The 2024 Two Sessions "Government Work Report" pointed out that we should actively create new growth engines such as biomanufacturing, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy; the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Finance, and the Civil Aviation Administration of China jointly issued the "Implementation Plan for the Innovation and Application of General Aviation Equipment (2024-2030)", which clearly stated that by 2030, my country's general aviation equipment will be fully integrated into all areas of people's production and life, forming a trillion-level general aviation industry market. At present, 27 provinces in the country have clearly made the development of low-altitude economy a priority; at the same time, more than a dozen cities have also proposed to accelerate the development of low-altitude economy. As a strategic emerging industry, low-altitude economy has broad development space and growth prospects, and is increasingly becoming a new growth point for regional economy.
For the communications industry, the country's goal of vigorously developing low-altitude economy has brought many new demands and directions.
The first is the demand for special optical fibers. Industry insiders predict that with the development of the low-altitude economy, various application scenarios of aircraft may generate demand for the following special optical fibers:
① Aircraft attitude maintenance and inertial navigation-polarization-maintaining optical fiber;
② Aircraft warning marker lights (for lighting)-illumination optical fiber;
③ Aircraft ground communication-multimode optical fiber;
④ Aircraft laser radar-erbium-doped optical fiber, erbium-ytterbium co-doped optical fiber;
⑤ Widely used in the aerospace field-high temperature-resistant optical fiber, bend-insensitive optical fiber, radiation-resistant optical fiber and ultraviolet optical fiber, etc.
In fact, driven by the low-altitude economy and satellite communications, the current demand for special optical fibers is growing rapidly. According to a survey by data analysis company Statista, the global market size of special optical fibers is expected to reach US$42.13 billion by 2025, with an estimated annual compound growth rate of 17.6%. At the same time, from the current market situation, the development of emerging industries such as aerospace, wind energy, and fuel cells will further expand the market demand for special optical fibers.
The second is the demand for upstream raw materials. From the perspective of the "low-altitude economy" industry chain, the development of the low-altitude economy has a certain pulling effect on the upstream raw materials of aircraft, as well as upstream raw material companies of supporting facilities such as special optical fibers, optical devices, base stations, etc. From the perspective of the aircraft market, lightweight, high-strength plastics and composite materials will be widely used in aircraft controllers, fuselages, wings, wing guards, landing gear, gimbals and other parts. From the layout of several domestic drone leading companies' suppliers Kingfa Technology, Water Shares, and Nanjing Julong, engineering plastics such as PHA, PC, PA, PPA, thermoplastic/thermosetting resin matrix continuous fiber reinforced composite materials, flame-retardant continuous reinforced PP composite materials, special engineering materials and carbon fiber reinforced materials are currently the focus of production and research, and the research and development direction of these modified plastics may also bring inspiration to upstream material companies in the communications industry.
From the perspective of the special optical fiber industry chain, the production process of special optical fibers has extremely high requirements for the quality of upstream raw materials, including quartz single-mode or multi-mode optical fiber preforms carefully prepared by chemical vapor deposition (MCVD) or plasma chemical vapor deposition (PCVD). In addition, the production process also requires the use of a variety of liners, sleeves, coatings, as well as inert gases, carbon dioxide, photosensitive adhesives and fiber encapsulation adhesives and other materials; the manufacturing of midstream special optical fibers includes multiple complex technical links, the main links are fiber drawing, cladding coating, and laser processing and other fine steps. This provides a new development direction for a series of supporting upstream industries and has a driving effect on the operation of upstream enterprises.
In addition, aircraft chips and supporting facilities such as communication base stations are more or less connected to existing industries, and the development of low-altitude economy can also "add icing on the cake" for the profit growth of these industries.
Finally, there is the expansion of communication networks. Since the beginning of this year, China Mobile, ZTE, Huawei and other companies have announced 5G-A commercial deployment plans. Based on 5G-A technology, a new low-altitude intelligent network infrastructure integrating "communication, perception, navigation, and control" can be created to provide the industry with low-altitude network information transmission, auxiliary safety control and other services, enabling the vigorous development of the low-altitude economy.
Among them, China Mobile was the first to announce the commercialization of 5G-A. In 2024, it will launch the world's largest 5G-A commercial deployment in more than 300 domestic cities, providing high-quality infrastructure for the development of the low-altitude economy.