Thermal Film Industry Information and Future Trend Insights (2025-2030)
1. Industry status: Technology iteration and market expansion go hand in hand
By 2025, China's thermal film industry has formed a pattern with medical imaging at its core and multi-field penetration. In the medical field, thermal film dominates the medical imaging printing market with its advantages of no need for chemical development, fast imaging speed and strong environmental friendliness. Data shows that China's demand for thermal medical film increased by 6.1% year-on-year in 2024 and by 9.5% in 2023, highlighting its strong growth momentum. Technically, thermal film is undergoing an upgrade from monochrome to high-resolution color and from basic imaging to intelligent diagnosis. Nanoscale ink-absorbing coating technology developed by companies such as Lekai Film has enabled film resolution to exceed 508dpi and supports multi-color gradient black printing, meeting the precise presentation requirements of complex images such as 3D reconstruction and angiography. At the same time, the integration of thermal film with AI and 5G technologies is accelerating, and tertiary hospitals have made "AI-assisted diagnosis support" and "5G remote transmission" core indicators when purchasing equipment.
2. Core drivers: Aging, policy and the expansion of primary care
1. Aging and surging demand for chronic diseases : China's population aged 60 and above accounts for more than 20 percent, and the demand for chronic disease diagnosis drives an average annual growth of 8.5 percent in medical imaging tests. In the Yangtze River Delta region, tertiary hospitals consume an average of 3,800 pieces of film per CT scan per year, far exceeding the levels in Europe and the United States, reflecting the strong demand for image archiving in China.
2. Policy dividends Release The 14th Five-Year Plan explicitly supports the research and development of domestic medical equipment, medical insurance centralized procurement and DRG payment reform force imported brands to lower prices, providing alternative opportunities for domestic thermal films (such as Juding Medical, Shenzhen Kennedy). By 2025, the localization rate of domestic manufacturers had risen from 43% in 2023 to 45%, and it is expected to exceed 60% by 2030.
3. The primary care market is booming . The construction of county medical communities is driving the upgrading of equipment in primary care institutions. The compound annual growth rate of demand for thermal film in the primary care market is expected to reach 12% from 2025 to https://fanyi.youdao.com/download2030. Small and medium-sized enterprises are seizing market share by laying out in county-level markets with cost-performance advantages.
3. Future Trends: Digitalization, environmental protection and Globalization
1. The penetration rate of digital films continues to rise . The share of dry thermal films will jump from 43% in 2025 to 68% in 2030, while the share of traditional wet chemical films will shrink to 32%. Cloud film, as a supplement, has seen significant growth in demand in emergency and remote consultation scenarios despite privacy and security controversies, and the market size is expected to exceed 5 billion yuan by 2030.
2. Environmentally friendly materials are accelerating the replacement of non-silver salt dry films (such as polyester-based, biodegradable coatings) to reduce heavy metal pollution. The cost of eco-friendly films will be 15% higher than that of traditional products by 2025, but policy subsidies and large-scale production will push their cost down to an acceptable range for the market by 2030.
3. Globalization and the rise of emerging markets The improvement of medical infrastructure in Asia and Africa has driven demand for thermal film, and Chinese manufacturers export equipment and consumables through the Belt and Road Initiative. China will contribute a compound annual growth rate of 6.8% in the global medical film scanner market in 2025, and will account for more than 30% when the global scale reaches $203 million in 2031.
4. Challenges and Responses: Technological Iteration and Cost Game
1. Technology substitution risk Digital image cloud services pose a challenge to physical film, but high-precision diagnostics and long-term archiving scenarios still require physical film. Companies need to focus on the high-end market, such as developing 3.0T MRI-specific films and supporting products for neurointerventional consumables.
2. Fluctuations in raw material prices : Upstream materials such as polyester films and emulsions account for 60% of film costs, and geopolitical conflicts could lead to supply disruptions. Leading companies mitigate risks through vertical integration, such as Lekai building its own polyester film production line.
3. The average price of thermal film has dropped to 8.52 yuan per sheet in 2025, down 36 percent from 2016, as the centralized procurement policy compresses profits . Companies need to maintain gross margins through product structure upgrades (such as introducing high-value-added color films) and intelligent production (AI quality inspection, automated slitting).
V. Investment Strategy: Focus on three major tracks
1. Core technology research and development investment in companies with patents for thermal sensitive coatings and AI image analysis algorithms, such as Lekai Film and Carex Medical.
2. The grassroots market channel layout county medical community supply chain, providing "equipment + consumables + services" integrated solutions.
3. The intelligent diagnostics ecosystem focuses on vendors deeply integrated with PACS systems and 5G remote platforms, such as Shenzhen Juding Medical's "cloud film +AI film reading" model. Conclusion 2025-2030 The thermal film industry will be characterized by "technology-driven scale expansion and policy-reshaped competitive landscape". Enterprises need to break through homogeneous competition through innovation and seize the high ground of value in the digital wave of medical imaging. https://admin.waimaoniu.com/CustomerHome.aspx