Views: 0 Author: Site Editor Publish Time: 2023-04-24 Origin: Site
Zhichun Technology
The main business of Zhichun Technology mainly includes the research and development, production and sales of semiconductor process equipment and process support equipment, as well as the construction of high-purity process systems, electronic materials, component cleaning, and wafer regeneration services derived from this.
As a leader in semiconductor cleaning equipment and high-purity process systems in China, with the continuous expansion of wet process equipment business, Zhichun Technology has entered a period of rapid development.
On January 29th, Zhichun Technology released a notice on the company's new orders for the year 2022. Zhichun Technology stated that the industry in which the company operates has developed steadily, and all members of the company have overcome the impact of the epidemic and are working hard to achieve user value. The company's business maintained steady growth in 2022, with a total new order amount of 4.219 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 30.62%. Among them, new orders for semiconductor process equipment amounted to 1.80 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.71%.
Changchuan Technology
On January 19th, Changchuan Technology disclosed its performance forecast for 2022. The company expects to achieve a net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 45-520 million yuan in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 106.20% -138.27%.
The main reasons for the increase in the company's operating performance compared to the same period last year include the steady expansion of business scale, optimization of various product revenue structures, and the continuous increase in the proportion of high-end category revenue. Changchuan Technology's main products include testing machines, sorting machines, probe stations, AOI equipment, and automation equipment.
What signals are released by the domestic equipment industry behind the performance?
From the performance of multiple semiconductor equipment manufacturers, the growth momentum is mostly directed towards the semiconductor front-end processing field. It is not difficult to see that in the semiconductor front-end process equipment links such as thin film deposition, etching, CMP, and cleaning equipment, relevant listed companies have achieved 1-2 times the performance growth.
In 2022, the global semiconductor industry chain entered a downward cycle due to factors such as the pandemic, shrinking demand, and geopolitical factors. However, benefiting from the trend of expanding production in the past two years and the opportunity for domestic substitution, the net profit of mainland listed equipment companies has significantly increased in 2022. Moreover, in the context of accelerated domestic substitution of semiconductor equipment, the contractual liabilities of domestic semiconductor manufacturers have achieved significant growth last year.
Overall, downstream demand, R&D breakthroughs, and product volume constitute the main growth trend of domestic semiconductor equipment companies, and their market competitiveness is gradually improving.
However, from the current situation of the industry, domestic equipment manufacturers are still only breaking through the "point" and have not yet achieved the popularization of "surface". They lack the supply of complete sets of equipment, and the accuracy of the equipment is not enough. They can only meet the production of low-end chips and are difficult to enter high-end chip production lines.
In the past many years, advanced semiconductor equipment technology was mainly led by the United States, Europe and Japan, among which the manufacturing technology of etching equipment, ion implanter, film deposition equipment, testing equipment, program control, CMP and other equipment in the United States was at the forefront of the world; The Netherlands is leading the world with ASML's high-end lithography machines; Japan has a competitive advantage in etching equipment, cleaning equipment, testing equipment, and other aspects.
Faced with the fierce market competition environment, Everbright Securities analysis points out that in the semiconductor front-end equipment sector, the core logic of localization is still continuously strengthening due to short-term effects such as export controls and delayed bidding by wafer factories. According to SEMI data, the localization rate of semiconductor equipment by Chinese wafer manufacturers in 2022 has significantly increased compared to 2021, from 21% to 35%.
At present, upstream and downstream enterprises in the industrial chain are trying to tackle semiconductor core equipment. With the continuous evolution of domestic semiconductor equipment technology, domestic equipment manufacturers are gradually sharing the market cake belonging to manufacturers in the United States, Japan, and South Korea. In the long run, domestic semiconductor equipment is searching for new markets to make up for its shortcomings.
According to SEMI data, the global semiconductor equipment market size reached a record high of 108.5 billion US dollars in 2022, breaking a new historical record. Among them, Chinese Mainland is the largest equipment market in the world, with the market scale reaching US $32 billion in 2022. In 2023, against the backdrop of a global economic slowdown, high inflation, declining terminal demand, and a backlog of chip inventory, global chip companies will continue to move forward under pressure in the short term. Especially under the constraints of downstream customers reducing production and investment, the future of semiconductor equipment manufacturers in the short term appears to be worrying.
SEMI predicts that in 2023, the semiconductor equipment market will experience the first negative growth in four years. In 2023, the global semiconductor equipment market size will decrease by 16% annually to 91.2 billion US dollars. Chinese Mainland, Taiwan, China, and South Korea rank in the top three. Among them, the wafer factory equipment market will decrease by 17% to 78.84 billion US dollars annually, the packaging equipment market will decrease by 13% to 5.29 billion US dollars annually, and the testing equipment market will decrease by 7% to 7.07 billion US dollars annually. In the early stage of equipment, the logical process equipment market will decrease by 9% compared to 2022, the DRAM equipment market will significantly decrease by 25% to $10.8 billion, and the NAND Flash equipment market will decline by 36% to $12.2 billion. At the same time, in recent years, the United States has further generalized the concept of national security, abused export control measures, continuously disrupted the international economic and trade order and disrupted the security and stability of global industrial and supply chains, and even intended to attract or pressure allies to hinder normal international trade of products such as chips.
2023 is a year of parallel challenges and opportunities in the semiconductor equipment industry. Amidst internal and external challenges, the urgency of domestic substitution has further increased, and the independent and controllable strategy of the semiconductor supply chain is of great significance.
On the one hand, as geopolitical uncertainty continues to escalate, chip manufacturing companies are also unwilling to put their eggs in the same basket, which also provides domestic equipment manufacturers with an opportunity to enter the market.Although there are difficulties for domestic manufacturers to enter the Qiandao semiconductor equipment market, after decades of accumulation, domestic manufacturers also have the conditions to enter the Qiandao core equipment market. Considering the current lack of performance among foreign equipment giants, the performance of domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers is generally improving and growing against the trend, which undoubtedly injects confidence into the localization of semiconductor equipment in the current situation. On the other hand, China has now become the world's largest terminal consumption and manufacturing center, and the global semiconductor industry is gradually shifting to the mainland. In terms of strategic planning for semiconductor equipment companies, in the short term, semiconductor wafer factories will continue to build production capacity, especially leading wafer factories in mainland China that continue to expand on a large scale against the trend, driving strong demand for semiconductor equipment; In the medium to long term, domestic semiconductor equipment manufacturers will continue to benefit from the acceleration of local substitution in the semiconductor supply chain.
Overall, the localization of China's semiconductor industry is "easy to know but difficult to implement". In addition to technological gaps and US restrictions, China also faces significant challenges in investment, talent, market competition, strategic determination, and patience.
