Medium and large size touch panel capacity expansion and performance deviation

Beijing time on November 26th news, China's touch screen network news, a capacity expansion competition is quietly started in the touch screen enterprises, "expansion" almost swept the entire industry. Laibao Hi-Tech invested in Chongqing base; Ultrasonic Electronics raised 850 million yuan to expand production; Changxin Technology's downstream touch module manufacturer; Ou Feiguang completed a $1.45 billion initial fundraising at the beginning of the year, and then pushed 4 billion in less than 10 months Yuan refinancing plan; Helitai backdoor joint chemical project was also finalized this month, and supporting financing exceeded 300 million yuan for expansion.

A series of capital operations all show the ambition of these listed companies to expand their territory. The current real face of the touch screen industry is that most manufacturers are complaining: "Capacity expansion, product price decline, gross profit margin decline, almost no money to earn." "Expansion is to prepare for the next round of industry." Just like a listed company According to the chairman of the board of directors, as a high-tech enterprise, the biggest pressure comes from scientific and technological progress. “Being in it, we can only keep moving forward, even if it is one step ahead of others, it is more than a few days to be comfortable.”

First, the capacity expansion time

United Chemical Co., Ltd. announced that it has acquired the touch screen manufacturer Jiangxi Helitai. The loss-making chemical company will transform the touch screen manufacturer, and the stock price will rise.

United Chemicals issued 669 million shares to Helitai shareholders, Wen Kaifu, etc. at a price of 4.14 yuan per share to acquire 100% of the shares of Helitai held by them. Upon completion of the acquisition, Helitai will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of United Chemicals, and the original controlling shareholder Wen Kaifu will hold 28.14% of the shares of United Chemicals, becoming the actual controller of the listed company.

At the same time, Helitai also listed a matching financing plan, issued 90 million shares to other specific investors, and raised 373 million yuan for the production capacity of Helitai to build touch screen and cover glass. The total investment of these two projects exceeds 400 million yuan, and the construction period is one and a half years. Upon completion, Helitai will add 18 million pieces of seamlessly integrated touch-sensitive integrated modules and 75 million touch-screen cover glass annual production capacity.

In fact, it is not only the Helitai family that invests in new production lines to expand production capacity, but almost the entire touch screen industry is expanding. This year, a number of touch-screen listed companies have launched refinancing plans to expand their production capacity.

At the beginning of this year, Laibao High-Tech completed 1.75 billion refinancing, invested in the Chongqing base integrated capacitive touch screen OGS project and an AMOLED display panel test line. According to Laibao High-Tech executives, Chongqing Laibao's fifth-generation OGS production line has reached its usable status.

In May, the ultrasonic electronic restart financing amounted to 850 million yuan, and plans to build an annual output of 250,000 square meters of capacitive touch screen, as well as copper-clad related projects. This investment began to be planned in 2011. In 2012, because the price of ultrasonic electronics was lower than the price of the additional issuance, the old case was revived and it has been met recently.

After Oufeiguang completed the financing of 1.453 billion yuan at the beginning of the year, it will push another 4 billion yuan increase plan in October this year, and plans to build a large-capacity capacitive screen expansion and high-pixel camera module expansion project.

The strength of these listed companies' capacity expansion is strong. Other listed companies with stronger strengths have begun to use the capital market for mergers and acquisitions, and strive to vertically integrate and build touch screen manufacturers in the entire industry chain.

In June, Changxin Technology, an upstream touch-enabled device manufacturer, also extended its acquisitions to the midstream module sector, and added a market capitalization of approximately 401 million yuan to acquire Zhangzhou Deput. After the completion of the acquisition, Changxin Technology directly has the production capacity of touch screen modules and becomes a touch manufacturer integrating the industrial chain.

Yushun Electronics also completed the financing of 415 million yuan at the beginning of this year, which is used for the construction of small and medium-sized capacitive touch screens and ultra-thin super-strong cover glass production lines. Recently, the company has also launched mergers and acquisitions to acquire Yashi Technology, which is engaged in the production of small and medium-sized liquid crystal display devices.

According to rough statistics, the total amount of funds raised and planned by the listed touch manufacturers has exceeded 9 billion yuan, and the actual investment will exceed 10 billion yuan. Huge investment has undoubtedly intensified capacity expansion. People in the industry have not forgotten that the touch screen industry is in a midst of fierce competition.

Second, the size of the big and medium is a must

On the one hand, the competition is fierce, and the gross profit declines; while on the other hand, it is also rushing to expand its production capacity. Touch manufacturers are facing a tangled arms race. In the next year or two, with the mass production of these new production lines, how will huge production capacity be released?

Microsoft and Intel Intel jointly launched a new dawn for touchscreen manufacturers. In 2012, the introduction of the Window8 system introduced touch-based interaction into the personal computer field, opening up new market demands for the touch screen industry. Taiwan's Shunhong TPK, Shenghua and Suibao and other touch module factories have increased their production capacity and invested in a large-size touch screen production line of 10.1 inches.

Helitai of Backdoor United Chemicals believes that because the price of large-size touch screen is several times that of small and medium-sized ones, even if the shipment of large-size touch screens is relatively small, there is still a large market space. Therefore, the rapid spread of large-size touch screens will bring new rapid growth points to the industry.

Looking at the new investment projects of listed companies, it is not difficult to find that, unlike the past, the touch screen production lines in the fundraising projects have specifically emphasized the production and prospects of large-size screens in production. For example, Ou Feiguang recently launched a 4 billion yuan financing plan, of which 800 million yuan was used to build large-capacity capacitive screen expansion.

The Chongqing base invested by Laibao High-Tech is also used to produce large and medium-sized touch screens. The company also independently invested in the second phase of Guangming in Shenzhen Guangming Production Base. It was completed on the basis of the original production line and also used for OGS integrated capacitive touch screen. produce. Dong Xiaochao told reporters that Guangming Phase II production line has low touch screen algebra, and it is still insufficient for producing large-size screens. A prominent contradiction is low yield.

"For example, a 10-inch screen, a low-generation line will produce one piece at a time, and a high-generation line can cut at least three pieces." Duche said on the side: "It is also used to produce large-size screens, and high-generation lines can be cut out." The standard size screen is more than the lower generation line, and the yield is naturally higher."

However, as touch screens increase in size, touch technology bottlenecks and barriers can arise. Such as the large size of the touch screen, the linear accuracy is more stringent requirements; as the size increases, the processing power of the touch IC, stray capacitance, anti-interference ability has higher requirements, is also the development of large-size products key. When the touch screen is larger, the line is relatively complicated, which puts higher requirements on the precision of the production equipment and the production environment, and the equipment and the workshop need sufficient capital guarantee.

In addition, the technical route is also a concern of current touch screen manufacturers. In the early stage of the development of capacitive touch screens, the market was mainly composed of two major products, glass structure and membrane structure. The former was represented by Laibao Hi-Tech, and the latter was represented by Ou Feiguang. The traditional capacitive touch screen is made by assembling the cover glass and the sensing layer, and then combining the touch screen and the liquid crystal display to realize the touch and display functions.

In recent years, new technologies in the touch screen industry have begun to develop in two directions. One is the OGS technology that integrates the touch screen sensing layer and the cover glass. This solution is mainly driven by touch screen manufacturers. The other is an in-line solution that integrates the sensing layer with the display, with In-Cell technology from the Apple camp and Samsung-based On-Cell technology.

At the beginning of most domestic touch screens, the model of Taiwan-based leading enterprise Qihong was used, which only engaged in single-stage production. This caused the current domestic manufacturers to have no display screen or very few display screens, and domestic large-scale flat panel display manufacturers rarely Really involved in the field of touch screen. Therefore, the technical route of the embedded solution is missing in the mainland, and most touch screen manufacturers are investing in OGS capacity.

"This is undoubtedly risky. If the technology path is chosen correctly, domestic enterprises will celebrate the same day, but they will soon fall into vicious competition. If the future technological development abandons OGS, then huge investment by domestic enterprises may become a burden." The industry is worried.

However, there are also listed companies that have taken a different approach. For example, Ou Feiguang chose its own membrane technology and independently developed nano silver touch screen technology. Helitai, a backdoor joint chemical company, is also studying graphene touch screen technology. Both of these technologies have abandoned the ITO indium tin oxide conductive film as a key component, and adopted alternative materials to partially avoid the cost burden caused by metal indium price fluctuations.

The rapid upgrading of technology has also made the industry leaders often easy to change. According to recent news, the former touch screen industry leader Taiwan's Shunhong TPK has closed part of its production line in Hsinchu, Taiwan. Ou Feiguang Securities Affairs representative Cheng Xiaoli told reporters: "Although Ou Feiguang's sales are not as high as TPK, the company's current shipments definitely exceed TPK."

In the future, the big market of super large-size touch screens will be dead, and it is still to be verified by the market. An undeniable fact is that China has become a global touch screen production base.

Third, expansion and performance deviation

"This is the best era and the worst era." Dickens's famous saying in "Tale of Two Cities" is used to describe the touch screen industry. The industry leader Laibao Hi-Tech has continued to decline in profit, and the stock price has been falling; while the same city's rookie Ou Feiguang experienced the performance of "Nike curve", the stock price is in the limelight.

Leybold High Tech attributed the unsatisfactory performance to fierce market competition. General Manager Li Shaozong admits that some of the major customer businesses have extended to the upstream of the industrial chain and increased the proportion of self-made. The volume and price of capacitive touch screen products from the original major customers have dropped significantly. Compared with 2011 and 2012, the company's product prices have dropped by about 30% on average this year. The sales revenue of touch screen modules and touch panels has dropped sharply, resulting in no increase in revenue.

The upstream touch device manufacturers are still the same, and the mid-stream touch module is even worse. Yushun Electronics suffered a loss in 2012, and it was still in a loss of mud in the first three quarters of this year. The cover glass manufacturer Star Technology also suffered a certain loss in the first three quarters of this year. Among the listed touch manufacturers, the performance of Ou Feiguang, which is backed by Samsung and Lenovo, is relatively better. Ultrasonic electronics has a complementary printed circuit board business and its performance is relatively beautiful.

“A few years ago, Apple’s mobile phone led the trend of capacitive screens. Domestic 3G licenses were issued, smartphones broke out, and touch screens ushered in spring.” A touch screen manufacturer’s executives said that domestic companies’ performance in the past few years was relatively good, mainly benefiting. The explosive growth of downstream consumer electronics, especially smartphones.

"Under the withdrawal of the Chinese city, as long as it is profitable, everyone will go inside." Li Shaozong said that at the beginning everyone pays attention and some people will do it slowly. Because the touch screen itself is not the absolute threshold, in addition to the funding threshold, in recent years, both Taiwanese companies and mainland enterprises have entered the industry. Domestic companies are more disorderly in the competition.

Despite the aura of high-tech stocks, as a manufacturing company, it is still subject to people. Changxin Technology has revealed a cruelty: "As a highly customized product, each product has a very short life cycle, which requires manufacturers to have a fast climbing speed, before the most concentrated shipments. In three months, the yield can be quickly increased to a very high level in order to achieve economic benefits."

A brokerage electronics industry analyst said that the downstream electronics industry has the dual characteristics of fast update and rapid decline in mature product prices. As the price of downstream products declines, customers will require suppliers to lower prices and pass them upstream to the industry chain.

What's more, mobile phone manufacturers now require touch screen module manufacturers to put the touch screen and LCD screen LCD display together before shipping, and the price of LCD is twice that of touch screen, which is undoubtedly for touch screen module manufacturers. Increased the burden, for touch screen manufacturers, it is particularly important to quickly improve the yield.

For these reasons, touch-screen manufacturers with integrated industry chains are more resistant to risks. Under such a background, the upstream touch component manufacturers want to extend to the downstream business, and the midstream module needs to expand to the upstream business, resulting in a situation of “crowding down”, the market competition is particularly fierce, and product prices plummet.

"The result of the competition is that both lose." A senior executive of a touch-screen upstream manufacturer believes that the best way to solve the disorderly competition in the industry is vertical integration of the industry, rather than rushing to the ground to expand capacity.

(This article comes from: China Touch Screen Network (http://www.51touch.com/) Detailed Source Reference: http://www.51touch.com/touchpanel/news/focus/2013/1126/26594.html)

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