Bodor confident of expansion in South African market

Jun 04, 2023

Nowadays, with the rapid development of the Chinese market, many Chinese laser equipment manufacturers are making their presence felt in the global market, a market where the competition is extremely fierce.

Leading the way in South Africa is Bodor, a company that has now turned its full attention to the manufacture of fibre laser cutting machines in its 27 000m² facility in Jinan, Shandong, China. Bodor has been promoting its products in South Africa since 2016 and last year appointed Integral Machine Tools as its distributors in South Africa.

Integral Machine Tools was established in 2020 to market CNC machines for metal removal and shaping and cutting and forming of sheetmetal and plate. Integral Machine Tools also represents suppliers who produce a variety of conventional and CNC equipment, encompassing a range of applications and processes, and tooling for the equipment.

The Chinese laser market"Looking back on 2020, China's laser industry achieved growth to the tune of 10 percentage points throughout the year, far exceeding expectations," says a leading consultant in the laser and photonics industry.

The Shenzhen Forward Industry Research Institute in China stated that from 2019 to 2021, Bodor had achieved the highest sales volume of 1 000 watt and above laser cutting machine equipment in the world for three consecutive years

"In 2021, China's laser industry continued its good trend. The overall size of China's laser equipment market increased by 18.3% year-to-year in 2021, reaching a record of 12.91 billion USD. The application of laser technology has become the key for many manufacturing industries to improve the quality of their products and reduce costs, and ultimately their competitiveness amid China's transition from the old low-tech to the new high-tech industries."

"The industrial laser market alone is about 8 billion USD, with laser cutting taking the major share of 40%, followed by laser welding (14%), laser marking (13%), semi/display (12%), precision machining (9%), non-metal processing (7%) and the rest (6%)."

"The localisation of fibre laser manufacturing in China is accelerating. In addition to the international players, there are at least 11 Chinese laser manufacturers now offering fibre lasers with power levels of 10kW or more. Others have reached the 40kW and 100kW fibre laser source marks."

"The portion of the domestically made fibre lasers reached 60.4% of the total Chinese market in 2021; it was only 33.6% in 2017. Fibre lasers with 1kW power or less are completely made by Chinese companies and 90% are made by Raycus and Max Photonics. The localisation of 1 to 3kW and 3 to 6kW has reached 92% and 86%, respectively, while it is almost a split at above 6kW. The localisation levels are 51% and 49% for 6 to 10kW and 10 to 40kW, respectively."

Bodor first in worldwide sales for three yearsIn July this year, the Shenzhen Forward Industry Research Institute in China stated that from 2019 to 2021, Bodor had achieved the highest sales volume of 1 000 watt and above laser cutting machine equipment in the world for three consecutive years.

"We are making inroads in the other parts of the world. In Turkey, for example we sold 20 machines last year. In a country where there are quite a few manufacturers of laser cutting machines. In China we have about 50% of the market and here in South Africa we have over 120 machines installed."

In an interview with Bodor's Regional Manager, African region, Yuri Liu he said: "This is a very proud achievement for the whole company and all of its associates and clients around the world. One year is great but to do it three years consecutively is unbelievable."

"We can only do this through continuous independent R&D and innovation. As a result Bodor has successfully released the world's first 40kW laser cutting machine and the industry's revolutionary laser scanning cutting machine."

Laser scanning cutting machine"We call it a disruptive innovation breakthrough in the fibre laser cutting market. It is a known fact that laser cutting machines struggle with cutting highly reflective materials such as aluminium, brass and copper. Laser head failure, fibre burning and module burning caused by cutting of highly reflective materials frequently occurs. That is until Bodor developed its laser scanning cutting system."

"In our tests it shows that cutting thicknesses increase by up to 100% and cutting speeds by 180% with 0% reflective material problems, without increasing the power source. The system is ideal for all users below 12kW power source, whether you are using a 3kW, 6kW or 12kW machine. And the system is increasing speed and thicknesses on the non-reflective materials such as mild steel and stainless steel."

"At present, there are more than 1500 users of Bodor 10kW+ ultra-high-power equipment in the world. More and more metal processing enterprises are beginning to favour the benefits brought by ultra-high power. Many international laser cutting equipment suppliers have successfully launched 10kW+ ultra-high-power products."

"With the more powerful machines you can cut thinner gauge much faster but still have the ability to cut thicker material."

"To prove this just in the last month in South Africa we have supplied four clients with 12kW machines. Currently we are working on a sale where the client wants a 22kW machine. With the increase in the power source there was concern about quality but that has progressed and improved as well."

"We are going to promote the 22kW machines in South Africa because even though it is only 10% more power source than the 20kW you can achieve 20% more performance, especially with our laser scanning system."

"In South Africa clients are definitely taking to the high-power machines as say compared to markets like India where they still want the cheaper machines that are 6kW and lower."

"We are making inroads in the other parts of the world. In Turkey, for example we sold 20 machines last year. In a country where there are quite a few manufacturers of laser cutting machines. In China we have about 50% of the market and here in South Africa we have over 120 machines installed."

Supply with integrated compressor rather than nitrogen"We know manufacturing is all about costs. This is why we encourage cutting air and therefore supply most of our machines with an integrated compressor which allows you to achieve the higher pressure needed with the higher cutting power and clean cut."

"Nitrogen cutting is expensive as compared to air and it needs a lot of attention and safety aspects."

"Our machines suite any business from job shops to service centres and production-based companies. We do offer a number of automation options but our focus is on manufacturing the best fibre laser cutting machine and systems in the world. We are catching up with the European manufacturers."

According to The Report on the Development of China's Laser Industry in 2021, laser cutting equipment is the largest application of laser processing technology, with a market of 26.27 billion yuan, accounting for 38% of the market. It is estimated that the market of China's laser processing equipment industry will reach 93 billion yuan in 2022, of which the market of the laser cutting equipment industry is expected to reach 31.13 billion yuan.

For further details contact Integral Machine Tools on TEL: 072 397 9956 or 074 373 7503