The high-level panel project has three major problems that still need to be solved

At 4 pm on February 15th, a worker who came out of the site of Huaxing Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. (the main body of the TCL8.5 generation panel project) in the Guangming New District of Shenzhen happily ignited a cigarette.

"Although the Spring Festival does not return home during the Chinese New Year, overtime pay is still available. The usual salary is 100 yuan a day, the Spring Festival overtime pay 150 yuan a day, and the first and second days only need to work for a long time." The worker looked at the work site and said: The factory has been rushing to work, is stepping up renovations, ready to install equipment.

“Originally there were 5,000 workers, and more than 1,000 people did not go home for the New Year and were left to work overtime.” The above workers said. In fact, it is not just workers who work overtime, but also Li Dongsheng, president of TCL Corporation.

On January 27, Li Dongsheng could not help himself to reveal on his microblogging that the world's second largest glass substrate manufacturer, Asahi Glass, has signed an agreement to invest in the construction of an 8.5-generation LCD panel glass substrate project in Shenzhen. The first phase will invest nearly 300 million U.S. dollars. . Li Dongsheng wrote in Weibo: “The glass substrate is the most important and the largest investment in Huaxing Optoelectronics. Asahi Glass settled in Shenzhen, Shenzhen is an important part of building a flat industry chain, and also marks the industrial partner to China Star Optoelectronics. The project is highly identifiable."

Li Dongsheng's excitement stems from the fact that the production line of Huaxing Optoelectronics' 8th generation line may be ahead of the high generation projects of LG, Samsung, and AUO on the mainland, and this also provides a “time window” for TCL’s Qiangdian market.

The high-level panel project's "The domestic company to create a high-generation panel project is actually a bit embarrassing, and it will not work if it is not done." Luo Qingqi, a senior observer of home appliance industry and senior consultant of Pall Consulting, expressed the same anxiety as yesterday. Mood, "China has become a global color TV factory. If it is not on the high-generation panel project, China's color TV industry can only be a wedding dress and become the largest panel distributor."

Luo Qingqi pointed out that although the domestic high-generation panel project is blossoming everywhere, it has not been harmonized and harmonized. Everybody's model is almost always buying factories and relocating factories. The patents, materials, and equipment needed for LCD panel manufacturing still need to be imported. The factory is a dependent factory, and the main control line of the kite is still in the hands of others."

Sharp's 10th-generation line has already been mass-produced, and panel giants such as Samsung have begun preparations for higher-generation panel projects. Higher-generation panel projects mean that there will be more economical cuts and greater market space, which will also lead to serious devaluation of high-generation panel projects invested heavily by domestic companies.

Luo Qingqi said that as of now, regardless of the high-generation projects under construction or planning, almost all key technologies come from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. Even in the 5th and 6th generation projects, in addition to BOE's early acquisitions and years of accumulated precipitation, other technologies such as the original SVA NEC and Longteng Optoelectronics were transferred.

In addition, the layout of China's upstream materials such as color filters and glass substrates in the front panel is only just starting, and the relevant links such as driving IT, backlights, and polarizers have not yet truly produced sounds. On the contrary, in the above-mentioned areas, Japanese companies have a global market share of more than 80% and control major key components and manufacturing technologies. The upstream key material links occupy more than 30% of the entire industrial chain.

"If you look at the panel industry chain, the investment panel is a strategic move for China's flat-panel TV industry. The capital and operational risks it requires are not what individual companies can afford." Luo Qingqi said.

Zhou Zixue, chief economist of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said at the China Electronics and Information Industry Operations and TV Industry Research Conference on January 18 that the area where China's panel industry invests and builds factories can be appropriately decentralized, but the operating entities must be concentrated and screamed, “China must integrate one The two companies have become enterprises in the entire industry chain, integration is productivity, integration is competitiveness, and integration has not been completed. China’s flat-panel industry will not be competitive.”

Earnings Alerts In fact, both Luo Qingqi and Zhou Zixue’s viewpoints are derived from the profitability problems of high-end panel projects after huge investments.

"In the panel industry, generally only the top three can be profitable, and the third place in the market is basically at a meager stage." Luo Qingqi said. Zhou Zixue also said that from a global point of view, there are currently not more than 10 companies that make large-size panels, and it is difficult for those ranked in the top five to have a competitive advantage. Therefore, in order to develop the flat panel display industry in China, the business entities must be concentrated. "This is determined by the law of industrial development."

Zhou Zixue stated that since 2009, many companies have entered the panel production field one after another. As a result, there are many business entities, but not many production lines. A business entity only establishes a production line, which does not scale.

According to Zhou Zixue, at least three production lines for panel projects can achieve economies of scale. This scale of economy is not only reflected in the number of production lines, but also reflected in the ability of enterprises to negotiate prices during the procurement process. Because the upstream sections of the panel, such as materials and equipment, and downstream machine companies, are global industries, the purchasing scale of the panel manufacturers and the control of the panel market will affect the production costs and sales of the company to a large extent. price.

Perhaps the figures can better explain the difficulty of panel companies' profitability. On January 27, AU Optronics announced its 2010 financial report that in 2010, AUO's revenue was US$16.032 billion, net profit was US$254 million, net operating margin was only 2.2%, and overall gross margin of the product was only 7.8%.

The BOE (000725.SZ) announced in the third quarter of 2010 financial report last October, the third quarter, a further loss of 448 million yuan, the previous two quarters have lost 540 million yuan, in addition to BOE loss is expected to be a full year loss of 1.3 billion to 14 100 million yuan.

Zhou Zixue pointed out that international companies with complete industrial chain, such as Samsung and LG, from raw materials to equipment, to complete machines, are all operating in the entire industry chain, and can “strategize the west without brightening the west” and carry out strategic price cuts, that is, for the market. The coverage of the industry chain will push down the price of a certain segment of the industry chain and make up for it with the high profits of other parts of the industry chain. Therefore, China must integrate one or two companies to complete the industrial chain enterprises. "We must allow powerful business entities to focus their productivity on all aspects, complete industry integration, and achieve economies of scale in order to effectively enhance China's competitiveness in the field of flat panel display. ."

What is the way out? In fact, the problem that the industry experts think is that the color TV executives who are participating in and implementing the high-generation projects also expressed their frustration.

Yang Dongwen, president of Skyworth Group’s color TV business division, told the First Financial Daily in mid-January that the concentration of business entities was difficult at the operational level of the company. Because of the diversification of the main body of interest, there is the power of the administration and the power of the market. The operability of the company is difficult. The reason why Korean companies embarked on the road of the entire industry chain, there are active and passive factors, the South Korean market is relatively small, foreign procurement is difficult. And China is a large country with a big market, different market scope, and operations are also different.

“The United States is also a big country and big market. There are few competing companies in the whole industry chain and more specialized competitive companies. It is too early to compare Apple and Samsung. They represent two different directions. We are not big enough. How to grasp the development laws and operational characteristics is an important proposition. Yang Dongwen said.

However, for the TCL Group on the strings, a good way out is to achieve smooth production of the 8.5-generation line as soon as possible, hitting a time difference in market demand.

Because the LG Guangzhou 8th generation line with competitive relationship has not yet commenced construction, and Zhang Xuebin, chairman of China Skywin Group, has also revealed recently that the LG Skyworth joint venture received approval from the Development and Reform Commission at the end of last year, but it is still necessary to apply for registration of the joint venture company with the Ministry of Commerce before starting construction. It takes an estimated 18 months from start of construction to mass production.

“At the beginning of March, the former Huaxing staff working in the TCL Building will gradually move to the site plant operations.” According to the person in charge of Huaxing Optoelectronics, currently the purchase of production equipment for a total of more than RMB 15 billion of Huaxing Optoelectronics is basically completed, and the import declaration is being prepared in an orderly manner. . According to the person in charge of Huaxing Optoelectronics, according to the current progress, the first LCD panel product will be completed in August this year, and will reach the mass production level in the fourth quarter.

In fact, in order to eliminate the worries of the outside world on the 8.5-generation line of China Star Optoelectronics, after the TCL Group signed the 8.5-generation line with the Shenzhen government at the end of last year, it continued to release the good news of the progress of the 8.5-generation line in order to enhance the confidence of the industry. From last year's core team debut in May, to 1.28 billion U.S. dollars in syndicated loans in late October last year, to the end of December last year, the factory capped in advance, and so on.

In addition, at the end of December last year, China Star Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. deliberately showed the outside world a 32-inch LED TV sample with the HVA core patent. “This sample was manufactured by someone else's production line, but the release of the sample also determines the 8.5-generation line panel process technology and other parameters.” Chen Liyi, executive vice president of Huaxing Optoelectronics, said that the 32-inch sample that has already been launched has actually reached the mass production level, when 8.5 After the installation and commissioning of the submarine line equipment is completed, the process technology can be directly transplanted to the new production line. "It is expected that in 4 to 5 months, the industry can achieve an excellent rate of 85%."