently on the market include die-cut antennas, screen-printed antennas, laser-cut antennas, etc. The technological maturity of these environmentally friendly process products is closely related to Market applications are gradually increasing. In the UHF reader/writer chip market, domestic chip players are catching up fiercely. Although high-end chips are dominated by overseas manufacturers, domestic chip players in the mid-to-low-end market have become mainstream. With the rise of domestic substitution, more and more The more capital and powerful players enter the field of UHF RFID chips, the gap between domestic chip players and overseas manufacturers is gradually narrowing in terms of product performance.

In addition, it is also common to use discrete devices to build reader-writer products. Discrete devices can customize functions according to specific scenarios.

  UHF reader-writer antenna is a very fragmented market. The performance of the antenna has a great influence on the performance of the reader-writer product. Some customized reader-writer products require powerful antenna functions. Among reader-writer products, The value of the antenna accounts for a large proportion.

Midstream of the industrial chain

The midstream of UHF RFID can be divided into two lines: label product line and reader product line.

The label product line covers the Inlay production link (encapsulation), white label production link (laminated), inkjet printing link (back-end) and integrators.

  UHF RFID tags are a link that attaches great importance to production. Production requires equipment. Therefore, tag production equipment manufacturers also play an important role in the industry chain. Production equipment mainly includes packaging equipment (binding chips and antennas into Inlay), composite equipment (composite Inlay into white labels), inkjet printing/printers, and testing equipment are used in every link.

Label production is also a link of "small profits but quick turnover". Therefore, in order to increase output value and total profits, many label manufacturers choose to extend their business lines to cover diversified businesses such as "binding + lamination" or even "binding + lamination + printing". .

The reader-writer midstream product line covers reader-writer modules, reader-writer finished products, solution providers and integrators. There are many forms of finished readers, including fixed readers, mobile readers, tablets, robots, printers, etc.

Compared with label products, reader-writer products have a higher technical threshold. Although the overall volume is not large, the price and profit margin are relatively high. It is a technology-intensive link. In order to increase revenue, reader-writer manufacturers With profits, people often choose to make plans.

On the one hand, the midstream link requires a certain degree of technical strength. On the other hand, it also requires a deep understanding of the business and the development of corresponding products according to market needs. Compared with other frequency bands, UHF RFID midstream companies have developed in recent years. Faster and richer.

Compared with label products, reader-writer products have a higher technical threshold. Although the overall volume is not large, the price and profit margin are relatively high. It is a technology-intensive link. In order to increase revenue, reader-writer manufacturers With profits, people often choose to make plans. On the one hand, the midstream link requires a certain degree of technical strength. On the other hand, it also requires a deep understanding of the business and the development of corresponding products according to market needs. Compared with other frequency bands, UHF RFID midstream companies have developed in recent years. Faster and richer.

Downstream of the industrial chain

The downstream of the UHF RFID industry chain are various application end users and integrators. Although from the perspective of the technology industry chain, applications are downstream, applications are the source of demand and the final payer of the entire closed loop of the industry chain. Therefore, It can be seen that the downstream industry chain plays a vital position in the entire industry chain.

The application of UHF RFID can be divided into general market and customized market.

Universal and customized are relative concepts, because the UHF RFID market is mainly to B and to G categories, and each project has different needs. From a certain perspective, UHF RFID is all customized Market, in this report, in order to better analyze the UHF RFID market, it is divided into two different applications: general-purpose and customized.

The general market refers to the large application volume of UHF RFID tags in certain fields, and the requirements of such applications are relatively similar and can be copied to a relatively high degree. Typical applications include: shoes and clothing, retail supermarkets, aviation, logistics, express delivery and Library archives, etc. In these scenarios, UHF RFID tags are used as consumables, so the consumption is very large, and the price sensitivity to tags is relatively high.

The scenarios where UHF RFID tags are used the most are shoes and clothing and shopping mall retail. In this market, foreign brands are much more popular with UHF RFID tags than domestic brands. Because foreign brands have Stores all over the world, and fashion fast-moving consumer brands have high requirements for product turnover, the use of RFID tags can greatly improve the efficiency of product circulation management and have relatively obvious economic benefits.

At present, aviation luggage tags are also becoming popular. In China, many airports are already using RFID tags. According to the relevant policies of the Civil Aviation Administration, the first step is to realize that all airports with an annual throughput of more than 10 million use RFID tags. The next step is All airports use RFID tags.

The logistics scenario is a market worth looking forward to in China. It is understood that the number of logistics packages used in China will reach 110.58 billion in 2022, accounting for more than half of global packages, and is still maintaining a rapid growth momentum. At present, UHF RFID tags have been widely used in transfer bags in the domestic express logistics system, and the next step is to realize single-item application of express packages. The U.S. express delivery giant UPS has taken the lead in using RFID tags for item-level quick-read packages. However, if it is to be popularized in China, it still faces many problems. The core one is cost, because the profit margin of the domestic express delivery industry is extremely low. Using RFID tags can consume a lot of profit.

Books and archives are also an application area where UHF RFID usage is relatively concentrated. However, the domestic book and archives market uses a relatively large amount of both high-frequency and UHF tags.

The customized market refers to a market where the demand is not so concentrated, and the environment in which it is used has customized requirements for the performance and appearance of tags and readers. The degree of replicability is low. Typical applications include industry, power, and medical. , transportation, railway, laundry and ticket cards, etc.

The customized market cannot be compared with the general market in terms of the proportion of tag consumption, but this market has greater demand for readers and writers. In addition, this type of market has better prices and profits, and can also accommodate more readers. Players make the entire RFID market richer and more prosperous.

There is another important type of player in the UHF RFID industry chain, which is integrators. The end users of RFID are mainly to B and to C. As a sub-module, RFID products are generally directly connected to integrators.