(public account: zhidxcom)
author | Yunpeng
editor | Entering Apple's high-end product line for the first time, it will supply Mini LED screens for next year's MacBook Air.
On the other hand, the increase in panel prices caused by the shortage of driver ICs has allowed BOE to make a lot of money in the LCD market. In the first quarter of this year, BOE’s revenue was close to 50 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of more than 100%, while its net profit increased by more than 8 times year-on-year to 5.1 billion yuan, achieving a net profit rate of more than 10% in the panel industry.
Behind BOE’s “satisfaction”, many companies in its supply chain have started their own IPO journey one after another, two of which have received inquiries in July, and three have successfully listed within this year.
The above table is sorted out according to the IPO prospectuses of various companies.
From the IPO prospectuses of these companies, we can clearly see that their business is closely related to BOE. About 5%.
The elder brother is full, and the younger brother naturally also drinks the soup.
What is more noteworthy is that the main products of these IPO companies range from screen production equipment to optical plates, and even OLED organic light-emitting materials.
Does this mean that not only the midstream screen manufacturing field, but also the upstream material equipment field, China's screen industry chain is quietly ushering in a critical moment of breakthrough?
Behind the rise of BOE, what role do these intensive IPO supply chain companies play in the screen industry, and have they achieved important breakthroughs in their core products and technologies? After this IPO tide recedes, it is worth further exploring whether there will be "real gold" left and become a "catalyst" enterprise at a key node in the domestic screen industry chain.
1. Break through the barriers of production equipment, use BOE to break into Apple Huawei’s production line
In this wave of IPOs brought by BOE, we can see many upstream companies, which are not BOE’s direct suppliers, but BOE "friend's friend".
Because BOE has entered Apple's supply chain and supplied many domestic first-tier terminal manufacturers, it can also be considered that these upstream companies have entered the supply chain of world-class giants by virtue of "BOE's success".
For a long time, the advantages of the domestic display technology industry chain mainly lie in the middle and lower reaches, strong manufacturing capabilities and a huge mid-end market. However, in the field of upstream materials and production equipment, we are often stuck.
Previously, smart things have conducted in-depth review of the development of China's LCD screen industry and OLED screen industry. There are strong historical factors in it.
To give the simplest example, only one Japanese company, Tokki, can produce the vapor deposition machines needed to produce top-level OLED screens in the world, and in the early days it could only produce 4 such machines per year.
It is said that the error range of the Tokki evaporation machine can be controlled within 5 microns, which is about one hundredth of the diameter of a hair. The overall length of the evaporation machine is about 100 meters, just like a small train. Nearly 20 years ago, the price of such an evaporation machine was about 85 million US dollars, but now the price of a top chip lithography machine But $100 million. In other words, the evaporation machine is the "lithography machine" in the screen field.
Tokki vapor deposition machine
When Tokki was on the verge of bankruptcy, it was Samsung who rescued it and made it continue, so most of the high-end vapor deposition machines were taken over by Samsung. This "life-saving grace", how do other companies compare with Samsung?
Sometimes money can't solve all problems. Therefore, breakthroughs in independent high-end screen production equipment are particularly critical.
One of the companies sprinting for IPO this time, Lingyunguang, its core products include production line testing equipment for various screens.It is said that the detection efficiency of its LCD lighting quality detector has reached more than 3 times that of manual labor, and can achieve a high dynamic range detection close to the limit of the human eye. The core technology of
Lingyunguang mainly focuses on the fields of machine vision and optical communication, and production line inspection equipment usually uses a large number of machine vision related technologies.
Schematic diagram of Lingyunguang’s main products
According to the statistics of CINNO Research, based on the number of installed machines alone, in 2020, Lingyunguang’s market share in the field of automatic lighting testing equipment for small and medium-sized screen panels in China will be 35.9%, ranking first in the industry. He is also a leading player in the subdivision field.
In fact, at present, many To B products of machine vision technology companies have been applied in various product lines of the consumer electronics industry. They are used as testing equipment to replace labor, which is also one of the major trends in the industry.
At present, one of Ling Yunguang's main customers is BOE, which accounts for 4.73% of its revenue. It is worth mentioning that in 2016, Lingyunguang also began to become the preferred short-list supplier (Preferred Supplier List) of Apple's in the field of machine vision.
In addition, familiar companies such as AAC Technologies , TCL Group , Hon Hai Precision ( Foxconn ) also appeared in its list of top customers.
It is not difficult to find that Lingyunguang's customers are mainly concentrated in the middle and downstream module manufacturing and terminal product manufacturing.
Looking at the screen field alone, the production process of a screen is very complicated, and the advanced production equipment mentioned above is mainly concentrated in the front part of the process, while the testing equipment is located in the back part, which is not critical core production equipment.
The OLED production process covered by Lingyunguang products is mainly concentrated in the cell process and module process.
is similar to Lingyunguang. There is another BOE supplier Shenke that has officially landed on the Sci-Tech Innovation Board in March this year. Up to .
Shenkeda's main products are flat-panel display device production equipment. Specifically, it includes display modules, touch modules, automatic assembly of fingerprint recognition modules, and intelligent testing equipment.
Now they are also extending their business territory to the fields of semiconductor packaging and testing, camera assembly, and key parts manufacturing of smart equipment.
Shenkeda’s main participation in the OLED process (red dotted line frame)
Shenkeda’s head customers are also very familiar to us, such as BOE, TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics , Shentianma , Visionox and other mainstream Screen manufacturers and key component manufacturers of consumer electronics such as Bourne Optics , Lens Technology , O-Film are involved. Among them, BOE is the largest player, accounting for 12.16% of revenue.
And these customers of Shenkeda are suppliers of many technology giants. Shenkeda’s testing equipment is used in mobile phones and tablets of mainstream mobile phone manufacturers such as Apple, Huawei, Samsung, Xiaomi , OPPO, vivo, Honor , etc. It is used in products such as computers and smart watches, and the coverage is relatively wide. Although
generally speaking, whether it is Lingyunguang or Shenzhen Keda, its products are still not the core key equipment in the screen production process, but its research and development strength and future potential are still worthy of attention.
Some products of Shenkeda
Lingyunguang and Shenkeda were established in 2002 and 2004 respectively. Both have a history of nearly 20 years of enterprise development. At present, Lingyunguang has mastered 296 domestic patents, and the company has more than 434 R&D personnel , accounting for more than 34%. Shenkeda also owns 217 patents and 35 software copyrights.
's small breakthrough in screen production equipment is behind the painstaking research and development of many Chinese researchers in the screen field.
Perhaps today we can only win the testing equipment, but as these companies are tempered in the giant supply chain and their technology and craftsmanship are constantly upgraded, the possibility of them continuing to make breakthroughs is also increasing.
two, 20Years of hard work and breakthroughs in material technology, millions of dollars to win Samsung technical talents
If it is said that "Made in China" still has a relatively good industrial foundation in terms of high-end screen manufacturing equipment, then many companies in the field of screen materials are almost "from The dilemma of "starting from zero" is even more serious.
For example, in the field of OLED, upstream OLED materials account for about 20%-30% of the cost of the entire OLED panel, mainly including organic light-emitting materials, electrode materials, various polarizers and packaging adhesives, etc.
Chart source: Guosheng Securities
In this field, Japanese idemitsu, Korean Samsung and LG Chemical , American Dow Chemical and UDC, German Merck and other European, American, Japanese and Korean manufacturers have basically monopolized the global OLED material market. In the market for organic light-emitting materials, Japanese and Korean manufacturers account for more than 80% of the market.
is not only an OLED screen, but even the LCD field where mainland screen companies have occupied an absolute market dominance, the core material is still a big problem. Since LCD is called "liquid crystal screen", liquid crystal is naturally the most basic material, and in the field of mixed liquid crystal materials, German and Japanese giants have monopolized more than 90% of the global market.
In the field of these screen core materials, overseas giants have made a strict and systematic layout and blockade of patents and technologies. It is extremely difficult for domestic companies that have lagged behind on the starting line for decades to break through these barriers in the short term.
Of course, we have also seen hope. The mainland company Wright Optoelectronics, which started sprinting for the IPO on the Science and Technology Innovation Board in June, is mainly engaged in the research and development and production of OLED organic light-emitting materials. At present, it has realized the mass production and supply of several OLED organic materials.
Wright Optoelectronics OLED intermediate material
At present, Wright Optoelectronics has won BOE, , Hehui Optoelectronics , TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics and other customers, and has become the only domestic supplier of BOE OLED light-emitting functional materials.
In the field of OLED terminal materials, Wright Optoelectronics has accumulated 61 authorized patents, and 191 patents are being applied for. These patents cover light-emitting layer, hole transport layer, electron transport layer materials, etc.
In OLED screens, the cathode, anode and light-emitting layer are the core materials. It can be seen that mainland companies can also find some breakthroughs in these key material fields.
Schematic diagram of basic structure of OLED screen
Behind these important breakthroughs, key talents play a key role. In the IPO prospectus of Wright Optoelectronics, we can find an important scientist named Jin Rongguo. He once served as the chief engineer in the R&D center of Samsung Display. His ability and importance are self-evident.
Jin Rongguo’s salary in 2020 is 3.34 million yuan, which is not only 2.77 times the annual salary of the chairman of Wright Optoelectronics, but also more than 2.5 times the sum of the annual salary of the other five core technicians. Jin Rongguo alone accounted for 40% of the total remuneration of directors, supervisors, executives, and core technical personnel.
The salaries of some executives and core technicians of Wright Optoelectronics, the source of the chart: IPO prospectus of Wright Optoelectronics
This is embarrassing, but at the same time, it also shows an indisputable fact: the screen industry has an urgent need for core technical talents , but there is a huge gap in relevant domestic talents.
These are also one of the biggest stumbling blocks for the domestic screen industry to catch up.
On the other hand, although Wright Optoelectronics has made a breakthrough in the technology related to OLED organic light-emitting materials, it still has a certain distance from mass production.
An insider of a domestic screen company told Zhishi that currently domestic OLED materials with independent intellectual property rights are far from achieving large-scale sales, and the market share of and are relatively low.
In addition to OLED light-emitting materials, in the field of LCD screen materials, Fengsheng Optoelectronics, as one of the suppliers of BOE, also started its own IPO sprint in June this year. They are also a company with a history of nearly 21 years.
Light guide plate is one of the main products of Fengsheng Optoelectronics. This type of plate is often used in large-size LCD TVs, LCD monitors and other products.
Fengsheng Optoelectronics light guide plate products
Most of Fengsheng Optoelectronics’ customers are upstream suppliers of panel companies, such as Suzhou Tianlu and Shangqi Optoelectronics. We may notFamiliar, but we are all familiar with the final actual end customers of Fengsheng Optoelectronics products, including BOE, Samsung, LGD, AU Optronics, Huawei, Hisense , Xiaomi, Skyworth and so on.
can say that their customers range from overseas giants to domestic mainstream display terminal manufacturers, and the company has 34 patents. Now Fengsheng Optoelectronics is also making efforts in the direction of emerging Mini LED, quantum dot and other technologies, and developing the light guide plate materials involved in these technologies.
Of course, objectively speaking, the LCD screen is mainly divided into two parts: the LCD panel and the backlight module. The backlight module and the account for about one-fifth of the overall cost, but the core material of the backlight module is not the light guide plate, but Various optical films.
At present, 80% of the production capacity of and in the global optical film field are monopolized by overseas giants, among which Japanese companies are absolutely dominant, such as the familiar Mitsubishi , Toray and so on. It can be seen from
that although domestic screen makers are playing an increasingly important role in the midstream manufacturing sector, and even have no rivals in the LCD market share, there are still many gaps to be filled in the upstream core technology field of panels.
3. Behind the intensive IPO of BOE's "little brothers", domestic screen technology may meet a key inflection point. Behind the panel giants, in China's screen industry chain, every light spot is flickering.
It is true that the success of IPO cannot bring these companies a rapid technological advancement, but from this thick prospectus, we can see that these industry chain companies are struggling to move forward on each segmented track.
In addition to companies such as Lingyunguang, Wright Optoelectronics, Fengsheng Optoelectronics, and Shenzhen Keda, there are many others who have walked on similar tracks and achieved good results. Laide has made breakthroughs in OLED organic light-emitting materials and evaporation source equipment.
You should know that the evaporation source equipment is one of the core components of the evaporation machine, and the evaporation machine is the most important equipment in the production of OLED panels.
Schematic diagram of evaporation source components
Allied is also an important supplier of screen manufacturers such as BOE and Visionox. These two giants are important customers of OLED materials and evaporation source equipment of Alled. The screen is used in mobile phone products of Huawei, Xiaomi, , ZTE and other brands.
You should know that Alled, a young company established in 2014, was originally just a company selling OLED materials, but after years of accumulation, they have now obtained 101 domestic patents in terms of organic light-emitting materials, and they are really in the upstream materials industry. The field has carved out its own market.
Of course, through the above analysis, we can also clearly see that in the field of advanced screen production equipment and screen core materials, we still have a lot of homework to "make up".
The breakthroughs of the existing domestic screen industry chain enterprises focus more on some non-core equipment and non-core materials. For example, in key fields such as OLED manufacturing equipment, polarizers, and color filters, Japanese and Korean companies still occupy an absolute dominant advantage, and it is difficult for mainland manufacturers to make substantial breakthroughs for a while.
However, on the other hand, the continuation of the China-US technology war, the intensification of trade frictions, and the wave of localization of China's technology industry have all become objective opportunities for companies in the mainland's screen industry chain to break through.
Obviously, in the field of high-end AMOLED screens for mobile phones originally monopolized by Samsung, including BOE, TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics, and Visionox, more and more domestic screen manufacturers are trying to make breakthroughs in products and technologies, and have successfully distributed them. Arrived portion of cake. Whether it is Huawei, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo or Honor, mainstream mobile phone manufacturers are increasingly using domestic screens in their products. And it should be noted that it is not a small-scale trial in marginal products, but a large-scale mass production application in the main flagship product.
Mi MIX4 with TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics AMOLED screen (left) and Huawei P50 Pro with BOE AMOLED screen (Right)
On the one hand, domestic high-end AMOLED screens have almost equaled Samsung in terms of display effect, and with the launch of new production lines, domestic AMOLED production capacity is also quickly catching up. On the other hand, more applications of domestic AMOLED screens have also driven the development of products and technologies of screen upstream supply chain manufacturers.
A virtuous circle chain has rolled up in China's screen industry.
The total growth trend of various OLED production capacity of leading screen manufacturers in mainland China, the source of the chart: Guosheng Securities
Conclusion: After BOE "takes the lead", the "little brother" may break into a wider world
In the field of screens, we are a bit late , It took BOE 28 years to enter the supply chain of high-end products of world-class manufacturers, and it has become the world's number one in the LCD panel market.
Behind such brilliant achievements, with the gradual expansion of domestic players' market, countless "accompanying" supply chain players have gradually come to the fore, and even started their own IPO sprint journey. From them, we have seen technological breakthroughs from key equipment to core materials.
Today, whether it is smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, various AIoT products, or smart home appliances, the screen is still one of the most important media for human-computer interaction. And grasping the core technology of the screen has also become a key link in the technology industry.
BOE, TCL Huaxing Optoelectronics and other domestic display giants' adoption and application of domestic technologies and products have also given these "little brothers" good growth nutrients. The IPO is just a starting point. Against the background that the domestic capital market continues to mature and policy dividends boost , this new batch of listed companies will also accelerate their growth, bringing more impetus to the breakthrough of domestic screen technology.
