Since 2009, my country's LED chip industry has developed very rapidly, with the industry output value increasing from 2 billion yuan to more than 10 billion yuan. In 2015, my country's LED chip production increased by 60%. However, affected by weak market demand in Europe and the United States and intensified industry competition, production increased rapidly but prices also dropped significantly. It is expected that the demand in the LED chip industry will continue to increase this year, the price decline trend will slow down slightly, and the chip industry will accelerate integration. The following is an inventory of the six major domestic LED chip manufacturers.
1. Sanan Optoelectronics - Domestic Overlord
When talking about China’s LED chips, we have to mention Fujian Sanan Optoelectronics. In recent years, Sanan Optoelectronics’ revenue has increased and it is the largest company. In 2015, Sanan Optoelectronics' LED business achieved operating income of 4.858 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.08%. Among them, Xiamen Sanan LED revenue was 4.502 billion yuan, with a gross profit margin of 42.44%, a year-on-year increase of 1.38 percentage points. In the first quarter of 2016, operating income was 1.178 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.15%. During the reporting period, Xiamen Sanan Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. is gradually releasing its production capacity and investing in 28 MOCVD equipment. The production capacity of 12 units invested in March will be reflected in the second quarter, and the remaining equipment will be put into production as soon as possible. It is obvious that Sanan Optoelectronics' operating income exceeds that of any other company, and the economies of scale are becoming increasingly obvious.
Sanan Optoelectronics chips account for half of my country's small and medium-power packaged light sources. They have reached the international leading level in terms of brightness and stability, and have obvious price advantages. Sanan Optoelectronics is accelerating its overseas market layout. For example, it has cooperated with Seoul Semiconductor to develop its overseas LED chip foundry business and signed a large purchase cooperation agreement with Essence Energy. Sanan expanded its company channels by investing in the establishment of a financial leasing company jointly established by Xiamen Sanan Industrial Co., Ltd. and Xiamen Xinda. Sanan will also raise funds for communication microelectronics devices to produce gallium arsenide high-speed semiconductor devices and gallium nitride high-power semiconductor devices to fill the gaps in my country's manufacturing process. Overall, Sanan Optoelectronics currently dominates the chip field.
Part of the core data of Sanan Optoelectronics’ financial statements
2. Tongfang Shares - Continue to increase investment
Tongfang entered the LED industry in 2004 and acquired LED chip back-end process technology through the acquisition of Singaporean Tinggi company. At the same time, it built its own LED chip production line in Beijing. In 2010, Tongfang increased investment in LED epitaxial chip manufacturing, setting up 6 MOCVD units in Beijing, investing 3 billion yuan to build an LED industrial base in Nantong, and ordering 48 MOCVD units. Tongfang currently has 59 MOCVD units, ranking 5th in China. Tongfang’s acquisition of Zhenmingli has greatly improved the LED industry chain and enhanced its competitiveness in the LED field. Although LED's business revenue in Tongfang Holdings is less than 10%, relying on the scientific research strength of Tsinghua University, combined with the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Taiwan's R&D team, it has successfully mastered the key technologies of the chip and applied for nearly a hundred domestic and foreign patents. In 2015, in the field of chips and epitaxial wafers, during the reporting period, the company continued to implement upgrades and upgrades, upgrading the original 2-inch epitaxial wafer growth technology to 4-inch growth technology, resulting in new breakthroughs in the uniformity of epitaxial wafer product growth. At the same time, by adjusting the thickness of different deposits in the epitaxial structure and adding reflective coatings, the epitaxial brightness was improved. At present, Tongfang has mastered LED core technologies such as high-brightness blue-green LED epitaxial wafer growth, high-brightness blue-green LED chip preparation engineering, high-power chips, and industrialized production of epitaxial wafers. Overall, the gap between Tongfang Optoelectronics’ self-produced LED chips and Sanan, Jingyuan, Cree and other brands has further narrowed, and small-size chips have gained higher recognition.Degree, market share is increasing.
Part of the core data of Tongfang's financial statements from 2011 to 2015
3. Dehao Runda - Connecting the downstream
In 2015, Dehao Runda raised funds to develop the "LED flip-chip project" and "LED chip-scale packaging project" to upgrade and optimize the industrial chain and enhance core competitiveness. Dehao Runda has been simplifying packaging, eliminating gold wire FC packaging, removing gold wires, simplifying the packaging process, removing gold balls and flux, and developing flux-free gold-tin eutectic flip-chip soldering technology to improve heat dissipation and quality.
Part of the core data of Dehao Runda's financial statements from 2011 to 2015
4. Huacan Optoelectronics - Collaborative Development
Under the unfavorable circumstances of LED chip prices continuing to fall, Huacan has adapted through technology research and development, cost control and other means. In 2015, Huacan made significant progress in major R&D projects, taking the lead in launching small-pitch professional display chips, high-brightness red light chips, etc., while also doing a good job in protecting intellectual property rights. In 2016, Huacan further expanded its production scale and improved its cost advantage by focusing on building an internationally renowned LED industry base. In terms of production capacity, Huacan Optoelectronics is the second largest LED chip manufacturer in China and the fourth largest in the world. Huacan is competing for the leading position by focusing on core innovation and active expansion models.
Recently, Huacan Optoelectronics announced its asset reorganization plan. The company’s preliminary proposed reorganization target asset is Harmony Core Light (Yiwu) Optoelectronics Technology Co., Ltd., and the company will purchase 100% of the equity of MEMSIC Semiconductor Co., Ltd. in the United States. Through this merger and acquisition, Huacan Optoelectronics can enter the MEMS sensor business field from the previous LED chip business, achieve industrial synergy between the two, and build a grand vision of becoming a leader in the semiconductor industry.
Part of the core data of Huacan Optoelectronics' financial statements from 2011 to 2015
5. Aoyang Shunchang - Making progress while maintaining stability
Compared with the crazy expansion of its peers, Aoyang Shunchang is relatively calm. With low LED project investment, advanced and mature technology, leading core equipment and excellent management concepts, the company has achieved excellent cost control and profitability. For the company's existing LED business, we will continue to do a good job in production and manufacturing management, and maintain a high utilization rate of epitaxial wafer and chip production capacity. At the same time, targeted technology research and development investments will be made to improve the technical performance such as yield rate, brightness, and luminous efficiency of the company's chip products. Interact well with upstream and downstream companies in the industry, strengthen the management of suppliers and customers, and enhance the company's overall competitive advantage and profitability.
6. Jingneng Optoelectronics - the third-pole LED chip, breaking the monopoly of the United States and Japan
There are three LED technology routes in the field of semiconductor lighting, namely the sapphire substrate LED technology route represented by Japan's Nichia Chemical, the silicon carbide substrate LED technology route represented by Cree of the United States, and the silicon substrate LED technology route represented by China Jingneng Optoelectronics. The award for the silicon substrate technology project shows that silicon substrate has been proven feasible by the country and has been elevated to the national strategic level. Silicon substrates may usher in large-scale commercial applications. Jingneng Optoelectronics mainly produces LED chip products that can be widely used in general lighting, display screens, LCD backlights and industrial fields. In particular, its GaN epitaxial growth and chip processing technology on silicon substrates is unique in the world. The company not only owns all intellectual property rights, but is also the first company in the world to mass-produce high-power, high-performance silicon substrate LED chips. Unlike other LED chip companies that are expanding production, Jingneng Optoelectronics is actively involved in the research and development of silicon substrate LED epitaxial chips. Focusing on silicon substrate technology, Jingneng Optoelectronics has been developing international and domestic patent layouts for many years in core technology fields from epitaxy, chips to packaging. According to statistics, Jingneng Optoelectronics has obtained 299 related patents and 161 patent families worldwide. Jingneng Optoelectronics is an absolute leader in the field of silicon substrates. The company has been insisting on carrying out research and development work and breakthroughs around this silicon substrate LED technology route for many years, and has successfully achieved mass production. From this, we can clearly see Jingneng Optoelectronics’ strategic route: competing for the third pole of China’s LED chip market.
ANNA