Chinese Suppliers on OFCNFOEC2010

April 12,2010, For the first time in the history of OFC, there is Chinese announcement on the show. For many years, exhibitors from mainland China, Hongkong and Taiwan have played more and more important role. Especially in this year, OFC is dedicated to a Chinese American, Dr. Charles Kao, the father of optical fiber communication.

Some Huawei USA's employees told me that Chinese announcement is because the show is sponsored by them. As one of several equipment suppliers on the show, Huawe has a big exhibiting truck on the floor and they always are the topic center of the show. Both Huawei and ZTE send many R&D and purchasing engieers to the show this time.

Compared to Huawei, China's component suppliers have far less influence on the fiber optics industry, but as a total, they still play a very important role in today's fiber optics industry.

For example, Emcore has just announced to set up a component joint-venture in Tangshan China before the show. Charles Wang of Emore told me on the show that it is good to attract Chinese investment to Emcore, they have large enthousim to make more success in China.

In recent years, more and more big US component manufactures came to China to set up manufacturing base or R&D center. A Finisar guy told me they already had 2000 staffs in Shanghai Factory. I also met someone from AOC, they have a big factory in Wuhan now.

Some US companies choosed to purcha their Chinese counterparts. Photop, who was purchased by II-VI in the end of last year, is one of them. Mr. Sun,zhaoyang of Photop said that it is their investor's will to sell the company. But good news is II-VI doesn't interfere their business. From the show, you can still see the Photop logo. Neophotonics and Source Photonic are 2 other different examples. From these two companies, it is hard for you to find any Fiberxon or Photon's heritage, they are totally US companies now.

Most of the Chinese exhibitors on the show don't have any overseas background. Some of them came to the show for the first time. They are eager to find customers in overseas market.

The competitor of ADC and Corning in China, Sun&sea group,who went to public in Shenzhen stock market last year, only has one booth. But this time, they have a representive from their Chicago office. CEO and founder of the company, Mr. Wang, wensheng told me they already have several customers in US market. To go to public is only the first step in the long march for them.

I didn't hear about the name of Chaoqian communication equipment before I came to the show. But this Zhejiang company has a Houston office and several local employees. The Chairman of the company, Mr. Xu Qing is so confident about their products. "Why Chinese product not as goos as Corning or ADC's?", he asked. Mr. Kenneth Boop is the sales manager of Chaoqian in US, he told me that he thought Chaoqian's products are competive enough in US market, Chinese need learn to adapt to US style of marketing. What he will do is help Chaoqian to develope this market.

Both Chaoqian and Sun&Sea are passive equipment manufactures. In component side, Ligent (Hisense in China) and WTD also invite local sales. Ligent is the long time GPON transceiver leader, this year, I saw them to have 1 more local sales. For WTD, it is the first time for them to have a local sales. VP of WTD, Mr. Xu, yuanzhong told me that his company must be the first class transceiver suppliers in 3 to 4 years. They have recruited many talented engineers from US. Next year's show, they will have 4 booths. In the top 10 equipment manufactures around the world, only Cisco and Samsung are not their customers. They will launch a big party this september to celerate their 30 year annuversery.

HG genuine, the same city competitor of WTD, made their show just across the WTD. Compared to WTD, they are a new company, and they don't have many customers in US. Just because of this, they are eager to develope US market. According to Mr. Zuo of HG genuine, they introduced 3Gbps and 6Gbps transceiver and QSFP AOC products in this show. They are the first in the market to introduce 6Gbps transceiver for 3G market. The latest booming market in China gave them enough resources to develope quicker in the future.

In transceiver industry, the most famous start up has always been Gigalight, but in this show, a new company, FiberTower attracts more attention. In the Buyer's Guide of OFCNFOEC2010, this Shenzhen company bought one page advertisment. No other Chinese companies did the same thing this time.

APAC and Create are two Taiwan companies I met on the show. APAC introduced DiVi and HDMI video transmission products on the show, but they still think that is a niche market. Mr. Jian from Creat, a transceiver IC company, asked me how long the market boom can continue, his company face short of manufacturing ability now.

There are more passive component suppliers from China on the show. Accelink, Photop and Onet are 3 biggest ones. Accelink announced to reach 1.2billion USD revenue on the first day of the show, they also announced to set up a US branch. It was said one thirds of their revenue come from US market, and the biggest revenue generator is their EDFA products. In this show, they demonstrated their DP-QPSK demodulator and some other high end products. Photop and Onet also showed their DP-QPSK products. Sales manager of Onet, Steven told me that he has been very busy recently. His company just increased 500 staffs in Shenzhen. In the OFC job fair, they are one of the recruiters. Their 6 booths show is the largest in all Chinese component exhibitors. But Steven said he is worried about the future. No customer in US now are fully optimitic towards the future market.

Pusen is one of the PLC manufactures who came to this show. James Wei, GM of the company is eager to find customers in US. It is not a easy task for them because the PLC market in US is not as stong as in China. But at least in this show, he can find a supplier, a Korean start up on PLC chips. All Chinese PLC manufactures depend on imported chips to package. According to Dr. Yue, chaoyu, CEO of Ligtcomm, a fiber fused coupler manufacture in Shenzhen, Chinese service providers' demand on PLC is unreasonable. There is no necessary to use PLC in less 1X8 configurations. PLC really affects his business, in order to avoid this, Lightcomm now works more on high power couplers.