The market size of ultrafine nickel powder continues to expand, and there is broad room for domestic substitution in the Chinese market

Ultrafine nickel powder generally refers to nickel elements with a particle size less than 1 μm, and appears as black or gray-black powder, including micron nickel powder (average particle size ≥ 1 μm), submicron nickel powder (0.1 μm ≤ average particle size < 1μm), nanoscale nickel powder (0.001μm≤average particle size<0.1μm). Ultrafine nickel powder has the advantages of high surface activity, excellent magnetic permeability, good electrical conductivity, and high melting point. It can be widely used in aerospace, electronics, military industry, energy, medical, coatings, machinery and other fields. Downstream products include chip multilayer ceramic capacitors. (MLCC), conductive paste, sintering additives, absorbing materials, high-efficiency catalysts, electromagnetic shielding materials, etc.

Among them, chip multilayer ceramic capacitors (MLCC) are the main downstream products of ultrafine nickel powder. MLCC is a widely used passive component. It has the advantages of large capacity, long life, small size, and high temperature resistance. It is mostly used in automotive electronics, high-end consumer electronics, industrial control, industrial power supply and other fields. MLCC is composed of metal internal electrodes such as Ni (nickel) and Pt (platinum) alternately laminated with dielectric materials. Nickel powder is one of the key raw materials for the current production of MLCC internal electrodes. As the MLCC market gradually upgrades towards miniaturization and high performance, the particle size of nickel powder continues to shrink, and ultra-fine nickel powder gradually becomes the MLCC internal electrode material market. Mainstream products.

According to the“2023-2028 Ultrafine Nickel Powder Industry Market In-depth Research and Investment Prospect Forecast Analysis Report” released by the Industrial Research Center , with the rapid development of the MLCC market, domestic demand for ultra-fine nickel powder continues to increase. The domestic ultrafine nickel powder market size in 2022 will be approximately 6.89 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.7%. In addition, with the rapid development of domestic high-tech industries, the demand for ultrafine nickel powder in the atomic energy industry, conductive pastes, electrical alloys and other fields is also increasing, and the future development prospects of the industry are broad.

The technical barriers to ultrafine nickel powder are high. Currently, only a few companies in the world have large-scale mass production capabilities, including international companies such as Canada’s INCO, Japan’s Sumitomo Metal Mining Co., Ltd., Japan’s Toho Titanium Co., Ltd., Japan’s JFE Mining, and Jiangsu Boqian. New materials, Ningbo Guangbo Nano New Materials, Jilin Jien Nickel, GEM, Jinchuan Group and other Chinese companies.

Among them, my country’s ultrafine nickel powder market is still dominated by leading international companies with higher technical levels and longer development history, including INCO, Sumitomo Metal, etc. my country’s ultrafine nickel powder industry started late, and local companies are still in a weak position in the domestic ultrafine nickel powder market competition. In the future, local companies will need to continue to research key technologies to continuously improve their competitiveness.

Industry analysts said that ultrafine nickel powder is a type of high-performance powder material with a wide range of uses. It is widely used in electronics, electric power, industry, machinery, aviation, military industry, medical and other fields. Currently, driven by the rapid development of the downstream market, my country’s demand for ultrafine nickel powder continues to increase, and the industry has good development prospects. However, due to technical limitations, the domestic ultrafine nickel powder market is still dominated by leading international companies, and the level of localization is low. In the future, local companies will need to accelerate their competitiveness to promote the continuous improvement of localization levels.