Development status of China’s PET composite copper foil market in 2023 and analysis of major industry layout companies

Electrolytic copper foil is a functional basic raw material in the electronics manufacturing industry. It is called the “neural network” for signal and power transmission and communication in electronic products. It is one of the important raw materials for copper-clad laminates, printed circuit boards, and lithium-ion batteries. With the continuous development of technology, new copper foil products such as PET composite copper foil have attracted market attention.

In recent years, due to the sustained and rapid development of downstream demand markets such as China’s new energy vehicles and semiconductors, the market demand for electrolytic copper foil products has also continued to grow, and the industry has maintained rapid growth.

Composite copper foil uses magnetron sputtering on the surface of PET, PP, PI and other materials with a thickness of 3-8um to produce a metal layer of 30-70nm. The surface resistance is about 0.5-2 ohms, realizing the base Material surface metallization. Then, the metal layer is thickened to 1 μm or more by water electroplating to produce a composite copper foil with a total thickness of 5-10 μm to replace the electrolytic copper foil of 4.5-9 μm. The composite copper foil process is shorter than traditional copper foil production. With the development of technology, it is expected to reduce production costs.

There are three main base films that can be used for composite copper foil: PI base film, PP base film and PET base film. Among them, PI film has better performance and insulation, PP film has better optical properties and transparency, and PET film has better high and low temperature resistance. And it has excellent mechanical properties. At present, the base film of composite copper foil is mainly PET.

In recent years, new energy vehicle explosions and fire safety accidents have occurred frequently, which has had a certain impact on the development of the new energy vehicle industry. The improvement of the safety performance of power batteries is a key issue of concern to the industry. PET composite copper foil products are safer than traditional copper foil. This is because traditional copper foil will produce large-sized burrs when punctured, causing internal short circuits, causing thermal runaway and causing new energy vehicle batteries to explode and catch fire; Composite copper foil The polymer base material is flame retardant, and the metal conductive layer melts quickly during a short circuit, reducing explosions caused by thermal runaway.

The “2023-2028 China PET Composite Copper Foil Industry Market In-depth Research and Development Prospects Forecast Report compiled and released by the Industrial Research Center shows that , PET composite copper foil products are still in the early stages of market development, and some companies have entered mass production. PET composite copper foil products have high technical barriers and downstream customer barriers, and need to be verified by downstream customers. It is expected that as some enterprise products gradually pass the verification of downstream customers, the PET-compliant copper foil industry market is expected to enter the stage of large-scale mass production, and the industry market size will grow rapidly.

At present, domestic PET composite copper foil manufacturers mainly include Tengsheng Technology, Shuangxing New Materials, Wanshun New Materials, Chongqing Jinmei, Baoming Technology and other companies, mainly membrane material companies and electrolytic copper foil companies. As the technology gradually matures and is verified by downstream users, many companies have entered the mass production stage of composite copper foil in recent years. For example, Baoming Technology released a lithium battery composite copper foil production base plan in July 2022. The total production capacity of the two phases of the project is 140-180 million square meters of lithium battery composite copper foil; Anhui Feituo plans to invest 5.6 billion to build a high-tech composite copper foil production line; the Chongqing Jinmei composite copper foil project is expected to have a production capacity of 295 million square meters after it is fully reached.