Looking back at the past 10 years of intelligencecell phoneIn the market, only the first quarter of 2020, when the new crown epidemic broke out, was worse.
▲ 2022 Q1 mainland mobile phone market sales, source: CINNO
Not long ago, AppleiPhoneproduction increased by 10 million units.On the one hand, they are worried about not being able to sell, and on the other hand, they are worried that there are not enough goods to sell.
Although in the past two years, the voice of Apple’s supply chain companies “escape from the fruit chain” has become more and more high, but it is undeniable that,When everyone is not full, the fruit chain still seems to be like a “golden rice bowl”, and the gold content is getting more and more abundant.
With the end of April, most of the fruit chain companies have already released their 2021 annual reports, and many giants have shown beautiful revenue and net profit figures. Of course, there are also some fruit chain companies that did not do well last year. easy.
▲Not all fruit chain companies in the table, the data comes from the official financial report
Apple is an undoubted technology giant in the consumer electronics industry represented by smartphones. These fruit chain companies are often the top players in the track, such as Luxshare Precision in the field of machine foundry, BOE in the screen field, Sunny Optical in the field of lenses, or Zhaoyi Innovation in the field of memory chips.
Fruit chain enterprises have played those new tricks this year,What are the important trends and changes in the industry and technology behind it? How do the giants judge industry trends?Digging deep into more than 30 fruit chain companies, the consumer electronics industry this year is worth a closer look.
The benefits of this article:In-depth analysis of Apple’s supply chain companies, you can reply to keywords in the chat column of the official account [Smart stuff 303】Download package.
01.
No less money is made, and the stock price is not less
It is true that financial data alone cannot fully reflect the real situation of the company, but we can get a general understanding through these data,How are the fruit chain companies doing in 2021, whether they made or lost money, and how the capital market voted with their feet.
At a glance at the revenue and profit data of dozens of annual reports, one of the most intuitive feelings is that the “gradient division” of mainland fruit chain enterprises is still relatively obvious, or the “gap between rich and poor” is relatively significant.
▲Unit: 100 million yuan
For example, the highest revenue of BOE and Luxshare Precision has exceeded the 100 billion yuan mark, and BOE’s revenue has reached 219.3 billion yuan.
In addition to these two, about one-third of the fruit chain enterprises in the statistics have a revenue scale of about 30-50 billion yuan, and the rest of the revenue scale is below 10 billion yuan. The highest revenue is 548 times the lowest revenue, and the difference is quite different.
In terms of net profit, BOE’s net profit exceeded 25.8 billion yuan, and the net profit of other fruit chain companies was less than 10 billion yuan. Most of the top 10 fruit chain giants by market value had a net profit between 2 billion and 5 billion yuan. .
▲Unit: 100 million yuan
Although the gap between earning more and earning less is not small, on the whole, “making money” is still the main theme of fruit chain enterprises.
Among the 24 companies that have released annual reports, 23 companies have increased their revenue year-on-year, and the average year-on-year revenue growth is about 19%. In terms of profits, there are 3 companies that have announced that there will be net losses, and 1 company has actually incurred net losses.
It is worth noting that the year-on-year decline in net profit or the occurrence of net losses is more likely to occur in fruit chain enterprises with relatively small market value. Among the top 10 fruit chain enterprises by market value, 8 have a net profit of Year-on-year growth, only two of them experienced a year-on-year decline in net profit.
Overall, for fruit chain companies, especially large-scale head players, in 2021, it is still common to earn more and lose less.
However, the situation in the capital market is obviously more complicated., In 2021, the domestic and foreign economic and political situations are more complicated, and these factors may have a certain impact on the stock prices of fruit chain companies.
To put it simply, among the 31 fruit chain companies in the statistics, the stock prices of 14 will fall in 2021, and the average decline will be around 20%.
▲The stock price changes of major mainland fruit chain companies in 2021, data source: Wind
It is worth noting that the stock prices of the two leading fruit chain companies with the largest market value and revenue, Luxshare Precision and BOE, both fell by more than 10% during the year. For these giants, the choice of the capital market seems to be more harsh and cautious.
02.
Looking to the future through financial reports
Five key trends in the consumer electronics industry
In any case, 2021 has passed. Whether it is making or losing, making more or less, fruit chain enterprises have made great strides towards the new year.
2021 is not an easy year for any company. During this year, many companies are trying to transform and break through, and they also have their own in-depth thinking and judgment on the development of the industry.
Behind these 30 thick annual reports, the consumer electronics industry is quietly transforming, and it is very important for every fruit chain player to grasp the key development trends.
1. Master the core technology to earn more
In the middle of last year, Apple announced the latest list of TOP200 suppliers, and 12 new manufacturers in mainland China attracted widespread attention in the industry.
However, at that time, according to iFixit’s dismantling of the iPhone 12 Pro Max, we could see that the processor, baseband and RF chips, camera modules, screen modules, and memory chips accounted for more than 70% of the cost, which was the absolute bulk of the cost. But in these fields, almost all we can see are American, Korean and Japanese suppliers.
▲Data source: Electronics360, Techinsights, iFixit
In the annual report of fruit chain enterprises in 2021, we can see,Companies whose revenue and net profit have both increased significantly are mainly involved in the fields of screens, optical lenses, memory chips, and semiconductor packaging and testing.
BOE’s net profit was 25.8 billion yuan, and Zhaoyi Innovation achieved a net profit of 2.33 billion yuan with a revenue of 8.5 billion yuan, with a net profit margin of 27.4%.
Sunny Optical’s net profit is 5.05 billion yuan, and its net profit margin is second only to Zhaoyi Innovation among the top ten fruit chain giants by market value.
Screens and chips are core components with a high cost in smartphones.And grasping the core component technology does have positive feedback for the company’s revenue and profits.
In contrast, companies with a year-on-year decline in net profit or a net loss are more concentrated in the fields of machine foundry, precision parts manufacturing, and structural parts.
Luxshare Precision, as a smartphone OEM giant, although its total revenue exceeded 150 billion yuan and achieved a year-on-year growth of 66%, its net profit was 7.07 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.1%, and its net profit margin was 4.6%.
2. The mobile phone market will rebound in 2021, but everyone wants to get rid of “mobile phone dependence”
Although the performance of the smartphone market at the beginning of this year is sluggish, it is undeniable that 2021 will indeed be the first rebound in global smartphone shipments after four consecutive years of decline. Not only sales, but also sales and average prices Growth, and most fruit chain giants have affirmed this.
Pengding Holdings believes that the impact of the epidemic has gradually slowed down, the global economy has gradually recovered, and the global shipments and sales of electronic products represented by smartphones have rebounded. Pengding Holdings’ flagship products are various types of PCB boards. The PCB board can be said to be one of the most basic components of all electronic products.
There are also many fruit chain companies that have given statistical data from many market research institutions in their annual report analysis to illustrate that although the overall smartphone market in 2021 will develop slowly, it will remain relatively stable.
But it is worth noting that,Most fruit chain enterprises have a relatively obvious tendency to “get rid of mobile phone dependence”, and smart cars, VR/AR, smart home, IoT and other fields have become their new focus.
Sunny Optical mentioned that although mobile phone shipments have increased, the average price of mobile phone camera modules has declined. The reason behind this is that mobile phone manufacturers have begun to “downgrade” the configuration of terminal products, and the proportion of high-end product shipments has declined.
In contrast, Sunny Optical has a strong interest in the VR and automotive fields. At present, Sunny Optical has completed the research and development of a type of VR spatial positioning lens, which has improved the key pain points of the industry such as temperature drift and improved the stability of spatial positioning.
Even Sunny’s VR binocular display module has completed research and development, improving the distortion and chromatic aberration problems of visual display.
In the field of smart cars, Sunny Optical’s vehicle lens shipments increased by about 21% compared with last year, reaching nearly 68 million pieces, and the shipment market share has reached the first place in the world.
At present, Sunny is also speeding up automotive products such as lidar, head-up display (HUD) and smart lights.
As Sunny has judged, the digital economy and green economy have brought new growth space and development opportunities to the optoelectronics industry. Among them, emerging markets such as autonomous driving, VR/AR and robot vision have a lot of room for development .
When it comes to VR, how can you miss the world’s largest VR headset foundry, Goertek.
▲Goertek is the main foundry of Pico VR headsets
In addition to the VR headset OEM business we already know, Goertek is currently developing VR/AR precision optical devices and modules, and is also developing wireless lightweight AR glasses. According to the information in the annual report, this AR glasses uses light Optical and microdisplay technologies such as waveguides and silicon-based LEDs can process data and conduct wireless communications.
Although Apple’s first-generation AR headset is expected to be produced by Pegatron, a Taiwanese foundry, it is also possible for Goertek to win some orders with the improvement of foundry technology and production capacity in the AR field in mainland China. Just as the iPhone foundry industry, which was monopolized by Taiwanese companies in the early years, is now eaten up by Luxshare Precision.
In Goal’s view,In recent years, the development of the smartphone industry has been relatively slow, and the global technology and consumer electronics industries have begun the transition from the mobile Internet era to the post-mobile era.Under such a general trend, emerging smart hardware markets such as VR/AR, smart TWS headsets, smart wearable devices, and smart homes are growing rapidly.
In the field of VR/AR, Wingtech, as a foundry and semiconductor giant, also has new moves. Wingtech believes that industries such as new energy smart vehicles and intelligent IoT are showing an accelerated development trend and are expected to become the main driving force for innovation and economic growth in the future.
Under such judgment, Wingtech began to apply its technology and products in the fields of automotive optics, AR/VR optics, and notebook computers.
Last year, Nexperia, a subsidiary of Wingtech, officially acquired the UK’s largest wafer fab, Newport Wafer Fab. Wingtech specifically mentioned that the Newport wafer fab has a strong presence in automotive-grade IGBTs, power MOSFETs, analog chips and other fields. Production capacity and process capabilities can be well integrated with Nexperia’s products and process capabilities, helping the company seize the opportunities in the electric vehicle era and the AIoT era.
▲Wingtech subsidiary Nexperia
Another acquisition of Wingtech Technology has also accumulated ammunition for them to advance on the emerging track. Through the acquisition of Guangzhou Delta Imaging Technology Co., Ltd. of Oufeiguang, Wingtech Technology began to formally lay out the optical module business.
As we all know, Delta has supplied Apple before, so its advanced packaging and testing technology capabilities, some packaging and testing equipment development capabilities, and the ability to supply top customers like Apple are guaranteed.
Wingtech said that Delta Technology will enter the game in the futureWindowsNew fields such as laptops, automobiles, AIoT, AR/VR, etc.
It can be said that every important acquisition of Wingtech Technology makes it more competitive in emerging tracks other than mobile phones.
In this excavation of the annual report, we also found that,Many fruit chain companies whose business seems to have little to do with VR/AR are also very interested in the VR/AR track.
For example, Pengding Holdings, the leader in PCB, also believes that the metaverse wave will bring prosperity to the VR/AR industry. In addition, the accelerated development of smart cars, the geometric growth of data and the rapid development of AI technology will also promote the rapid development of server HPC and other related products. Growth, and in these areas, Pengding Holdings has room to play.
Also optimistic about the field of VR/AR and smart cars, there are also companies such as Lens Technology and Lingyi Zhizao. According to the annual report information, Lingyi Zhizao has completed the development of VR projects for the first time and began to deploy in the VR field.
From optics, semiconductors, foundries to precision parts and components, fruit chain companies are making great strides towards emerging tracks other than mobile phones.A transformation backed by the mobile phone industry is already brewing, and smartphones seem to have fallen out of favor.
3. Can it be smaller, lighter, and lower in power consumption?
One of the key factors behind the softening of the smartphone market is the lack of attractive products due to the slowdown in technological innovation. The era of competing parameters and specifications seems to have passed. Not only mobile phones, but the entire consumer electronics industry represented by mobile phones seems to have to find new directions in technological innovation.
In the process of in-depth review,Lightweight, miniaturized, light and thin, and low power consumption have become a few keywords that appear very frequently in the annual reports of fruit chain companies.
▲Comparison of the front Face ID module of iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro, source: WekiHome
Sunny Optical clearly mentioned in the annual report that they are developing ultra-thin lenses, and in Sunny’s view, thinning will become one of the important trends in the development of mobile phone lens modules.
Nowadays, the functions of mobile phones are becoming more and more abundant, and more and more parts are required, but the internal space of the fuselage is stretched. At the same time, with the upgrade of consumption, people have also put forward higher requirements for the portability and user experience of equipment, and no longer only focus on what the product “can do”.
In this context, we can also better understand Sunny Optical’s judgment.
It is worth noting that there are not a few fruit chain companies with the same view. Wingtech Technology mentioned in its annual report that the packaging requirements of mobile phone camera modules are developing in the direction of miniaturization and low power consumption. Traditional CSP and COB packaging The model is expected to be gradually replaced by the wafer-level integrated packaging technology represented by FlipChip, thereby promoting the innovation of thinner and lower power optical modules.
Of course, the fields that demand thinness and miniaturization are not limited to optical lenses.
In the annual report, Wingtech said that advanced processes such as SiP packaging are becoming more and more mainstream, and the demand is increasing.
Simply put, SiP packaging allows component modules to achieve more powerful functions and higher energy efficiency under the same size. Therefore, this technology has high application potential in mobile phones, tablets, notebook computers, AIoT and other fields in the future.
▲Perspective view of the internal structure of Apple AirPods Pro
4. The sweet pastry in the screen field: Mini LED
At present, one of the important capabilities of smart devices is that they can interact with people, and the interaction methods are mainly voice control and screen touch. The screen has become a must-have component for most smart products.
In the many annual reports of fruit chain enterprises, we clearly feel that,After several years of warm-up, Mini LED technology seems to have reached the eve of a rapid explosion, becoming a key track in the eyes of many companies.
According to BOE, a leading domestic screen company, display technology will still develop in a diversified manner, and the commercialization of small-pitch LEDs is accelerating significantly. Mini LED and Micro LED are what BOE calls small-pitch LEDs, that is, technologies that achieve better screen display effects by making LED lamp beads smaller.
It is worth mentioning that many non-screen companies are also interested in Mini LED. For example, Pengding Holdings specifically mentioned in its annual report that they have become one of the few manufacturers in the industry that have mastered Mini LED backlight circuit board technology, and Mini LED backlight boards will also become a new driving force for the company’s revenue and profit growth.
Wingtech believes that Mini LED and Micro LED are the future of display technology, and they have established a new display technology division to focus on this field. And Anshi Semiconductor’s massive transfer technology is also one of the reasons for their entry. At present, Wingtech has developed Mini/Micro LED direct display and backlight products.
It can be seen that many fruit chain enterprises from various fields are targeting Mini LED technology, which is also related to Apple’s active layout in the field of Mini LED and Micro LED. What is certain is that in 2022, Mini LED will inevitably become a sweet pastry in the field of screen technology.
5. The epidemic situation, lack of cores and lack of materials are “double-edged swords” for fruit chain enterprises
now,The volatility of the epidemic, the shortage of supply chains, the lack of cores, and the complex international environment have become the must-answer questions for enterprises.
In almost all the financial reports of companies, we can see the words related to the epidemic and the supply chain, and these factors are not unilaterally good or bad for companies in the consumer electronics industry, but have multiple impacts.
The downside is easy to see: repeated global epidemics, “lack of cores and materials” in the upstream industry chain, unilateral rise in raw material prices and transportation costs, and continued sluggish consumer demand…
At the same time, the international environment has also become complicated in the past year, with intensified energy shortages, soaring commodity prices and rising inflationary pressures, all of which have made the recovery of the global economy more difficult.
When will the epidemic end? How will countries’ attitudes towards epidemic prevention and control have an impact? What impact will the U.S. interest rate hike have on the global economy, and whether the deterioration of the situation in Russia and Ukraine will cause global turmoil? A series of uncertain factors have become the concerns of the fruit chain giants.
Of course, there are many positives.
For example, for screen giants such as BOE, in the first half of 2021, telecommuting, telemedicine, onlineeducate, online entertainment and other residential economies have stimulated the continued growth of demand for display products, superimposed on factors such as lack of cores, materials, capacity shortages, etc., the screen price has been relatively strong, which also brought them intuitive feedback on net profit.
In the second half of the year, it shows that product demand has slowed down, shipping congestion, rising raw material prices and logistics costs have weakened downstream stocking willingness, TV products have undergone structural adjustments, and IT products have benefited from high-end business demand and supply concentration. , the market is relatively stable.
In addition to the screen, in the context of “technology has national boundaries”, chip manufacturer GigaDevice also mentioned that in 2021, the growth of terminal intelligent demand and the opportunity of localization of the integrated circuit industry supply chain are the factors for them to achieve better performance. .
Wingtech also said frankly that behind the growth of global semiconductors and global power semiconductors in 2021, the price increase of global semiconductor chips and the stockpiling of goods in multiple links of the global semiconductor industry chain are also one of the main driving forces.
The global shortage of semiconductor chips, especially the serious shortage of automotive electronics-related semiconductor chips, has led to a surge in global semiconductor chip prices, especially the soaring prices of automotive electronics-related semiconductor chips.
Wingtech, which focuses on the field of automotive semiconductors, can naturally benefit from it.
03.
Conclusion: setbacks, opportunities, change
Results Chain Enterprise Keywords
By deeply sorting out the financial reports of important fruit chain companies, we can see thatThe fruit chain has gradually lost its “golden rice bowl” attribute, and has become more like a “testing ground” that tests the ability of enterprises to transform and survive.
Under the pressure of the economic environment and the overall weakness of the industry, most of the fruit chain companies still achieved good financial performance. However, there are also many companies that need to speed up their adjustment in the throes of transformation after entering the fruit chain and get out of the predicament of loss.
at the same time,The consumer electronics industry represented by smartphones is brewing many new technologies and industrial development trends, Many technologies that once seemed distant have reached the stage of mass production, and the giants are also rushing to the layout of new technologies.
More clearly, the fruit chain giants are actively expanding into new areas outside their original business., VR, automotive, smart home and other fields have become their goals. Instead of “fleeing”, they use the fruit chain as a pedal to jump into new territory.
