The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Electronic Information Division, deputy director of Peng Hongbing yesterday in Shenzhen, said publicly, "Thirteenth Five-Year Plan" period, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will focus on five aspects of the system to promote the development of integrated circuit industry. Which focuses on the need to "pay more attention to resource integration, strengthen the top-level design, focus on backbone enterprises, key nodes, major projects, and promote the collaborative development of the industrial chain, to create a manufacturing innovation center."
As the "crown jewel" of high-end manufacturing, IC is one of the important symbols of a country's comprehensive strength and the core of the information industry. "Solve the Chinese core, support China's development in the next 30 years." Director of Microelectronics Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, 02 special expert group leader Ye Tuanchun has been so concise to summarize the development of integrated circuits on the strategic significance of China's economy.
Under the impetus of policy and capital, China has opened a big era of integrated circuit industry. "We think the whole industry chain is an investment opportunity." Yu Xinhua, a partner of IDG Capital, who is deeply engaged in the field of hard science and technology, said in an exclusive interview with the Shanghai Securities News recently that IDG will increase its investment in the field of integrated circuits, including equipment, materials, design and other aspects, and promote domestic and overseas mergers and acquisitions and investment cooperation in related fields.
Huge demand highlights opportunities in China
"Where the market is, the industry is." China's huge market demand is pulling the global IC industry to shift to China, and no one can ignore China's market and opportunities.
After the big investment in recent years after the big mergers and acquisitions, China's integrated circuits on the surface has seen a lot of improvement, but the competitiveness is still weak.
"At present, China's integrated circuit industry has a single product structure, most of which are at the low end, and the pattern of high-end products mainly relying on imports has not fundamentally changed, and there is a serious lack of leading talent." On the 10th, in the fifth China Electronic Information Expo (CITE 2017) held at the same time, "the first China High-end Chip Alliance Summit Forum", Peng Hongbing said.
Seriously mismatched with the relatively weak industrial base is the huge market demand. The latest data from the Saidi Industry Research Institute shows that in 2016, China's IC market size reached 1198.59 billion yuan, accounting for half of the global IC market, up 8.7% year-on-year, with a much higher growth rate than the European and American markets. However, in 2016, China's IC industry sales were only 433.55 billion yuan, excluding foreign investment and double-counting, the output value is less than 7% of the global demand, which is far from meeting the market demand.
"Where the market is, the industry is." Several industry insiders said in an interview with the reporter, as a global industry, China's huge market demand, is pulling the global IC industry to China, no one can ignore the market and opportunities in China.
"We think the whole industry chain is an investment opportunity." IDG Capital partner Yu Xinhua said in an exclusive interview with the Shanghai Securities News, IDG will increase investment in the field of integrated circuits, including equipment, materials, design, etc., to promote the relevant areas of domestic and overseas mergers and acquisitions, investment and cooperation. In the view of industry insiders, China has made certain preparations: after years of painstaking accumulation and build, China has a relatively abundant capital, complete chain, abundant talent IC industry, began to have the ability to participate in international competition and synergistic development.
According to the reporter's observation, with the outstanding performance in the manufacturing field and the huge consumer market, the leading domestic chip industry has become the partner of more and more multinational enterprises, and enhanced its competitiveness through technology transfer and technology diffusion.
Industry transfer, domestic enterprises have gained a foothold in the field of sealing and testing. Reporter research found that the major major sealing and testing plant orders in the second quarter is still full, in view of the second half of the industry into the traditional peak season, there are encapsulation industry insiders said that the good light or continue throughout the year. Listed companies, with sip and other advanced packaging technology, long power technology, after the acquisition of Star Goldpac has mass production Fanout (fan-out package), is expected to enter the Apple supplier; with sip, TSV, Flip-Chip and other advanced packaging technology, Huatian science and technology, TSV + sip packaging program has been used for Huawei P10 under glass fingerprint identification. "In the post-Moore era, as packaging and testing take on more system solution provider functions, the proportion and importance of the output value of these companies in the industry chain is also increasing."
From a more detailed industrial chain, along with industrial growth, semiconductor equipment, materials manufacturers are expected to usher in a period of rapid growth. In the capital and local government "joint" to promote, the Chinese market will explode "fab expansion" SEMI expects, in 2017 to 2020 period, the world will have 62 new fab into operation (including 7 for R & D fab), of which the Chinese market has 26 new fabs into operation. SEMI expects that between 2017 and 2020 there will be 62 new fabs in operation worldwide (of which 7 will be R&D fabs), of which 26 new fabs will be in operation in the Chinese market. Correspondingly, the domestic semiconductor equipment, materials will get more trials, joint research and development opportunities, in order to get more orders to increase the beautiful performance at the same time, will also get "evolving", thus entering a virtuous cycle.
As the only domestic high-end process equipment for integrated circuits as the main listed company, North China recently disclosed its wholly-owned subsidiary North China Vacuum and Ningxia LONGi signed a 168 million yuan order contract for single crystal furnace equipment; the company said in the interactive easy, the company's orders compared to last year's year-on-year growth has been more substantial. Micro Semiconductor's plasma etching machine and MOCVD (Metal Organic Compound Chemical Vapor Deposition), Jiangfeng Electronics metal targets have succeeded in breaking the foreign monopoly, the latter has been submitted to the Securities and Futures Commission at the end of last year, the IPO application.
Access to core technology depends on innovation
With the "available" target reached, China's integrated circuit into the "innovation" era has gradually become the industry consensus. Mergers and acquisitions can help the industry to quickly lay the foundation and complete the transformation; however, the basic core areas of technology can only rely on independent research and development.
"The integrated circuit industry, despite some development, but the status quo of the core technology is subject to others has not fundamentally changed, the industry is still in the middle and low end, seriously affecting the industrial upgrading and national security." Peng Hongbing said that the core technology is restricted by others is our biggest hidden danger, to accelerate the independent innovation of network information technology, and promote high-performance computing, mobile communications, quantum communications, core chips, operating systems and other research and development and application of major breakthroughs.
"Looking back, the important progress we have made is invariably the result of independent research and development." In Shanghai Zhaoxin vice president Fu Cheng, mergers and acquisitions can help the industry quickly lay the foundation, complete the transformation; but the basic core areas of technology can only rely on independent research and development. "Whether it is the northern microelectronics, or in the micro-semiconductor, jiangfeng electronics, are the results of independent research and development, mergers and acquisitions can not buy these technologies and competitiveness, independent research and development is the safe and controllable way out."
With the "available" target reached, China's integrated circuits into the "innovation" era has gradually become the industry consensus, innovation has become the whole industry's investment wind mouth. At the Summit Forum, China's high-end chip alliance chairman, Ding Wenwu, president of the National IC Industry Investment Fund, said that the high-end chip alliance focuses on the processor, memory, sensors, AD / DA (analog-to-digital converter / digital-to-analog converter), FPGA (field-programmable gate array) and other five areas, the establishment of five sub-alliances, and to promote the transformation and upgrading of the industry.
Just on the 10th, China Sensors and Internet of Things Industry Alliance (SIA) officially became the first sub-alliance of China High-end Chip Alliance (CHICA), which means that the state may increase support for sensors and Internet of Things; 5 sub-alliances in the field will become the focus of support.
In this regard, Peng Hongbing said that the industry is not enough, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will be in the "13th Five-Year" period, focusing on five key tasks: First, pay more attention to the innovation-driven strategy, one hand to grasp the current, the other hand to grasp the long term; Second, pay more attention to the integration of resources, strengthen the top design, focus on the backbone of the enterprise, the key nodes, the major projects, and to promote industrial chain The third is to pay more attention to the construction of the ecosystem, to the application demand as the pull, strengthen the hard and soft synergies, to create a large platform for the ecosystem, which is also the purpose of the establishment of the high-end chip alliance; the fourth is to pay more attention to the opening up of the development, make full use of the global market, technology, talent and other elements of the resources, integrated into the global IC industry system; the fifth is to pay more attention to the environment to create, and continue to improve the industrial policy and investment and financing environment. industrial policies and investment and financing environment.
In addition to macro-policy support, the traditional field of "micro-innovation" of the power should not be underestimated, Fu Cheng that 4G and 5G introduction period, smart phones are still the main driving force of the IC industry, the increase in its functionality will become the industry's new growth point.
For example, the wide application of fingerprint identification in smartphones not only brings new opportunities for upstream chips and modules, giving rise to chip design companies such as Huitian Technology; it also increases the demand for packaging. Huawei's newly launched P10 model's under glass (hidden) fingerprint recognition uses Huatian Technology's TSV+sip packaging program.
As the industry benchmark, Apple's adoption of new technologies/designs is often followed by other terminal vendors, driving the development of the entire cell phone industry chain. From the current information, iphone8 may adopt the design of no home button, dual electric core, OLED screen, wireless charging, dual camera and so on.
In the view of industry insiders, in the field of innovative applications, Chinese enterprises have the same starting line as their advanced international counterparts. For example, the establishment of 5G and NB-IoT standards has accelerated the realization of the Internet of Things (IoT), and a series of sensors, IoT chips and solution providers are expected to stand out.
Bigger and stronger still need capital market support
As a globally competitive industry, IC needs all-round support, including more private capital, market mechanisms and capital exit channels.
Undeniably, integrated circuits as a technology-intensive and capital-intensive industries, its return on investment cycle is very long, the reason why China was difficult to cultivate the development of the industry, and the investment in this area is smaller, less support from the capital market is quite relevant.
"Recently very happy, we invested in Suzhou Xu Chuang many years ago, has long been accrued bad debt finished, but recently this company was acquired by the intermediate equipment, we feel 'pick up' a sum of money ah." Dartech Capital founder Ye Weigang talked with reporters about the securitization of IC assets so exclaimed.
In this regard, IDG partner Yu Xinhua also felt deeply, "for such a sustained high investment in the industry, the return on investment cycle is too long, even if it is listed on the Growth Enterprise Market, IC companies need to struggle for many years to achieve; this field of entrepreneurs and PE institutions are not easy to walk with each other over the decades in order to 'unwind' situation is common. 's situation abounds."
Recently, Weir Semiconductor, Changchuan Science and Technology has been passed, in the fermentation of multiple factors, integrated circuit enterprises IPO began to speed up. But in the view of Yu Xinhua, slightly small into more when to increase investment, accelerate the pace. "The industry is a certain foundation, but everything has just begun." He laughed so.
Ye Tianchun, director of the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, also called for continued strong investment in integrated circuits.
"The role of capital in promoting this industry is very important, and we expect the A-share market to give the IC industry a more flexible IPO policy, so that companies with sustainable profit potential can grow rapidly with the help of the capital market." Yu Xinhua believes that in such a globally competitive industry, integrated circuits need all-round support, including more private capital, market mechanisms and capital exit channels.
Although it is not easy to securitize assets in the A-share market, Yu Xinhua said IDG will continue to promote overseas M&A in the IC industry to help upgrade the industry. In Yu Xinhua view, in addition to the basic core technology independent research and development, in some core components and other "insensitive" areas, to take "fetishism" can quickly build up technological competitiveness, to achieve industrial upgrading. "We have a certain industrial foundation, but there is not a complete industrial ecology, mergers and acquisitions can quickly realize industrial upgrading." Previously, IDG privatized the U.S.-funded MEMS company Meixin Semiconductor, and helped inject its consumer electronics and other businesses into Huacan Optoelectronics.
Huacan photoelectric recently released a quarterly earnings forecast, with the LED chip industry rebound and new production equipment put into production, the company expects a quarterly profit of 76 million yuan to 81 million yuan, while the same period last year is a loss of more than 10 million yuan. Quarterly performance is also beautiful BOE, the company is expected to realize net profit of 2.3 billion yuan to 2.5 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 20,23% to 2208%. semiconductor industry boom can be seen here.
From the policy vigorously support, to the performance of leading companies now gradually released, China's integrated circuit industry has really stepped into the golden age.
Shanghai Securities News, April 12, 2017
