Fiber lasers, with their high photoelectric conversion efficiency, excellent beam quality and high reliability, have become the mainstream direction of laser technology development and the main force in laser industry applications. Currently, my country's fiber laser industry is in a triple resonance period of policy, technology and demand: National equipment updates and energy electronics policies are intensively escorted, 10,000-watt single-mode and ultra-high power technologies have set new global records, and new energy vehicles, AI communications and consumer applications are blooming. Thanks to this, the market size of my country's fiber laser industry continues to expand, and is expected to grow by 20% to nearly 19 billion yuan in 2025. What is more far-reaching is that the industry competition pattern has undergone a fundamental reversal. Domestic enterprises have made a strong breakthrough from the monopoly of foreign capital, achieved overtake in market share, and are shifting from "price competition" to "value competition." In the future, with the continuous expansion of high-power, intelligent integration and application scenarios, an industrial transition with independent controllability and high-end tackling as the core is in full swing.
1. Definition of fiber laser
According to the "In-depth Research and Investment Prospects Analysis Report on the Development of China's Fiber Laser Industry (2026-2033)" released by the Guanyan Report Network, fiber lasers refer to lasers that use rare earth element-doped glass fibers as gain media. They are a new generation of solid lasers. They have the advantages of high photoelectric conversion efficiency, good beam quality, stable performance, good heat dissipation, compact structure, and high reliability. They have now become the mainstream direction of laser technology development and the main force in laser industry applications. Fiber lasers consist of three parts: laser working material (gain fiber), pump system and optical resonant cavity. The pump light emitted by the pump source is coupled into the gain medium through a reflecting mirror, and is converted into a high-power and high-brightness signal laser through the gain medium to form a stable laser output.
Fiber lasers are classified in various ways. For example, according to the working mode of the laser, they can be divided into pulse fiber lasers and continuous fiber lasers; according to the output laser power, they can be divided into low-power fiber lasers, medium-power fiber lasers and high-power fiber lasers.
In recent years, the development of my country's fiber laser industry has benefited from the triple resonance of policy, technology and demand, forming a clear growth logic. On the policy side, support measures continue to escort and cover all aspects: the 2023 "Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Energy Electronics Industry" clearly states the development of high-power lasers, and the 2024 "Implementation Plan for Promoting Equipment Updates in the Industrial Field" emphasizes the update of laser welding machines. By 2025, the large-scale equipment update policy will be further extended to the electronic information field, systematically covering all aspects of technology research and development, reliability assurance and equipment update, providing solid institutional support for domestic substitution.
On the technology side, my country has accelerated breakthroughs and reached the international leading level. It has taken the lead in 10,000-watt single-mode fiber lasers and 300W millijoule femtosecond lasers. The 160kW ultra-high power product has set a new global record; in the field of ultrafast lasers, picosecond lasers account for 85%, and femtosecond lasers are regarded as an important growth direction.
On the demand side, multiple emerging application scenarios have injected strong momentum into the fiber laser industry: In the field of new energy vehicles, fiber lasers run through core links such as power battery lug welding and drive motor manufacturing. They are a key enabling technology for lightweight and intelligent manufacturing of automobiles. In 2025, the production and sales of new energy vehicles will exceed 16 million units, and their share of domestic new car sales has exceeded 50% for the first time. This is the first time for fiber lasers to be used. The optical device industry provides a solid basic demand base; in the fields of AI and communications, the explosion in demand for computing power has led to a surge in demand for data center optical modules, and orders for CPO (co-packaged optics) and CW lasers (continuous wave lasers) continue to grow; the consumer market is also rapidly increasing, with sales revenue in the laser welding equipment market reaching 21.25 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 29.3%, and is expected to overtake the cutting market in the future.
Therefore, driven by the above factors, the market size of my country's fiber laser industry has expanded. According to data, it is expected that my country's fiber laser industry will continue to maintain a good development trend in 2025, and the market size is expected to reach 19 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 20.25%.
The competitive landscape of my country's fiber laser industry has undergone a fundamental reversal in the past decade or so, and has clearly gone through three stages: "foreign capital monopoly - breaking barriers - local overtaking". During the monopoly period before 2008, the American IPG and the British SPI jointly controlled more than 90% of the domestic fiber laser market; since then, as local companies such as Wuhan Raycus Laser and Shenzhen JPT have successively launched domestic products, this monopoly has been gradually broken down.
3. Domestic fiber laser companies counterattack, and high power, intelligence and diversification have become development trends
Entering the local overtaking stage, as of 2024, Raycus Laser's market share has reached 18.6%, surpassing IPG Photonics. my country's fiber laser industry has formed a layered pattern of "complete autonomy in the mid- and low-end, rapid replacement of the mid-to-high-end, and accelerated breakthroughs in the high-end". The main domestic manufacturers include Huagong Technology, Raycus Laser, JPT, Han's Laser, Chuangxin Laser, Caplin, etc., and some leading companies have achieved overtake of imported brands in specific power segments. At present, my country's fiber lasers are in a high-end battle stage. The localization rate of high-power products above 10kW is close to 80%. However, the price war in the 6-10kW power range is fierce, and the industry is transforming from "price competition" to "value competition". At the same time, the independent supporting capabilities of core components such as special fibers and pump sources continue to improve, but some high-end devices still rely on imports. Overcoming this shortcoming will be the key to achieving full independence and controllability.
In the long run, the development of my country's fiber laser industry is evolving in parallel along four main lines: high power and ultra-fast, intelligent integration, application scenario expansion, and miniaturization and lightweight. In terms of performance improvement, power density improvement and beam quality optimization are still the core evolution directions. Ultrafast lasers,
especially femtosecond-level products, show broad application prospects in precision processing, medical and other fields. In terms of intelligent integration, fiber lasers are being deeply integrated with AI and Internet of Things technologies to realize functions such as remote monitoring, fault diagnosis, and automatic parameter adjustment. At the same time, they are integrated with robots and automated production lines to form a "laser + automation" solution to meet the needs of intelligent manufacturing and flexible production.
In terms of application scenario expansion, in addition to traditional industrial cutting and welding, fiber lasers are continuing to penetrate into medical (such as minimally invasive surgery, medical aesthetics), communications (such as free-space optical communications), environmental monitoring and other fields, further expanding the market space. In addition, in terms of miniaturization and lightweight, chip integration technology promotes the continuous reduction of equipment size and weight, and the application of handheld and portable laser equipment in field operations, maintenance and other scenarios continues to increase. (WYD)
