Present Status and Development Intrustry Column Hangzhou Permanent Magnet Group Co.LTD

2009-12-7

Ladies and gentlemen:

Thank you for your attention. Today I would like to talk about Present Status and Development of Alnico Industry in China.

As is known to all, Alnico magnet had been widely used in various fields since it was first discovered in 1930s, and in 60’s, world’s annual output of Alnico magnet reached 40 thousand tons to its peak. However, gradually affected by cheap ferrite magnet in 70’s and NdFeB magnet in 80’s, Alnico magnet market share declined sharply during this period!

From 2000, Alnico has been greatly replaced in many measuring instruments because of the electronization and digitization of household electric meter, speedo meter, multi meter, etc. but due to the special advantages of Alnico magnet, such as temperature co-efficiency, showing its superior capability of environment stability and operational reliability, though facing severe challenge from market, Alnico magnet is incommensurable and irreplaceable in automobile sensor, aerospace, military project and national defense, especially in some situations which are strict with the environment.

On the basis of data in recent years, according to our estimation, global demand for Alnico goes down 5% every year during 2000-2007, mainly demand decline in metrologic meter; Alnico demands stayed stable from 2008, and the total demand is about 4000tons annually; Due to the financial crisis in 2009, the

demands go down to 3000tons. With the economic resurgence, aggregate demand of Alnico magnet remains around 4000tons annually in next 5 years. The demand will be on the same level because the periodic replacement is over.

Now the global Alnico output is about 4000tons every year, producers are mostly located in Asia, Europe and North America, in which Asia produces 3300 tons, covering 82.5%, Europe and North America produce 700tons, covering 17.5%. Influenced by financial crisis, the output of Alnico in 2009 is expected around 3000tons, in which Hangzhou permanent magnet group takes up 1200tons—40% of the global output.

With the economic recovering, aggregate demand stays around 4000tons, in which almost 1500 tons will be produced by HPMG occupying 37.5% of global demand, and the production of other producers will increase in proportion.

Market and Strategy

Relying on its stability, alnico magnet is largely applied to aerospace, sensors, hi-fi speakers and other applications in leading-edge field. In spite of the small demand, the requirements are very strict and critical. As the world’s largest alnico manufacturer, we have accumulated rich experience in 30 years development. The company has equipped a series of advanced facilities and brought in advanced management mode, which to be the supporter to our

high-qualified production. The company has been certified by ISO9001:2000 and TS16949:2002, which will help us satisfy our customers’ need and strengthen our competitiveness. HPMG devotes to improve the magnetic performance, and we have made much progress in sintered magnet production and precision casting. This showed that we have research and development ability to meet customers’ comprehensive need.

To make sure the development of the whole industry and HPMG, we have been making efforts in following five parts:

1, Continuous improvement in magnetic property and technics

The State Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision released GB/T17951-2005 standard, and HPMG equally adopted 60404-8-1 and its amendment. The purpose is to speed up the international standard adoption process, enhance international technical communication and business cooperation. In accordance with the standard, some products from HPMG are in leading position.

Table 1 and Table 2 show the comparisons between HPMG standard and that from advanced country for cast alnico and sintered alnico respectively. We have a clear view that alnico property from HPMG can reach even surpass the IEC standard. HPMG have succeed in developing FLNGT42(alnico8) which equals to

A-600 from Mitsubishi. Magnetic Performances of cast alnico 9 and high-hc alnico 8 were improved in HPMG in recent years. That’s why we could be the supplier for military defence industry. Through technical reform in previous years, our cast and sintered technics have been improved to meet the demand of small magnets for telecommunication industry. In future application, sintered alnico and precision casting will be paid more attention. And designs from customers are in complicated shapes, which can’t be manufactured by cast and sintered technics, but by precision casting. Besides, shooting technics for producing rod magnets can reduce manufacturing cost, and at the same time, get improved shape and surface.

TABLE 1: Main Casting Alnico Magnets Property

MATERIAL GRADE	MAGNETIC PROPWRTY			SPECIFICATION IN EQUAL
MATERIAL GRADE	Br/ mT	Hcb/ kA·m^-3	(BH)max/kJ·m^-3	IEC	MMPA	DIN	DAIDO
LNG40	1250	48	40	R1—1—1	5.5/0.64	44/5	NFW_7	anisotropy
LNG60	1350	59.2	60	R1—1—3	7.5/0.74	52/6	NFW_7SS	columnar crystals
LNGT40	880	116	40	R1—1—5	5.3/1.9	60/11	---	anisotropy
LNGT36J	720	144	36	R1—1—7	5.0/2.2	30/14	NFW-8H	anisotropy
LNGT88	1100	120	88	R1—1—6	9.0/1.5	------	NFW-U11	columnar crystals

TABLE 2: Main Sintered Alnico Magnets Property

MATERIAL GRADE	MAGNETIC PROPWRTY			SPECIFICATION IN EQUAL
MATERIAL GRADE	Br/mT	Hcb/ kA·m^-3	(BH)max/kJ·m^-3	IEC	MMPA	SGM (Britain)	MITSUBISHI (Japan)
FLNG12	700	40	12—14	R1—0—4	1.7/0.58	F	A-160R
FLNGT18	500	88	18—22	R1—0—6	---	HYNICO	A-220
FLNG34	1100	50.4	34.4—38.4	R1—1—20	3.9/0.63	AT	A-400R
FLNGT28	1000	56	28—30.4	R1—1—21	2.9/0.82	AFA	A-400K
FLNGT33J	650	136	33.2—36	R1—1—23	4.5/2.0	HC4	---
FLNGT38	800	124	38—42.4	---	4.0/1.7	HC3	A-500
FLNGT42	880	120	42.4—48	---	5.5/1.5	HC3B	A-600

2, Identifying market positioning accurately

The application fields for Alnico magnets cover Automobile, Communication, meter and electronic assembly industry. As a strategic material in period of Cold War, the main material of Alnico, cobalt’s price soared up which lead to most companies started searching for new magnetic materials to replace Alnico magnet. Although ferrite and rare earth magnets applied in more industries, alnico is still irreplacable in some industries, for example:

Ø First: application in Hi-fi speaker. Alnico magnet is considered to be best-qualified magnet for speaker because its own magnetic characteristics achieve speaker’s swing completeness, which can not be reached by Ferrite

and rare earth magnets. Therefore, speaker magnets are still dominated by Alnico.

Ø Second: application in meter and watt-hour meter. Thanks to its stability and soundness of magnetic property, Alnico magnet is used up to 20% in meters.

Ø Third: application in telecommunication. With good temperature property, alnico magnet is widely used in telecommunication industry, such as transfer switch, buzzer and other sensors in cell phone. The magnet developed by HPMG, like 0.08 gram ring magnets, has been used in applications.

Ø Another is high property magnet, applying in military defence Industry, like high temperature motors. Alnico magnet’s working temperature could be up to 550°, thus Alnico is the star in some special application.

As the world’s largest Alnico magnet supplier, HPMG will adapt marketing change, identify market positioning, and continuously contribute to global market shares.

3, Expanding Alnico magnets application fields

The research and development of innovation is being enhanced. HPMG is market-oriented, we not only manufacture the products the market needs, but develop magnets that will be applied in new aplications.

4, Enhancement in management construction

Management is not only an art, it is also a science, and now it has become a fundamental factor to a company’s success. HPMG has started 5s on-site management to control the products quality, cost reduction and improve the working environment. We believe modern management methods can help us catch up with the market, especially for Alnico producers.

5, Enhancement in technics innovation.

HPMG is active in developing unique equipment and facility in order to adapt alnico processing requirement. Our goal is to develop high-efficient, low energy consumption and with a high degree of automation equipment, so that products’ consistency and stability can be assured due to strictly control of process.

Alnico industry’s Aspects

According to the market position and trend for Alnico magnet, we may estimate that high-performance and miniaturization Alnico magnets have been serving the high-tech fields, a stable total output will be remaining at 4000tons per year. Alnico industry is facing severe challenges under present economic environment. We believe that constant innovation, new products development, searching for

new points for economic growth, exploiting our advantages and scientific management are the ways to hold its position in magnetic material fields.

In conclusion: Hangzhou Permanent Magnet Group is specializing in manufacturing permanent magnets. As the demanding is declining which leads to sales dropping, we are seeking for new breakthrough points, making Alnico magnets to assembly parts in order to increase the products value. Meanwhile, based on Hangzhou Permanent Magnet Group—world’s largest Alnico magnets production platform, we have started business of sintered NdFeB and SmCo, which own a production capacity of 1000tons and 100tons every year respectively. We hope our efforts would contribute to the development for the whole industry, and we are confident to be one of the best magnets manufacturers in the world. Thank you!

Provious News >> Magnetics 2010
Next News >> UBS, THE RECOVERY OF WORLD'S ECONOMY IN 2010-2011

Product Categories

Product Search

Random Products

Contact Us

Present Status and Development