From 2016 to 2018, the domestic semiconductor, display panel and other industries set off a wave of investment and construction of factories, which also drove the overall market demand for clean room system engineering and promoted the rapid development of domestic clean room system engineering companies.
Since 2019, domestic semiconductors, display panels and other large projects have gradually entered the final stage. At the same time, because the semiconductor industry is generally in a downward cycle and the Sino-US trade war, Japan and South Korea disputes and other uncertain factors are too many, leading to new domestic semiconductor projects In the reduced state, industry competition has intensified, and most clean room system engineering orders have also been obtained by some superior companies.
Market competition is becoming fiercer
It is understood that China's clean room engineering service industry has a relatively high degree of marketization and belongs to a completely competitive structure. The entire market is relatively scattered and there are many companies in the industry, but the technical strength is uneven. The large-scale enterprises are Eleven Technology, China The Second Power Company and the Fourth Power Company.
Since the second half of 2018, the global semiconductor market has entered a downward cycle, and the enthusiasm for the construction of fabs in China has also been significantly weakened. As a clean room engineering industry upstream of the semiconductor, every company in it can feel cold, and the head company Can often be the first to respond.
As the largest integrated circuit engineering design institute in China, at the beginning of 2019, Eleven Technology implemented the strategy of “three transformations” (small and medium-sized projects, low profitability, and diversification), and actively explored biomedicine, new energy, and logistics other than electronics. , Military industry, industry and other fields.
Under this circumstance, Eleven Technology achieved operating revenue of 12.523 billion yuan in 2019 (electronic high-tech and high-end manufacturing engineering technology service business accounted for 61.17%; new energy engineering technology service business accounted for 15.34%; logistics and civil construction technology Service business accounted for 6%; photovoltaic power generation business accounted for 3.23%; biomedicine and healthcare technology service business accounted for 1.28%) and total profit of 572 million yuan, an increase of 16.39% and 20.58% year-on-year. While maintaining double-digit growth continuously, the annual revenue and profit indicators hit a record high.
However, not every company can achieve growth against the trend. Most clean room engineering companies face the crisis of increasing market competition and a sharp decline in company performance.
In 2019, Yaxiang Integrated, which focuses on the clean room engineering service industry, achieved operating income of 1.869 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 17.12%, and net profit of 101 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 37.13%.
In addition to the decline in performance in 2019, Yaxiang Integrated's future performance is not optimistic. According to reports, the number of unfinished projects at the end of 2019 was 36, with a contract value of 2.004 billion yuan. The number of unfinished projects at the end of 2018 was 38, with a contract value of 3.392 billion yuan.
Although the number of Yaxiang integration contracts has not decreased significantly, the contract value has declined significantly and future performance is under pressure. Of course, this is not the situation faced by Yaxiang Integrated Family.
The author learned from many industry insiders that the overall situation of the clean room engineering industry in 2019 is not very good. The project has not been more than a few years ago. Under the influence of the epidemic in 2020, investors are more conservative. There is also a delay in building the line.
Industry changes are about to start
Jiwei.com reported that industry insiders said that in recent years, a large number of new wafer foundries have been built in China, but semiconductor market demand has not continued, high-end design has not kept up, and the potential risk of overcapacity is about to surface. There will no longer be a large number of new fabs.
At the same time, compared with the large-scale construction of wafer fabs and display panel fabs with tens of billions of investments in previous years, the current domestic capital is more cautious in project investment and pays more attention to the field of semiconductor materials that urgently needs to be broken through in China. The amount of investment in such projects is relatively small, as is the investment in clean room engineering.
When the market conditions are poor, most companies will choose to sacrifice profits in order to obtain orders. The author understands that in 2019, there have been many loss-making bids in the clean room engineering industry. Among them, an enterprise even bid for a secondary matching project at a price of about 100 million yuan lower than its peers.
According to people familiar with the matter, the aforementioned companies wanted to go public, so they took several major projects at a loss.
It is understood that since the opening of the Science and Technology Board, the semiconductor industry has set off a wave of listings. Most qualified companies in all links of the industrial chain have launched listing plans, and the clean room engineering industry is no exception. According to people familiar with the matter, at present, clean room engineering companies such as Shenghui and Baicheng have all launched listing plans.
Competition at a loss or low-profit competition is obviously not conducive to the long-term development of enterprises, and seeking diversified development is one of the ways for clean room engineering companies to get rid of the status quo of the industry.
With the development of downstream industries, increased air pollution, and the need for biological safety isolation, the fields of clean room applications are more extensive, and the demand for clean rooms has extended from the electronics industry to the pharmaceutical, medical, and bioengineering industries.
At present, in addition to Eleven Technology, CLP II, CLP IV, Baicheng, Yaxiang Integration, and Zhichun Technology are all actively developing into the pharmaceutical field.
However, pharmaceutical projects are not as huge as the investment in the semiconductor industry. Industry insiders pointed out that some companies are already relying on pharmaceutical projects to "continue to live", but pharmaceutical projects will become more and more refined, and there will be no large-scale investment, mainly in biomedicine. , Targeted drugs and other directions.
When the industry situation is not good, the market reshuffle will accelerate. In this regard, industry insiders said that although the market situation is very poor, the competitors they are still in contact with are still insisting. There has been no closure or integration for the time being, and they have not seen the industry’s reform strategies. However, many companies have laid off employees. .
At present, the clean room engineering industry is in a period of poor market conditions. Industry competition is becoming increasingly fierce. Industry changes are on the verge of being triggered, and each time the changes occur, the industry will undergo major changes, some enterprises will be eliminated, and some companies will grow up quickly. In this case, who can seize the opportunities in the reform to quickly stand out from the clean room engineering companies, can only give time to give the answer.
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