Sealand: Opportunities for domestic substitution of plate heat exchangers emerge; maintain "Recommended" rating for the automotive industry.

Sealand released a research report stating that the trend of AI-driven liquid cooling demand in data centers is gradually becoming clear, correspondingly driving the data center plate heat exchanger market, and core component manufacturers are entering a performance release cycle. According to the firm's estimates, the global data center secondary-side (within CDU) plate heat exchanger market size will reach RMB 31.7 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 23% from 2026 to 2030. The industry is expected to remain in a high-prosperity range for an extended period, and the firm maintains its "Recommended" rating for the automotive industry. Sealand's main points are as follows: Plate heat exchangers are a key heat exchange hub in data center liquid cooling systems, and brazed products will become the mainstream technical route for the secondary side within CDUs. As AI chip power consumption and rack power density continue to rise, air cooling is gradually reaching its limits; brazed plate heat exchangers, with advantages such as high heat exchange efficiency, compact size, high pressure resistance, and compatibility with deionized water, can be embedded in rack-mounted CDUs and meet high-density liquid cooling needs. Product technology upgrades will revolve around stainless steel materials, reliability, and intelligent operation and maintenance. With computing power demand, energy efficiency constraints, and TCO advantages resonating together, the data center plate heat exchanger market is expected to remain highly prosperous. The continued rise in AI chip power consumption is pushing liquid cooling from an optional configuration in low-power scenarios to the mainstream cooling path in high-power scenarios; increasingly stringent global PUE regulations and the advantages of energy savings and reduced maintenance during liquid cooling operation further strengthen penetration. The firm estimates that the global data center secondary-side (within CDU) plate heat exchanger market will grow from RMB 14.1 billion in 2026 to RMB 31.7 billion in 2030, with a CAGR of 23% from 2026 to 2030; among this, the cold plate segment market will be approximately RMB 30.6 billion in 2030, while the immersion segment, driven by ultra-high-power scenarios, is expected to achieve a CAGR of 55%. Under a landscape dominated by overseas leaders, tight supply and certification breakthroughs together open up opportunities for domestic substitution. Overseas leaders hold an advantageous position in the data center plate heat exchanger market by virtue of plate pattern patents, process accumulation, and global delivery capabilities. However, their customized vacuum brazing furnaces are mainly outsourced from European equipment manufacturers, and overseas capacity expansion cycles are generally 23 years. The firm expects that the period from the second half of 2026 to 2027 may constitute a window of tight supply. If domestic manufacturers can complete cloud vendor-level certification upgrades within this window and also fill in platform ecosystem-level plate heat exchanger body certification, they are expected to advance from second supplier to primary supplier status. 1) Shared processes: leading domestic plate heat exchanger manufacturers mostly entered from automotive thermal management, and brazing and heat exchange processes can be reused in data center scenarios. Zhejiang Tongxing Technology, for example, entered the data center sector using processes shared with automotive thermal management. 2) Transferable quality control: taking Zhejiang Yinlun Machinery as an example, its automotive-grade IATF16949 quality control system can be transferred to data center products, achieving 10,000 hours without leakage. 3) Faster capacity expansion and supporting capabilities: Zhejiang Yinlun Machinery plans to build three large plate heat exchanger production lines by the end of 2027, while Zhejiang Sanhua Intelligent Controls has already supplied primary-side/secondary-side products to some global customers. Risk warnings: risk of data center installations falling short of expectations; policy risk; risk of key companies' performance falling short of expectations; risk of significant product price fluctuations; risk of new capacity construction falling short of expectations; risk of project delays, failure to implement, or failure to generate expected returns; risk of certain deviations between data statistical estimates and actual conditions.