China eyes US$58b in satellite navigation sales

Source: Xinhua | 2017-05-25

THE scale of China’s satellite navigation business will surpass 400 billion yuan (US$58 billion) by 2020, said an official at an academic conference yesterday.

Ran Chengqi, an official at BeiDou Navigation Satellite System, told the 8th China Satellite Navigation Conference that the BeiDou System would account for 240 billion yuan to 320 billion yuan of the market in 2020.

Over 30 million chip modules of the system were sold in April, while its high-precision board cards and antennas were exported to more than 70 countries and regions, over 30 of which are along the Belt and Road, Ran said.

The BeiDou System made people’s lives easier through aided driving, accurate farming and intelligent real estate management, said Ran.

Wang Li, chairman of China Satellite Navigation System Committee, said on Tuesday that China will launch 18 BeiDou navigation satellites by 2019.

Six to eight BeiDou satellites will be sent into orbit in the second half of 2017, said Wang, adding that the system will be able to provide services for the Belt and Road countries by 2018.

By 2020, the BeiDou satellites will form a complete global satellite navigation system, Wang added.