Investigation: Production Capacity Is Tight, Price Rises Spread, Leading Companies Increase Funds And Expand Production Rapidly

Following the wafer production capacity in short supply, as its downstream link of the seal test capacity also began to be tight.

According to media reports, in the first half of the year, the sealing and testing business unit of the semiconductor packaging and testing company was full of orders, with orders exceeding the production capacity by more than 40%. Some customers were willing to accept a price increase of 30% as long as the production capacity was available, so as to avoid the recurrence of chip shortage and delivery failure.

The 21st century economic report reporter survey found that A-share semiconductor packaging industry is facing a tight production capacity.

"According to the current order situation, customer demand is strong, and some customers are in urgent need of capacity, the price adjustment scheme will be considered." On January 19, a relevant person of a sealing and testing company said in an interview with the reporter of the 21st century economic report.

On the same day, another relevant person in charge of A-share sealing and testing company also told reporters, "at present, the company is also in full production state, and the price rise also exists."

Benefited from the increased demand for components of 5g products, the promotion of auto electronics and consumer electronics, and the replenishment of inventory in the industrial chain after the epidemic, the global semiconductor industry chain has a high prospect. TSMC, liandian, SMIC and other wafer fabs have full capacity, driving the production and sales of downstream sealing and testing plants to flourish. Leading enterprises of sealing and testing have gradually raised prices to cope with the shortage of market capacity.

In fact, in the face of the growth of downstream market demand, 21st century economic reporter noticed that since 2020, sealed test leaders including Changdian technology, Tongfu micro power and Jingfang technology have responded in advance, and have successively come up with plans to increase production capacity. On the evening of January 19, Huatian science and technology, the leader of A-share sealing test, announced that it planned to raise no more than 5.1 billion yuan for the construction of multiple sealing and testing projects.

Tight sealing and testing capacity

"Customers who are in urgent need of capacity are willing to accept price adjustment to ensure the capacity of their products. From the perspective of supply and demand, it is mainly the price adjustment brought about by the growth of downstream demand A sealed testing company related to the reporter said.

Asked about the current order situation, the person said, "the order situation is changing month by month, and the order demand in recent period is good. Capacity utilization is also dynamic. According to the continuous adjustment of product structure, the capacity utilization rate has been relatively full in recent years. "

Another seal testing company related responsible person disclosed to reporters, "the company is currently in full production status, price increases are more common in the industry, is" follow the market. " The source also revealed, "from the order situation, the first two quarters of this year (sealed test industry) should be relatively prosperous."

"The price hike and tight production capacity of the packaging industry are actually in line with the upstream wafer industry, mainly due to the impact of industrial chain transmission," the source told reporters

Jingfang technology focuses on the field of sensors. At present, the main sealed products are image sensors and biometric sensors. According to the analysis of the relevant personnel of the company to the reporter, "the downstream demand has increased significantly, mainly from the demand for mobile phones and security, the demand for electronic products from home office brought by the epidemic situation, and the demand space of 5g opened electronic industry."

However, the person disclosed that the company's orders have been arranged in advance, and no notice of price increase has been issued at present.

Pan min team of Tianfeng securities electronics industry analyzes that the rise in semiconductor chip prices reflects the industry prosperity. Logically, the rate is conduction, and the upward conduction is the link of materials and equipment, and the corresponding equipment is the expansion cycle.

"At present, the bottleneck of production capacity is in the sealed test. The expansion speed of domestic sealed test in the foreseeable future is not as fast as that of front-end manufacturing. As a result, both PMIC (mainly 8-inch) with strong demand and low-end digital products (mainly 12 inch) with strong demand are stuck at the end of sealing test. In the future, it will happen that the sealed test enterprises will actively expand production and design companies will buy equipment to book in the sealed test enterprises Double incremental logic of capacity. " The team said.

And this has been reflected in last year's financial report of many leading sealing and testing companies.

In the first three quarters of 2020, the revenue of Changdian science and Technology Co., Ltd. was 18.763 billion yuan, up 15.85% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to parent company was 764 million yuan, making a substantial turnaround, which was - 182 million yuan in the same period of last year. Changdian technology said that under the influence of 5g communication technology iteration and the trend of domestic substitution, domestic terminal manufacturers continued to transfer the supply chain to China, and the packaging test market demand gradually increased. From January to September 2020, the company's production capacity was relatively saturated, and its revenue and net profit reached a record high.

Over the same period, Jingfang technology achieved a revenue of 764 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 123.90%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 268 million yuan, with a year-on-year increase of 416.45%; and the non net profit increased by 1025.45%. The company said the increase in revenue was mainly due to the increase in sales volume and unit price.

Tongfu micro power achieved 7.42 billion yuan of operating revenue in the same period, with a year-on-year growth of 22.55%. According to the company, the main reason is the gradual emergence of domestic substitution effect and the obvious increase of domestic customers' orders; the international major customers further expand the market share by taking advantage of the advantages of manufacturing process, and the strong growth of order demand; the strong demand for communication products from overseas big customers and the full orders.

Fixed increase and production expansion

Some industry insiders told reporters that in fact, as early as before the epidemic, the relevant downstream demand had been improved, and many leading enterprises of sealing and testing laid out in advance.

According to the research report released by GF Securities in early 2020, in the second half of 2019, with the overall business cycle of semiconductors bottoming out and picking up, in order to meet the market demand, the wafer factories led by TSMC have successively increased their capital expenditure and substantially expanded their production. The middle and lower stream packaging manufacturers also benefit from the capacity expansion of wafer plants and increase capital expenditure.

The 21st century economic report reporters have found that since 2020, Changdian technology, Tongfu micro power, Jingfang technology and other sealing and testing leaders have successively implemented fixed increase plans to cope with the growth of downstream demand.

Changdian technology is the world's leading semiconductor microsystem integration and packaging testing service provider. In August last year, it disclosed its plan for non-public offering of shares. It plans to raise a total of no more than 5 billion yuan, which will be used for the annual production of 3.6 billion high-density integrated circuits and system level packaging modules, 10 billion pieces of high-density hybrid integrated circuits and module packaging projects for communications, repayment of bank loans and Short term financing bonds. The plan was approved by the SFC in December last year.

It is understood that the funds raised by Changdian technology will be mainly used for system level packaging and high-density integrated circuit module construction projects. The construction period of the former is three years, and the construction period of the latter is five years. It said that the two projects have been fully demonstrated by many parties, and the customer market demand is greater than the capacity design.

Tongfu micro power's refinancing plan was also launched in November last year. The company actually raised 3.272 billion yuan, which was used for IC packaging test phase II project, construction of vehicle intelligent packaging test center, high-performance central processing unit and other IC packaging and testing projects, replenishing working capital and repaying bank loans.

The construction period of the first two sealing and testing projects is 3 years, and the construction period of the third project is 2 years. The company said, "the above projects are the capacity layout to cope with the rapid growth of domestic orders under the wave of localization."

The refinancing plan of Jingfang technology mainly includes the construction of integrated circuit 12 inch TSV and heterogeneous integrated intelligent sensor module project, which is planned to raise no more than 1.402 billion yuan. The construction time of the project is short, which is one year.

It is understood that the project is mainly used in mobile phone camera, automotive electronics, biological identification, security monitoring and other fields. With the emergence of intelligent devices, sensor chips continue to grow rapidly, among which optical CMOS image sensor (CIS) grows fastest.

In the face of the current hot market demand, Huatian science and technology also made a fixed increase plan on the evening of January 19. It plans to raise no more than 5.1 billion yuan for the expansion of integrated circuit multi chip packaging scale project, high-density system level integrated circuit packaging test expansion scale project, TSV and FC integrated circuit packaging test industrialization project, storage and radio frequency integrated circuit packaging test industrialization project and supplementary flow The construction period of each project is 3 years.

Zheng Zhenxiang, an analyst of Guosheng securities electronics industry, said, "at present, the utilization rate of sealing and testing capacity in mainland China has risen to a high level. Firstly, the uncertainty of the resumption of overseas sealing and testing plants caused by the epidemic situation is strong, and the mainland is undertaking more orders; secondly, the demand for domestic substitutes is strong, and local IC design companies are listed, and the scale is expanding. There is a rising price trend in the industry, and it is expected that the tight production capacity will continue to the first half of 2021. "