The high-end equipment manufacturing industry is an important cornerstone of industrial modernization and a key field for scientific and technological innovation. The operational status of related listed companies is highly concerned by the market. Looking at development through the semi-annual report, this year, the overall development trend of listed companies in the industry has been good, with one hand focusing on scientific research and攻关, continuously breaking through technical bottlenecks, and enhancing independent innovation capabilities; the other hand focuses on market development, actively exploring the "second growth curve", and the industry is constantly striving for "new" and moving towards "intelligence".
Industry prosperity continues to improve
This year, China's industrial production has grown steadily, and the supporting role of the high-end equipment manufacturing industry is obvious. Data from the National Bureau of Statistics show that in the first half of the year, the added value of high-tech manufacturing industry above designated size grew by 8.7% year-on-year, 2.7 percentage points higher than the total industrial added value above designated size, accounting for 15.8% of the total industrial added value above designated size.
As an "excellent student" in the industry, high-end equipment listed companies are playing a leading role. From the semi-annual report, in the first half of the year, high-end equipment listed companies generally showed a positive development trend, with many companies achieving double growth in revenue and net profit. Especially in industries such as aerospace, rail transit, and advanced equipment manufacturing, companies have made significant progress in technological innovation and product quality.
Thanks to the national strategic deployment and the strong demand for travel after the economic recovery, the domestic rail transit market is gradually entering a new cycle of improved prosperity. Data show that in the first half of the year, the total operating income of 65 A-share rail transit listed companies was 317.6112 billion yuan, and the net profit was 37.43 billion yuan; more than 60% of the listed companies achieved growth in operating income, nearly 90% of the listed companies achieved profitability, and more than 40% of the listed companies achieved growth in net profit.
Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway is the main body of investment, construction, and operation of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway and its affiliated stations. Faced with the favorable situation of stable and good domestic economy, Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway continuously improves the level of passenger service and insists on promoting and driving consumption with high-quality service supply. In the first half of the year, the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway line set a historical record of 711 trains per day and 920,000 passengers per day, achieving a revenue of 20.863 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 8.21%, and a net profit of 6.357 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 23.77%.
As the basic equipment of the manufacturing industry, industrial mother machines are an important support for the improvement of the country's industrialization capabilities. In the first half of the year, a number of listed companies in the industry maintained business growth by focusing on technological breakthroughs and independent control. According to the statistical data of Tonghuashun iFind, in the first half of the year, the total operating income of 74 A-share industrial mother machine listed companies was 270.95 billion yuan, and the net profit was 26.17 billion yuan; more than half of the companies achieved year-on-year growth in net profit.
Qiao Feng Intelligence is a company engaged in the research and development, production, and sales of CNC machine tools. It has been committed to developing high-precision, high-reliability, high-efficiency, and intelligent domestic modern "industrial mother machines". In the first half of the year, it achieved a revenue of 807 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.22%; it achieved a net profit of 114 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27.57%. Qiao Feng Intelligence stated that the factors driving business development mainly include the benefits of investments in new energy vehicles, 3C, and other fields, which have entered the harvest period; the batch sales of newly cultivated products have brought new growth poles; the optimization of management organization has led to a year-on-year decrease in management and sales expenses; and so on.
"From the perspective of the semi-annual report, under the multiple advantages of a complete domestic industrial system, strong comprehensive cost competitiveness, and a super-large-scale market demand, the core competitiveness and industrial support capabilities of China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry continue to improve. The listed companies in the industry show a good operational trend, and their comparative advantages are gradually emerging," said Tian Lihui, Dean of the Institute of Financial Development at Nankai University.
Wang Han, Chief Economist of Industrial Securities, also believes that thanks to China's complete industrial system, a group of high-quality enterprises are growing rapidly, becoming important entities in the domestic capital market, and achieving independent and controllable development in a complex international environment, continuously improving their global competitiveness.High R&D Strengthens the "Moat"
Led by high and new technology, the development of the high-end equipment manufacturing industry is inseparable from continuous technological innovation. This year, listed companies in the industry have increased their R&D investment, accelerated the transformation of innovative results, and continuously empowered the high-quality development of enterprises.
Taking the rail transit industry as an example, data shows that in the first half of this year, the total R&D expenditure of listed companies in the rail transit industry was 10.197 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.78%. Nine companies have entered the hundred million yuan mark in R&D expenditure in the first half of the year, with the proportion of companies increasing from 10.77% to 13.85%. The proportion of companies with R&D intensity greater than 10% is 15.38%.
JinChuang Group's R&D investment in the first half of the year reached 91.68 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18%. As of the end of June, JinChuang Group has newly obtained 60 authorized patents, including 33 invention patents. The company has 640 valid patents, forming a core technology and intellectual property rights system with independent intellectual property rights. "The group is committed to building an open technological innovation system, opening up new product development ideas, promoting technological process innovation, using energy storage technology and digital technology to endow products with green and intelligent performance, leveraging integration advantages to meet market modular demand, and solidifying the company's market competitive advantage," said Gao Feng, Deputy General Manager and Secretary of the Board of Directors of JinChuang Group.
Through the innovative use of cutting-edge technology, many listed companies have achieved cost reduction and efficiency improvement, enhancing development quality. Guangmai Technology achieved a business income of 173 million yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 20.80%; the net profit attributable to the parent company was 13.735 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 33.71%. "The company continues to increase R&D efforts, and related products such as the intelligent operation and maintenance platform for railway video monitoring systems and the intelligent video control box for railways have been launched and ordered one after another, with more strategic products under development and testing," said Wang Huan, Secretary of the Board of Directors of Guangmai Technology.
Driven by continuous increase in R&D investment, innovative results continue to emerge, helping listed companies open up the market. In the first half of the year, JingHe Integration invested 614 million yuan in R&D expenses, a 22.27% increase compared to the same period last year, and newly obtained 151 invention patents and 36 utility model patents. JingHe Integration said that new products are gradually entering the market, such as the 55nm medium and high-end BSI and stacked CIS chip process platform achieving mass production, and the 40nm high-voltage OLED display driver chip achieving small batch production, which further enhances the company's market competitiveness.
"At present, the high-end equipment manufacturing industry has become an important means to enhance a country's international competitiveness. Faced with increasingly fierce global technological competition, future technological progress in the industry will increasingly rely on independent research and development," said Tian Lihui. Relevant listed companies continue to increase R&D investment, adhere to independent innovation, can promote enterprise technology upgrading, improve industry production efficiency, and thus enhance the added value of the entire industry chain, which is conducive to gradually building an irreplaceable competitive advantage in the global industry chain.
"Go out" to explore new space
While锚定 international advanced level and continuously making innovative breakthroughs in key technologies, high-end equipment listed companies are also actively setting sail "going abroad" to seek broader market space overseas.
Data released by the China Association of Enterprises shows that in the past five years, China's high-end manufacturing listed companies have continuously developed overseas business, with overseas revenue growth rate maintaining at a high level of more than 15% year-on-year, higher than the growth rate of overseas revenue of all A-share listed companies during the same period. At the same time, China's high-end manufacturing listed companies are actively exploring diversified listing locations. As of the end of June 2024, 51 high-end manufacturing listed companies have achieved overseas listing, among which 50 listed companies are listed both in A-shares and Hong Kong stocks, and 15 high-end manufacturing listed companies have issued GDR (Global Depository Receipt) on foreign exchanges.Overseas business is becoming the "second growth curve" for many listed companies. As a leading enterprise in the field of professional communication and a technological leader in the global professional communication field, Hytera achieved a revenue of 2.74 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 21.3%; net profit was 162 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 109.8%. Its semi-annual report shows that Hytera has a solid layout in the overseas market, achieving foreign revenue of 1.34 billion yuan in the first half of the year, a year-on-year increase of 42.12%, accounting for 48.95% of total revenue.
Many listed companies regard "going global" as an important focus for future layout and breaking through development. Tianfu Communication is a one-stop solution provider for precision components in optical communication. In the first half of the year, the company achieved a revenue of 1.556 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 134.27%; net profit was 654 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 177.20%. Tianfu Communication stated that it is currently accelerating the layout of international industry to meet the demand growth under the wave of AI. Against the background of rapid development of AI technology and accelerated growth of computing power demand, the international industry layout is expected to lay a solid production capacity foundation for the company's sustained and stable performance growth.
"In recent years, listed companies in the high-end equipment category have focused on making up for shortcomings and strengthening strengths, actively joining international competition, and setting an example," said Tian Lihui. However, overall, China's equipment manufacturing industry is currently at a critical stage of moving towards the mid-to-high end, and the industry still faces issues such as insufficient effective demand, and the risk of "bottleneck" in key areas is relatively prominent. It is necessary to make strenuous efforts to break through technical bottlenecks, enhance independent innovation capabilities, and consolidate the industrial foundation.
High-endization is the inevitable path to becoming a manufacturing powerhouse. The "Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese-style Modernization," reviewed and adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th Central Committee, proposes to accelerate the new type of industrialization, cultivate and strengthen advanced manufacturing clusters, and promote the high-end, intelligent, and green development of the manufacturing industry. The industry believes that with the implementation of policies and measures to promote the continuous recovery and improvement of the economy, and driven by policy support, market demand, and other forces, China's high-end equipment manufacturing industry is expected to continue to maintain a good development trend, the industry scale will be further increased, and the industry technology will gradually reach the international leading level.