Increased competition in environmental monitoring equipment market

In the past few days, the haze weather that continued to appear in many places including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong provinces made PM2.5 a public word again. As one of the “culprits” causing haze, PM2.5 refers to particles in the atmosphere that are less than or equal to 2.5 microns in diameter. At the same time, PM2.5 testing equipment companies ushered in business opportunities, and all types of environmental monitoring equipment ushered in sales peak.

At present, the source of domestic PM2.5 monitoring equipment is still mainly imported, and foreign equipment accounts for more than 70%. Although imported PM2.5 monitoring equipment is of good quality, it is expensive. For example, the price of a single instrument from Thermo Fisher is as high as 280,000 yuan, and that of domestic brands is around 150,000 yuan. However, foreign brands dominate because of their good quality and the small scale of government procurement. Once large-scale purchases are made, domestic manufacturers are expected to take advantage of their products and services.

No matter how good or poor the quality is, the price is higher or lower. In the face of a huge market that has gradually emerged, foreign brands have accelerated their deployment across the country. Thermo Fisher began selling PM2.5 monitoring instruments in China in 2007. From the second quarter of 2012, continuing to the fourth quarter, its environmental monitoring equipment continued to grow explosively.

On February 29, 2012, the Ministry of Environmental Protection and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine announced the newly revised "Ambient Air Quality Standards", which for the first time incorporated PM2.5 into the conventional air quality evaluation standards. As the first step in the implementation of the "Standard", Beijing, Tianjin, Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and other key regions took the lead in monitoring PM2.5. The monitoring standard has been raised from PM10 to PM2.5, and a batch of more sensitive air testing equipment has been put into use on the market. According to the Twelfth Five-Year Plan for Prevention and Control of Atmospheric Pollution in Key Areas, the state will invest more than 100 billion yuan to conduct comprehensive air pollution control in the three major regions of Jingjinjing, Yangtze River Delta, and Pearl River Delta where air pollution is more serious. According to this plan, only one environmental monitoring instrument will create a market worth 10 billion yuan.