Looking back at the changes in demand in the consumer electronics industry in 2020, it is found that although the overall scale of the largest smartphone market has been reduced, driven by the trend of home isolation and remote office/education, tablets/notebooks are the representative Product demand has seen substantial growth; it not only offsets the impact of weak smartphone sales, but also significantly boosts the supply and demand of components such as touch displays and cameras. FOCALTECH, which started from the touch IC business, is undoubtedly one of the beneficiaries of this wave of market dividends.
The company expects that the shipment of IDC chips will exceed 200 million in 2020, and the shipment of touch chips will be about 180 or 190 million. Coupled with fingerprint recognition and other businesses, the company’s total product shipments in 2020 should be Reach the level of 4-5 billion.
Du Xiaoxu said: "2020 is the'big year' for the entire semiconductor industry. Demand for many types of chips is very hot. Under this trend, the company has achieved good results in both shipments and revenue. We expect the company to achieve full year 2020. Revenue will exceed US$450 million, an increase of about 50% compared to the same period last year."
The reason why Focaltech can deliver a brilliant report card in 2020 is also due to the company's efforts in the non-mobile phone market. As mentioned at the beginning of the article, the rapid development of the housing economy has become the driving force for many manufacturers in the industry chain in 2020.
Du Xiaoxu told Jiwei.com: "From what we have seen, combined with the data of some market survey agencies, the increase in the notebook market alone is close to 50 million units, and the growth of the tablet scale is similar. Adding the two, market demand An increase of nearly 100 million units. The number of chips required for notebooks is 2-3 times that of mobile phones. The strong demand for this part of the business has also brought outstanding contributions to the company's performance."
"On the other hand, the mobile phone market was directly affected by the epidemic in the first half of last year, but there are already obvious signs of recovery in the second half of the year. We don't expect the total sales of related businesses to change much in 2020. In addition, due to the improvement of the company's mobile phone-related product specifications , The unit price and the number of wafers consumed have also increased accordingly.” Du Xiaoxu added.
However, in a highly competitive market environment, relying solely on demand-side support is clearly not enough.
Du Xiaoxu pointed out: "In our opinion, the biggest competitiveness of chip manufacturers is the four aspects of product cost-effectiveness, quality reliability, supply stability and high-quality service. This is the direction we have been adhering to and improving. Reasons for brand customer recognition."
As far as Jiwei.com knows, due to the large scale of production and shipment of each chip, the quality control of Duntai Technology has been able to maintain long-term stability. It also benefits from this, even when the wafer capacity is odd In 2020, which is lacking, the company will be able to ensure the stability of supply and the construction of inventory to a certain extent; in addition, Fosun Technology has also established a technical service team of nearly 200 people in Shenzhen to ensure timely response to customer needs.
Since its establishment, the touch business has been its core business development. It is reported that the company's peak annual shipments of such products once reached 400 million. With the upgrade of some products from TFT to IDC chips, Fosun Technology has also begun to shift its focus to external touch controls. AMOLED, which is now in the limelight, is a major direction of its 2021 business plan.
In fact, AMOLED-related products will account for nearly 20% of shipments in 2020.
Du Xiaoxu told Jiwei.com: “We are the largest supplier in mainland China in terms of touch ICs matched with AMOLED display products. In June last year, we successfully entered the supply chain of AMOLED world-class manufacturers. So far, Customers' evaluation of our quality is still relatively high. After a rapid ramp-up of production capacity and yield in the fourth quarter of last year, the company's AMOLED product production capacity has reached about 10KK/month. As the proportion of AMOLED products increases, the overall product structure is also further Promote."
The reason why this business can achieve such a big leap in the short term is also due to the relatively high technical threshold of AMOLED relative to traditional products.
On the one hand, the chip factory needs to pass the strict qualification certification of the panel factory; on the other hand, because the AMOLED product itself is thinner and the distance between it and the display is closer, resulting in obvious noise in the product. In order to circumvent this situation, there are more rigid requirements for the technical skills of IC design manufacturers. When these two conditions are superimposed and filtered, there are not many vendors with supply qualifications left.
Regarding market demand, Du Xiaoxu further pointed out: “So far, the penetration rate of AMOLED in the market has exceeded 40%. In addition to the Japanese and Korean manufacturers with a relatively high share, domestic manufacturers represented by BOE and Huaxing Optoelectronics, nearly two The annual yield rate and shipment growth rate are also very fast. Based on this, we estimate that the domestic AMOLED panel factory shipments in 2021 are expected to reach 80-90 million."
It is worth mentioning that the future market development of medium and large sizes cannot be ignored.
As the distance education model penetrates more and more users, the demand for tablet and laptop products has surged last year. Based on this, Fosun Technology has discovered that supporting active pens have also become a potential demand in this market, and the tablet market is the most prominent. "We now need to achieve high reporting rate, low power consumption, and active pen with the structure of flexible screen touch. A single terminal will probably require 2-3 chips." Du Xiaoxu introduced to the author.
In the context of the unstable supply and demand situation of the industry chain, in order to ensure the smooth delivery of products as much as possible and promote a new round of growth in performance, Focaltech has also further improved its wafer capacity reserves. It is reported that the company has been in contact with the wafer fab in the middle of last year, and as of the fourth quarter of last year, the wafer capacity demand for 2021 has been finalized.
Du Xiaoxu said: "With all-round preparations, we expect that IDC and touch chips will grow again this year, and AMOLED and fingerprint recognition products will also make significant progress in 2021; in addition, from the perspective of overall revenue, We have set a double-digit growth target.
