9-year profit, hopeless Taiwan factory Huaxin sells Xi'an Huaxin joint exit LED business

[Text / high-tech LED Zhao Hui] Another LED epitaxial chip company that struggled for nine years but was unable to make a profit could not sell assets and exit the LED field. On July 29, the board of directors of Taiwanese Huaxin Lihua (1605) announced that it will sell all its assets, including land, plant and equipment, to the mainland subsidiary of Xi'an Huaxin, its main LED epitaxial chip, for 166 million yuan. Information Group, which also marks Huaxin Lihua's full exit from the mainland LED industry.

"This is expected, just in the morning and evening." Ye Guoguang, deputy general manager of Deli Optoelectronics, heard the news that Huaxin's joint scale is small and the machine is old and has been difficult to make profits.

Huaxin joint difficult road <br> <br> According to the engineering LED production and research Institute (GGII) research information display, Xi'an Huaxin joint wholly owned subsidiary of China Taiwan's Walsin areas established in the mainland, was established in June 2009 month. The project plans a total investment of 200 million US dollars, the first phase of the project investment of 55 million US dollars, Xi'an Huaxin United Technology Corporation products related to the entire semiconductor lighting industry chain, from the upstream epitaxial wafer and chip production, to the midstream package and module, and downstream Lighting and application product development.

At the end of 2010, Xi'an Huaxin United won a capital increase of US$75 million from the parent company. According to the investment plan, Xi'an Huaxin United Technology Co., Ltd. LED industrialization project can finally realize an annual output of 350 million high-brightness LED chips and about 5 million packages. Production scale.

At the end of 2011, Shaanxi Xi'an United Technologies Co., Ltd. produced 150,000 pieces of LED epitaxial wafers and put them into production. After Huaxin Lihua grabbed the LED field, it officially entered mass production.

Huaxin Lihua said at the time that the LED layout will enter the harvest period in the next one to two years. The industry believes that with the current scale, using the 4-inch market estimate, the maximum annual performance of Huaxin can be about 1.3 billion to 1.5 billion Taiwan dollars, but the actual operating performance will still depend on the yield and sales model.

According to GGII research data, Xi'an Huaxin has a total of 19 MOCVD products, including blue-green and red-yellow epitaxial chips.

Before 2014, the LED industry was in a low period and there was a serious overcapacity. Huaxin United had not been able to achieve large profits after it was put into production at the end of 2011. Industry insiders familiar with the epitaxial chip field said that there were government subsidies and other preferential measures at the time. It’s hard to make a profit.

With the gradual end of subsidies, although the beginning of 2014, LED lighting began to increase, but Huaxin United is limited by the lack of production capacity, coupled with the old equipment, not short-lived in the market competition.

This also laid the groundwork for today's sale.

In June 2014, at the closed-end summit of the mainland epitaxial chip company rounded by Gaogong LED, Chen Xiaotong, the special assistant to the chairman of Taiwan Huaxinli and the director of the epi-plating factory, admitted that the upstream chip factory will not necessarily disappear in the future. It may be acquired and joined the alliance, but the number of companies will definitely decrease. "Compared with the image, the upstream chip factories are basically in the bones. We hope that by establishing cooperation, the meat on the bones can be slightly more. The cooperation model of Huaxin Lihua is relatively open, there is no fixed model, alliances and mergers and acquisitions. The way to follow up can be considered."

This speech also stated that Huaxin Lihua has begun to consider exit measures such as mergers and acquisitions.

Chip polarization increase future merger integration will intensify <br> <br> With the rapid increase LED lighting needs, since 2014, the upstream extension of the chip business started to recover, HC SemiTek, new nanocrystalline, crystal development, Western Australia Chip manufacturers such as Shunchang have expanded MOCVD equipment. The number of MOCVD in China's LED industry has increased to 1,172 units, a year-on-year increase of 15%, with a net increase of 155 units.

According to GLII statistics, the total output value of China's LED industry in 2014 reached 344.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 31%. Among them, the output value of LED upstream epitaxial chips reached 12 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43%.

The expansion of the large factory has also intensified the competition in the field of epitaxial chips. Gaogong LED has learned from major chip companies that the capacity utilization rate of mainstream chip companies including Sanan Optoelectronics, Tongfang, Huacan Optoelectronics, etc. in 2014 At more than 90%, most companies are in a state of continuous production.

The improvement in the upstream chip market does not mean that all LED chip factories have a good life. Some small-scale chip companies in the market mainly use low-cost strategies to survive. These small and medium-sized chip companies, especially those that are not listed, or lack strong capital support behind them, have not received more than three fights in the golden period of 2014.

In order to grasp the opportunity of the city, some domestic LED chip manufacturers actively signed a procurement contract with the mid-stream packaging manufacturers to increase the production capacity ratio. On the other hand, they continued to expand production capacity through capital operation, speeding up the scale effect and further strengthening Self-market competitiveness.

"Now the chip industry is slowly becoming clearer. The basic pattern of 2015 and 2016 has been confirmed." Wang Lianghai, vice president of Tongfang (600100.SH), a member of the G20 Lighting Summit, said that now whether it is a large enterprise or other The main customers are also large, and the scale is also a very important factor. At present, the chips used by packaging companies are basically from several mainstream chip factories.

The concentration of LED chip industry is getting higher and higher, and the polarization between domestic LED chip factories is becoming more and more serious. The era of capital competition and scale competition has arrived.

In the face of the expansion of the leading chip manufacturers, the second and third-line LED chip companies only through mergers and acquisitions or their continued strong and bigger way out.

"In three years, industry mergers and acquisitions will intensify, the number of epitaxial chip companies will not exceed 15, and there may be no more than 10 chip factories in six years." Dr. Zhang Xiaofei said that including state-owned enterprises, some listed companies, etc., the future It is possible that it may be the object of integration. In particular, listed companies may take a little bit ahead. Not all listed companies’ epitaxial chip business can be done. The poor operation of the extended part may drag down the main business. From the perspective of capital operation, it is actually easier to integrate.

On the other hand, in recent years, many local governments have reduced the support for LED upstream subsidies, which has also prompted many LED chip factories that rely on government subsidies to suffer from “weaning” difficulties. They are also actively seeking buyers with rich financial positions.

However, Dr. Zhang Xiaofei admits that mergers and acquisitions between LED chip factories are not easy, especially in the case of more than 20 domestic chip companies with state-owned enterprises and listed companies. Many LED chip factories and local governments have some provisions, which are more complicated. . “It is difficult to exit the LED chip factory, and the integration of the upstream industry still takes three to five years.”

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