Sanan Semiconductor is a high-tech company under Sanan Optoelectronics that focuses on the R&D and industrial manufacturing of integrated circuits, LED epitaxy and chips. It has inherited Sanan Optoelectronics’ LED chip production technology and R&D capabilities.
In this cooperation, the two parties will jointly develop automotive LED chip technology and promote strategic cooperation in business and technology. So far, Sanan Optoelectronics’ partners have gathered the three major panel manufacturers: TCL CSOT, Visionox (002387), and Tianma.
Reached cooperation with many panel manufacturers
It is reported that in the LED industry, Sanan Optoelectronics focuses on the field of LED epitaxial chips, while Tianma Microelectronics focuses on display panels. In the 40 years since it entered the display industry, the latter has developed into a leader in small and medium-sized tracks. Its market share in vehicle front-mounted display shipments has increased year by year. In 2020, it began to rank first in the world, and has ranked first in the world in vehicle front-mounted display shipments for many years.
In recent years, with the development trend of automobile intelligence, in-vehicle display has gradually become an indispensable core interactive interface for vehicles. Various convenient controls on the vehicle can be realized through the screen. Automotive users have increasingly higher requirements for details such as brightness and image quality of in-vehicle displays. In response to the current industry's popular requirements for high contrast, high dynamic HDR, and wide color gamut, the capabilities of automotive LED chips largely determine the display effect of automotive displays. Relevant research shows that the overall automotive panel market size will reach the 200 million mark in 2023 and will continue to grow in the future.
As early as March 2020, Sanan Semiconductor reached a strategic cooperation with TCL Huaxing. TCL Huaxing and Quanzhou Sanan Semiconductor jointly invested in the establishment of a joint laboratory and joint venture company Xinying Display. The joint laboratory will focus on the development of Micro LED display technology and engage in the research and development and trial production of wearable displays, high-definition mobile displays, and vehicle-mounted display products; Xinying Display is committed to the research and development of new semiconductor display technologies and the industrialization of Micro LED display projects. In 2021, Xiamen Sanan Semiconductor has reached a strategic cooperation with Chenxian Optoelectronics. In the field of TFT-based Micro LED technology, the latter focuses on high-end TV, automotive and smart wearable applications. Visionox, a shareholder of Chenxian Optoelectronics, is a leading display panel company.
With the official signing of the contract between Sanan Semiconductor and Tianma Microelectronics, Sanan Optoelectronics' partners have gathered the three major panel manufacturers: TCL CSOT, Visionox, and Tianma Microelectronics. The cooperation between the two parties is expected to inject a boost into the automotive display field, stimulate more companies to accelerate integration, and promote the development of automotive displays.
SiC business accelerates
The third quarterly report shows that in the first three quarters of 2023, Sanan Optoelectronics achieved operating income of 10.156 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 1.43%; it achieved net profit attributable to the parent company of 173 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 82.51%.
Sanan Optoelectronics said that the main reason for the decrease in the company's net profit compared with the same period last year is: as the market situation gradually improved, the company's LED chip sales increased compared with the same period last year. Although the selling prices of some chips have rebounded to a certain extent from the previous year, the overall selling prices have dropped significantly compared with the same period last year; in addition, the company's equipment utilization rate is gradually recovering, and the production costs of some products have increased; the proportion of high-end products has improved, but has not yet reached expectations.
However, with the recovery of the macro economy, the prices of some LED chip products have begun to slowly rebound since bottoming out in the second quarter of 2023, and the company's shareholders have also "protected" the company by increasing their holdings.
At the end of October, Sanan Optoelectronics received a notice from its indirect controlling shareholder Sanan Group. Based on its confidence in the company's future development prospects, it plans to use its own funds to spend 50 million to 100 million yuan to increase its stake in the company through centralized bidding. As of November 8, Sanan Optoelectronics announced that this increase in holdings was completed, and the cumulative increase in holdings was 99.9697 million yuan (excluding handling fees). After this increase in shareholding, Sanan Group’s shareholding accounted for 5.144% of the company’s total share capital.
In addition to its efforts in the LED field, Sanan Optoelectronics, as one of the few vertically integrated manufacturing platforms in the silicon carbide industry chain in China, has also accelerated its layout on the SiC track. In June 2023, the company cooperated with international giants to establish a silicon carbide chip factory and related industries in Chongqing, with a total investment of nearly 30 billion yuan.
In terms of new product research and development, Sanan Optoelectronics’ 6-inch silicon carbide substrate has been verified by several major international customers and hasBatch shipments have been achieved, production capacity has been basically locked in the next two years, and small batch trial production of 8-inch substrates has been achieved. The company's silicon carbide chip products have been widely used in fields with high reliability requirements such as photovoltaics, energy storage, and new energy vehicles. Silicon carbide 80mΩ products have been placed in bulk orders for photovoltaic and vehicle charger clients; automotive grade 1200V16mΩ has been module verified at several strategic customers and is expected to be officially put into mass production in 2024. MOSFET foundry business has cooperated with leading new energy vehicles and supporting companies.
ANNA