The market demand for liquid crystal aligning agents continues to grow, and there is broad room for domestic substitution in the domestic market in the future.

Liquid crystal aligning agent is a high-purity polyimide/polyimide acid resin solution that can form a liquid crystal alignment film through curing, rubbing and other processes, and is ultimately used in LCD manufacturing scenarios. The performance of liquid crystal aligning agents has a direct impact on the arrangement of liquid crystal molecules in liquid crystal displays, and has an indirect impact on the contrast, threshold voltage, and response time of liquid crystal displays. It is one of the important functional materials required for the production of liquid crystal displays.

According to different materials, liquid crystal aligning agents can be divided into two categories: polyimide (PI) liquid crystal aligning agents and polyimide acid (PA) liquid crystal aligning agents. Among them, polyimide liquid crystal aligning agents are currently the mainstream products in the liquid crystal aligning agent market. They have the advantages of high reliability, good stability, low accumulated charge, and high voltage retention rate. The main raw material of polyimide liquid crystal aligning agent is polyimide. In 2022, my country’s polyimide output will exceed 40,000 tons, and the industry has a good foundation for development.

According to the “2023-2028 Liquid Crystal Orienting Agent Industry Market In-depth Research and Investment Prospect Forecast Analysis Report” released by the Industrial Research Center, Liquid crystal aligning agents are mainly used in LCD manufacturing scenarios. Currently, in the context of the rapid development of liquid crystal display technology, LCD monitors have been widely used in smartphones, LCD TVs, home appliances, vehicle displays and other fields. Market shipments have shown continued growth. In 2022, domestic LCD monitor market shipments It has exceeded 140 million units. As a key material required for the manufacture of liquid crystal displays, the market demand for liquid crystal aligning agents is increasingly strong. In 2022, the domestic market demand for liquid crystal aligning agents will exceed 2,000 tons.

The research on liquid crystal aligning agents in my country started late and the level of industrialization is relatively backward. Therefore, domestic demand has been dependent on imports for a long time. Foreign-funded enterprises such as Japan’s Nissan Chemical, Japan’s JJ, Japan’s D&E, Japan’s Synthetic Rubber, South Korea’s Samsung, and Germany’s Merck are the main suppliers of liquid crystal aligning agents in China. However, in recent years, driven by the rapid development of the LCD industry and the continuous technological breakthroughs of local companies, domestic liquid crystal alignment agents have achieved industrial production, and the level of localization has continued to improve.

Industry analysts said that the current domestic liquid crystal aligning agent manufacturers mainly include Qinghe Technology and Dalton Electronic materials, Bomi Technology, Caizhu Industrial, Jiuyuan New Material Technology, Shangke New Materials, Wanhui Technology, Fisher New Materials, Xinyihua Material Technology, Fenglu Fine Chemicals, etc. As local companies continue to improve their technology, my country’s liquid crystal aligning agent production capacity continues to grow, and the industry’s development trend is improving.