The news of Apple’s cooperation with GTAT on sapphire at the end of last year became the starting point of this storm. This year, Apple's two sapphire patents were exposed, which excited the entire market. News that the iPhone 6 may use a sapphire screen are flying everywhere. In the context of A-share listed companies frequently throwing out sapphire plans, what is the current real situation of the domestic sapphire industry? What impact will Apple have on the domestic sapphire industry?
Ten billions of capital are targeting sapphire
On the eve of the Mid-Autumn Festival, a "letter of concern" from the Shenzhen Stock Exchange forced Guofeng Plastic Industry to propose a plan to acquire Ningxia Jiajing Technology Co., Ltd. So far, in the A-share market, there are at least 20 listed companies involved in the sapphire industry chain.
Since this year, Sapphire has frequently become associated with A-share listed companies. Statistics show that among the above 20 companies, 10 listed companies represented by Southwest Pharmaceutical, Crystal Optoelectronics, Tiantong Co., Ltd., etc., all announced sapphire industry investment and acquisition plans this year, with the project involving 11.271 billion yuan (including 4.12 billion equity acquisition).
The above-mentioned 11.271 billion yuan of funds does not include Dongxu Optoelectronics’ acquisition of Jiangsu Jixing New Materials. The funds involved in this project have not yet been disclosed. In other words, the Sapphire Plan launched by A-share listed companies this year involves far more than 11.271 billion yuan.
In addition to the above 10 companies, companies such as Huagong Technology and Dinglong Co., Ltd. are also actively developing the sapphire industry chain, but have not announced specific amounts. In addition, companies such as Sanan Optoelectronics, Dongjing Electronics and Tongfang Guoxin have already announced their sapphire industry investment plans in 2011, involving approximately 3.814 billion yuan.
In addition to listed A-share companies, companies planning to be listed have also invested in Sapphire. On May 8, Lens Technology submitted a listing plan. The company planned to raise 5.43 billion yuan, which will be used for "sapphire production and intelligent terminal applications" and other projects; on May 21, the listing plan disclosed by quartz glass showed that the company planned to raise 411 million yuan for "quartz glass materials and products production and construction projects for electronic information products."
At the same time, companies such as Yuanliang Technology Group and Guangdong Saifei Sapphire Technology Co., Ltd. also have plans to expand production of sapphire projects, but the specific investment amount has not been announced. From this point of view, the sapphire investment projects announced by listed companies and companies planning to be listed on the capital market have involved 20.926 billion yuan in funds.
Except for the sapphire projects involved by the above 10 companies, which were released in the first half of the year by Tiantong Co., Ltd. and Luxiao Technology, the projects disclosed by the other eight companies were all concentrated in the third quarter, and have recently shown signs of acceleration. Moreover, gold-mining sapphire listed companies are mainly concentrated in the Yangtze River Delta region, among which Zhejiang companies are the most active, accounting for 5 of the 10 companies.
From the perspective of the industry chain, the sapphire projects involved in the above-mentioned 10 listed companies this year cover all aspects of the sapphire industry chain. However, in terms of capital investment, more than 8 billion yuan is concentrated in the midstream research and development and production of crystal growth, crystal ingots and wafers.
The confidence to gamble comes from the LED explosion
Behind the gold rush in the sapphire industry, it is the relevant listed companies that have seen the arrival of the sweet period of the LED industry. In the first half of this year, benefiting from the rapid growth of the LED industry, the sapphire LED substrate industry is full of "spring".
A listed sapphire company in Zhejiang told reporters that according to statistics from relevant agencies, more than 70% of the current application fields of the sapphire industry are used for LED substrates. Since the second half of last year, the explosive growth of the domestic LED industry has provided the confidence for listed companies to increase investment in the sapphire industry.
Data statistics show that in the first half of this year, 17 of the 21 listed companies in the LED industry saw revenue and profit growth at the same time, and 4 of them had a revenue increase of more than 50% year-on-year; in terms of net profit growth, 14 companies achieved a net profit increase of more than 20% year-on-year, and 4 companies achieved a year-on-year net profit increase. The industry's total operating revenue and net profit in the first half of the year increased by an average of 34.4% and 54.13% compared with last year.
"The sweet period of the LED industry has arrived, and the future is still promising." At this year's shareholder meeting, Lin Min, chairman of Crystal Optoelectronics, said that the high growth of the LED industry this year will benefit the company's sapphire performance. Crystal Optoelectronics’ semi-annual report has confirmed this prediction. In the first half of this year, Crystal Optoelectronics’ operating income from sapphire LED substrates and other products was 86.627 million yuan, reaching nearly 80% of last year’s total; operating profit was 24.5148 million yuan, with a gross profit margin of 28.3%, currently accounting for 20% of the company’s main business.
In addition to Crystal Optoelectronics, three other companies also disclosed the revenue of their sapphire business in their semi-annual reports. Among them, Tiantong Co., Ltd. and Yijing Optoelectronics listed sapphire as one of their main businesses for the first time. Tiantong's sapphire industry operating income in the first half of the year was 38.0468 million yuan, with a profit of 4.5584 million yuan, accounting for 6.64% of the main business; Yijing Optoelectronics sold sapphire crystals for 5.3998 million yuan in the first half of the year, with an operating profit of 3.3948 million yuan, which only accounted for 0.43% of the main business, but the gross profit margin was as high as 62.87%.
Dongjing Electronics’ LED sapphire series products turned a profit in the first half of this year. According to the company's semi-annual report, the operating income of LED sapphire products in the first half of the year was 23.3408 million yuan, and the operating profit was 3.6474 million yuan, accounting for 15.9% of the company's main business. According to the company's 2013 annual report, the LED sapphire business suffered a loss of approximately 5 million yuan. Dongjing Electronics stated that the sapphire grown by the company's bubble growth method is mainly used for LED substrate processing, and can also be used in windows and optical fields.
Many listed companies told reporters that compared with other new technologies, the processing technology of sapphire LED substrates is very mature. Moreover, the LED market is relatively stable and has grown rapidly this year. In the short term, LED substrates will still be the main sales direction of domestic sapphire companies.
ANNA