IDTechEx: China is Largest RFID Market in 2007

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Thanks to its multi-billion dollar national ID contactless card program, China now has the largest RFID market in the world. This according to research firm IDTechEx, which has just released a new report on the market. This article includes additional findings from the research.

Aug 27, 2007This article was originally published by RFID Update.

August 27, 2007—China now has the largest RFID market, as measured in terms of aggregate value. This according to research firm IDTechEx of Cambridge, UK, which has just released a new report entitled RFID in China 2007 - 2017. Following are additional findings from the research:

  • IDTechEx pegs the Chinese RFID market's value at US$1.9 billion. This figure represents the majority of the estimated $2.7 billion spent in the East Asia region, and 38 percent of the $4.96 billion global market.
     
  • China's market dominance is due to the "peaking" of orders for the nation's contactless identification cards. China has allocated a whopping $6 billion to the national ID card project, $1.65 billion of which will be spent this year on 300 million cards and the necessary infrastructure, according to IDTechEx.
     
  • This burst of spending is just that, which means that the Chinese market value won't sustain such levels. "As the deliveries of the national ID card saturate, China will sink below the US and probably Japan in value of its RFID market," writes IDTechEx. Such a drop-off notwithstanding, RFID growth will be robust on the mainland, as demand flows from sectors including animal tagging, transport, cash replacement cards, secure access, manufacturing, military, and the supply chain. IDTechEx offers a useful chart of the leading Chinese rollouts and the estimated number of tags each will require.
     
  • As for the beneficiaries of China's appetite for RFID, IDTechEx indicates that 12 vendors account for $722 million, or 36.8 percent, of the market. As further evidence that the national ID card project is the primary market driver, the top eight RFID vendors are all involved with the project in various capacities. IDTechEx cites HuaHong Group, DaTang Microelectronics, SMIC, and Eastcompeace among the major players.
     
  • IDTechEx counts 200 domestic and foreign vendors that share the other $1.2 billion of the market. Among the foreign suppliers competing in China are chip makers Inside Contactless, NXP, Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, Infineon, EM Microelectronic, and Atmel.
     
  • IDTechEx also notes that some foreign RFID vendors are outsourcing inlay production to China.

Read the full article from IDTechEx

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