Since the 21st century, China's VFD industry has been highly fissile. Many foreign brands have established factories in China and implemented localized operations. The personnel and funds of the original domestic brands have been continuously separated, and many enterprises have been established, mainly concentrated in coastal areas such as Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shandong, and Shanghai.

At present, there are more than 300 VFD manufacturers in the domestic market, and the main brands are maintained at around 20 to 30. Foreign brands still dominate the Chinese medium and low voltage VFD market. The history of the establishment of most domestic companies is not long. Many new products have just entered the market for a short period of time, so it is difficult to compete with the long-established international famous brands in terms of product maturity and brand awareness. The domestic VFD market is initiated by the entry of foreign brands, and foreign brands are preemptive. The strength of China's VFD supporting industry is relatively weak. Domestic brands have a certain gap with foreign brands in terms of technology, processing and manufacturing, industrial design and other aspects.

The share of foreign brands in the domestic VFD market is about 70%. Local VFD enterprises mainly produce V/F control products. For products such as vector VFD with superior performance and high technical content, most domestic enterprises have not yet developed mature products.

It is understood that foreign brands still dominate the domestic medium and low voltage VFD market. Mainly ABB, Siemens, Fuji Electric, Mitsubishi Electric, Yaskawa Electric, Delta, Schneider, Emerson, Danfoss and other brands, occupying the top 12 of China's low-voltage VFD market. The largest domestic company Inventec has been ranked after 13 and the rest of the domestic companies are even smaller in scale. Therefore, China's VFD market is still dominated by price, which may lead to the phenomenon that the prices of the international VFDs brands in China is different with those in the rest of the world. However, it also gives a chance to the domestic VFD brands to develop. With the rise of local brands, the market share of domestic-funded VFD companies is gradually expanding, especially in recent years, there has been a trend of accelerating the substitution of foreign brands. Although the domestic brands do not have the strength to compete fully with international top brands such as Siemens and ABB, they have shown certain competitive advantages in some segment products and markets, and their market share have gradually expanded. It is expected that the market share of domestic brands will exceed that of European and American brands in the next few years.

VFD market prospects are unlimited

With the development and comprehensive utilization of frequency conversion high-speed technology, the VFD industry has achieved unprecedented development and application in the fields of modernization of cement, elevator, printing, electric power and others as well as the fields of medicine, communication, transportation, electric power, electronics and environmental protection, etc. Almost every industry in the national economy is inseparable from VFD. Overall, at present the competition in China's VFD industry is becoming increasingly fierce. Due to the attractive market, not only has the market formed a certain scale, but the potential capacity is also considerable, which continues to attract new players in the industry. With the technological advancement of domestic manufacturers and the improvement of quality stability, coupled with the advantages of service and price, it is expected that the market situation in which the high-end products being monopolized by foreign manufacturers will be changed in the next few years.

China's VFD market has a broad space for development, and currently it is about 1.4 billion USD. With the expansion of the market and the diversification of customer demand, the functions of domestic VFD products are constantly improving and increasing, integration and systemization are getting higher and higher, and some special VFD products have also appeared. It is understood that in recent years, the market of China's VFDs has maintained a growth rate of 12-15%, and it is expected to maintain a growth rate of more than 10% in at least the next five years. At present, the growth rate of VFD installation capacity (power) in China’s market is actually around 20%. It is expected that the VFD market will saturate and become mature gradually at least after 10 years.