CT tubes are the core components of CT machines and also high-value consumables. According to medical procurement data, in 2022, the sales volume of domestic CT machines was on par with that of imported brands. Although China has made significant progress in the research and development and manufacturing of medical imaging machines, the key core component, high-heat-capacity CT tubes, continue to rely on imported brands.

According to the reply report to the listing review inquiry letter of United Imaging, currently, the core components of the company's MR Products are all self-produced, while those of the XR products are all purchased (both imported and domestic). Among the CT products, the market share of domestic brand CT tubes is less than 5%.

The market scope of CT tubes largely depends on the improvement and application level of CT equipment. Relevant statistics show that the global CT market size was 6.4 billion US dollars in 2021, and the CT market size in China was 2.1 billion US dollars. Meanwhile, the global cumulative inventory of CT machines is nearly 500,000 units, while the cumulative inventory of CT machines in China is 47,600 units. That is to say, the global annual demand is approximately 25 CT tubes, with a market size of hundreds of billions.

So far, the core components of some domestic CT brands still mainly rely on imports. This is precisely the reason why the country is vigorously promoting the independent control of core components and solving the "bottleneck" problem. In fact, there are many domestic brands that make tubes, but objectively speaking, there is still a certain gap in technology compared with imported brands from abroad, and it takes time to improve.

According to the prospectations and related documents of several domestic CT manufacturers, foreign brand tube suppliers have remained among the top two suppliers for many consecutive years. More than 95% of the CT tube market of domestic complete machine manufacturers has been captured by Philips Dangli and Vanrui Vision.