Makers of power relays maintain traditional electromechanical category

Companies bank on product maturity to take advantage of further opportunities in the automotive market.

Suppliers of power relays in China maximize wide adoption of mature electromechanical types in key applications such as the vehicle sector, while solid-state kinds advance mainly in the industrial control field. They highlight improved product performance based on quality magnetic coils and contacts to enhance competitiveness. Conventional components make up more than 90 percent of output for the automotive-use category.

The local lineup targets powertrain, body and chassis, convenience, safety and security, and driver information systems.

PCB-mount types dominate shipments, with a share now surpassing 70 percent. The trend is driven by miniaturization efforts toward vehicle weight reduction. To meet other requirements, China manufacturers continue to offer plug-in kinds, which remain popular in powertrain systems for their capability to withstand high temperatures, voltage fluctuations and vibrations.

Convenience applications account for more than 30 percent of the market, and will continue to drive demand owing to the growing emphasis on in-vehicle entertainment and comfort systems. This has already resulted in a higher number of relays used per vehicle to about 30 units from 20 in previous years. The requirement is expected to rise further with the installation of additional safety, security and driver information systems.

Local suppliers hope to keep benefitting from this steadily expanding global application sector. The last is projected to need 3.7 billion relays by 2020 at 5 percent CAGR in 2014-20, according to Grand View Research. In sales, this will be $12.6 billion by the end of the period, with current emerging electric and hybrid vehicle segments bolstering demand.

For this reason, some China makers strive to develop high-voltage units for EVs and HEVs. The application requires 400 to 500V to as much as 700 to 800V, compared with conventional vehicle's 12 or 24V. Xiamen Hongfa is among the domestic suppliers offering high-voltage DC relays. The technical challenge of extinguishing vacuum arc under such great voltage, however, hampers entry to this segment.

A few local suppliers have shifted focus to solid-state relays. Xiamen Jinxinrong Electronics Co. Ltd will move to a new factory and add one more production line to its current three to boost capacity for SSRs. The maker anticipates it will achieve 20 percent higher revenue by the year's end.

At present, releases for automotive applications account for about 20 percent of total relay sales worldwide.

For electromechanical relay specialist Zhejiang HKE Relay Co. Ltd, these generate about 30 percent of revenue, a share that will climb to 40 percent by end-2015. At XiamenHongfa, the portion is 11 percent.

More than 100 makers in China turn out automotive-use power relays. Shanghai Hugong, Xiamen Hongfa and Guizhou Tianyi are among the major companies. The supplier pool also includes industry leaders such as Omron, TE Connectivity, Panasonic and Hella.

The companies gather mostly in the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian, Zhejiang and Jiangsu, and in Shanghai.

See a comparison table of power relay suppliers on GlobalSources.com