With the rapid development of LCD, people's interest in developing and researching liquid crystal materials is increasing. In recent years, multifluorinated or perfluorinated aromatic rings and perfluorinated terminal liquid crystal compounds have also been developed. Many chemists have synthesized high-performance liquid crystal materials. About 100000 liquid crystal compounds have been synthesized and are developing at the rate of 3000 to 4000 new liquid crystal compounds appearing annually, especially in Japan where a large number of patent literature on new liquid crystal materials appear every year to meet the requirements of various displays. But only four or five thousand liquid crystal compounds have practical value and can be used in LCD.
From the perspective of global application fields of liquid crystal materials, over 90% of liquid crystal materials are applied in the field of liquid crystal panel displays. It can be said that the demand for liquid crystal displays has driven the development of liquid crystal materials. At present, the main liquid crystal materials used in mainstream liquid crystal displays worldwide include TN-LCD, HTN-LCD, STN-LCD, and TFT-LCD. Among them, TFT-LCD material has a relatively high technological content, which is mainly monopolized by several companies in Germany and Japan in the global market. However, the TN-LCD material industry has a relatively low technological content and fierce market competition, while market prices are also decreasing every year.
From the perspective of global demand for liquid crystal materials, it is mainly concentrated in South Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Chinese Mainland and other places. The demand of Chinese Mainland has grown rapidly in recent years, surpassing Japan and Taiwan and becoming the world's second largest liquid crystal material demand market after South Korea. From the perspective of the countries and regions that accept patent applications for liquid crystal materials, Japan's total number of patent applications is far ahead, while other major countries and regions include the United States, China, Europe, South Korea, Germany, and other countries. The main applicants for global liquid crystal material patents mainly come from Japan and Germany, with Merck from Germany, Wisso from Japan, and DIC from Japan ranking in the top three, and the number of applications is significantly higher than other applicants.

According to the report "2022-2027 Edition Government Strategic Management and Regional Development Strategy Research and Consultation Report on LCD Material Industry" by China Research Puhua Research Institute:
Liquid crystal materials generally refer to a class of organic compounds that exhibit both liquid fluidity and crystal anisotropy under certain conditions. Taking the currently popular TFT-LCD as an example, the basic principle is to control the regular rotation and arrangement of different liquid crystals through the input signal and voltage of the thin film transistor (TFT) on the lower substrate, and display them as images through color filters.
The LCD industry has a long industrial chain, with basic chemical raw materials and materials and devices in the upstream, LCD panels in the midstream, and various electronic products in the downstream. The upstream mainly includes liquid crystal materials (intermediates, monomers, mixed crystals), polarizers, driver ICs, glass substrates, filters, backlight modules, etc., with cost ratios of 3.5%, 9.9%, 10.4%, 15.2%, 17.9%, and 29.1%, respectively.
The total global shipment of LCD TV panels in 2022 is 287 million units. Among them, the LCD TV panel in Chinese Mainland was oversupplied, and the price fell sharply. Due to the decrease in panel prices, Korean manufacturers have withdrawn or suspended the production of LCD TV panels. LCD TV panel manufacturers in Taiwan, China, China have also moved to the wide perspective IT panel industry with higher added value. In 2022, Chinese Mainland will ship 137 million LCD TV panels, South Korea 75 million, Taiwan, China 67.5 million, and Japan 7.6 million.
In terms of LCD displays, South Korea's shipment volume reached 48.5 million units in 2022, ranking first. Taiwan, China followed with 48.3 million units shipped. The shipment volume in Chinese Mainland is 46.7 million units. And Japan's shipment volume is only 100000 units.
At present, there are four major liquid crystal material companies in the world, namely Merck, Chisso, Daiichi Ink and ADK, which mainly produce medium and high-end products, such as TFT, STN, and medium and high-end Twisted nematic field effect liquid crystal materials. Due to the high technological barriers of TFT liquid crystal materials, the mid to high end liquid crystal material market has been in a monopolistic state for many years.
How will the industry develop in the future? Please click to view the report "2022-2027 Government Strategic Management and Regional Development Strategy Research and Consultation Report on the LCD Material Industry" from China Research Puhua Research Institute.