Zhaochi Energy Saving, a major midstream LED packaging manufacturer, has also chosen to expand production. Quan Jinsong, vice chairman of Zhaochi Co., Ltd. and director and general manager of Zhaochi Energy Saving, said at the media exchange meeting at the beginning of the year that growing customer demand and product upgrades have caused current production capacity constraints, so Zhaochi is actively implementing production expansion plans. Zhaochi is confident about future expansion.
Unconsciously, the time has entered August. How did Zhaochi Energy Saving perform in the first half of the year? How is the expansion going? What are the company’s future plans? ...
With a series of questions, LEDinside editors had the honor to interview Zheng Haibin, deputy general manager of Zhaochi Energy Saving Marketing, and had an in-depth discussion on some of Zhaochi’s recent developments, production expansion progress and industry development trends.
▲ Zheng Haibin, deputy general manager of Zhaochi Energy Saving Marketing
To maintain growth in the first half of the year, packaging plants need to cultivate their internal skills
Last month, Zhaochi Co., Ltd. disclosed its semi-annual performance forecast for 2018. From January to June 2018, it achieved operating income of approximately 5.6 billion yuan. An increase of approximately 49% compared with the same period last year; it is expected that the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies in the first half of the year will be 229.4579 million yuan to 327.797 million yuan, a decrease of 0%-30% from 327.797 million yuan in the same period last year.
Based on the results announced by other manufacturers, judging from the situation in the first half of this year, the performance growth rate of many packaging companies has begun to slow down. So, does this mean that the LED packaging market lacks growth momentum in the first half of the year? Zheng Haibin said that thanks to Zhaochi Energy Saving’s product positioning and market layout, it has maintained good growth. You can see the semi-annual report data of Zhaochi Energy Saving.
As for the subsequent growth of the packaging market, he said that the growth rate of the market environment has indeed slowed down, but lighting and backlight still have certain growth potential from the data point of view. Market demand is limited, but as a packaging manufacturer, it is necessary to improve its internal strength and enhance its core competitiveness.
The new production lines adhere to the two main businesses, and 530 lines are currently in full mass production
In May, Zhaochi Energy Saving announced that after consultation with the People's Government of Qingshan Lake District, Nanchang City, a "Supplementary Agreement to the Investment Agreement" was signed. The original agreement stipulated that the company's wholly-owned subsidiary Jiangxi Zhaochi Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. would invest in an additional 1,000 LED packaging production lines. Now Jiangxi Zhaochi plans to invest an additional 500 RMB on the basis of the original agreement. -1,000 LED packaging production lines, that is, based on the actual situation of the production plant, Jiangxi Zhaochi plans to invest a total of 1,500 -2,000 new LED packaging production lines by the end of 2019 (excluding Jiangxi Zhaochi's existing 200 production lines).
Zheng Haibin said that the expansion of production is based on the business needs of existing customers and market development, as well as considerations of its own development strategy.
So, how many LED packaging production lines has Zhaochi Energy Saving actually implemented so far? He said that currently, 530 lines have been fully mass-produced. Recently, 900 lines of equipment and related factory decoration work have been completed, and the layout will gradually be launched in the fourth quarter to achieve mass production.
At the same time, he said that the product distribution of the newly added packaging production line will still stick to the two main businesses-----backlight applications and lighting applications. In addition, Zhaochi Energy Saving's current monthly production capacity in terms of the number of wafers has exceeded 4,000KK per month.
Adapt to the LED manufacturing 3.0 era, reduce reliance on general assembly line workers, and fully implement automated intelligent production
He said that as the scale of my country's packaging factories gradually expands, the recruitment and management of labor in related industries is facing objective pressure on the development of enterprises. It is necessary to follow the world trend to achieve industrial upgrading and manufacturing upgrading.
Smart factories are the dream pursued by the manufacturing industry. The automated production line independently developed by Zhaochi Energy Saving can reduce one-third of the labor force on the basis of the traditional production model.
To realize intelligent manufacturing, it is necessary to achieve the perfect integration of systematic software + automated hardware. At present, domestic LED still has a long way to go in truly intelligent manufacturing.
It is understood that Zhaochi Energy Saving’s line expansion plan for the fourth quarter of 2018 will fully implement automated intelligent production. Intelligent manufacturing can significantly reduce production costs and improve manufacturing efficiency. Zhaochi Energy Saving will become the first LED packaging company in the industry to realize automated and intelligent production on a large scale.
ANNA