China has become the world's largest market for RFID by value. In 2008 the spend on RFID in East Asia will be $2.8 billion of $5.29 billion spent globally. The majority of this - $1.96 billion - is just in China. This is because of a peak in delivery of national identification cards in China prior to the 2008 Olympics. About $1.65 billion is being spent on 220 million of these cards, plus their associated systems, being delivered in 2008 out of a project commitment of $6 billion, the largest of any RFID project in the world. In addition to this, $310 million will be spent on other RFID tags and their systems.

 

However, as the deliveries of the national ID card saturate, the Chinese RFID market will sink below the US, and probably Japan, in value - but it will still be growing very fast. Within ten years the RFID market in China will more than compensate for the drop in delivery of national ID cards, buoyant sectors including animal tagging, transport, cash replacement cards, secure access, manufacturing, military and supply chain applications.

 

Some of the RFID potential in China is shown in the table below.

 

Source: IDTechEx RFID in China 2008-2018.

The leading 12 RFID companies in China account for $722 million of the Chinese RFID market in 2008 - 36.8% of the total $1.96 billion RFID market in China. IDTechEx finds that the top eight RFID operations in China were all contractors of the national ID card scheme.

 

Two hundred other local and foreign suppliers share the remaining $1.24 billion market value. These suppliers include foreign chip suppliers who have played a major part in RFID applications in China. For example, NXP supplied chips for the Beijing public transit cards and campus cards, and Inside Contactless won the Ministry of Communication order for the seven million transportation certificates. Other chip suppliers active in the Chinese market include Texas Instruments, STMicroelectronics, lnfineon, EM Microelectronics, Atmel, etc. It also includes numerous local interrogator suppliers and system integrators for contactless smart card rollouts in their respective cities, such as national ID card schemes and public transit cards. For example, Shanghai Public Transport Card Co (SPTCC) was founded in 1999 by local government, major transportation companies, and technology suppliers located in the city. The sole purpose of this company is to implement and coordinate the public transport card project. State-owned companies of similar structure and function had been established in Beijing, Guangzhou, and most of the other 80 cities with transit card schemes ongoing. Annual sales revenues of these companies vary from several million dollars to tens of thousands. Covering inlays, tickets, cards and all other forms of RFID, this report addresses the suppliers and biggest users. For those wishing to understand the RFID market in China, including forecasts and players, this is a must-have report.

This report is the summation of extensive new research by IDTechEx analysts including Chinese native Ning Xiao. Many companies in China were visited and interviewed to obtain this information, which is not available elsewhere. The 317 page report covers over 150 companies developing RFID in China, actual and potential sales, successes and impediments, standards, frequencies and 92 case studies. This is your complete guide to RFID in China, giving an unprecedented level of insight into what is really happening.

All purchases of this report include six months access to the independent IDTechEx journal RFID Analyst, keeping you updated with the topic for the months to come, and one hour of consultancy from IDTechEx by telephone or email.

If you have any questions about this report, please do not hesitate to contact Raoul or call + 44 1223 813703.