3C equipment industry research report: Innovation cycle starts, domestic substitution time

3C equipment

3C equipment: Scale continues to grow, pattern is fragmented, and competition is dislocated

In recent years, the scale of my country's 3C automation equipment market has continued to grow. As of 2022, the market size is about 234.98 billion yuan, of which the incremental equipment market size is about 135.03 billion yuan, and the stock equipment market size is about 99.95 billion yuan. With the improvement of the comprehensive strength of domestic related equipment companies, 3C automation equipment will become one of the important means for enterprises to reduce costs, and the market size is expected to continue to grow.

Specific links

Insight 1: AI and electric and intelligent vehicles will drive growth in the next five years, with high-end leading the way

1. Downstream demand was sluggish in 2023, and global PCB overall revenue declined. Affected by factors such as sluggish PCB demand caused by high inventory of terminal products, all subdivided PCB products in the world declined to a large extent in 2023. In terms of US dollars, the average decline was 15%, the largest decline in nearly 20 years, and global PCB revenue narrowed to US$69.5 billion. 2. It is expected to return to growth in 2024. Judging from the quarterly year-on-year growth of the global PCB industry, the PCB industry has experienced a recession for 6 quarters since Q3 2022. The market is currently growing, and the growth rate is expected to be 5% in 2024, gradually returning to the normal growth level of the PCB industry.

Insight 2: Chinese mainland companies expand production in Southeast Asia, and local equipment space is expected to continue to grow

PCB companies' capital expenditures shrank year-on-year in 2023, and are expected to resume positive growth in tandem with the industry in the future. In 2023, PCB enterprises will continue to show a significant decline based on the output value in 2022, and the corresponding capital expenditure will also shrink to a large extent. According to Prismark statistics, the new investment expenditure of the world's top 40 PCB manufacturers in the first three quarters of 2023 fell from US$6.204 billion in the previous year to US$5.194 billion, a decrease of 16.3%. However, the global PCB industry revenue is expected to grow by 5% in 2024, gradually returning to the normal growth level of the PCB industry, and the corresponding capital expenditure is expected to resume positive growth simultaneously.

China is the world's largest PCB producer and is expected to continue its strong market position and continue to drive the domestic equipment market space. In the past two decades, the focus of the PCB industry has been continuously shifting to China. China began to surpass Japan in 2006 to become the world's largest PCB producer. Since 2016, the domestic PCB output value has accounted for more than half of the world. Although the investment enthusiasm in emerging PCB industry hotspots such as Thailand, Vietnam and Malaysia in Southeast Asia has increased significantly due to the adjustment of end-customer supply chain strategies, mainland China still maintains a strong market position. In addition, most of the companies investing in Southeast Asia are large companies in mainland China and Taiwan. The advantages of the domestic supply chain, including special equipment, will be replicated, thus bringing greater market space to the domestic brand special equipment industry.

Machine vision: intelligent identification and detection, rich industrial chain structure

The concept of machine vision was first proposed in the 1950s and 1960s. Developed regions such as North America, Europe and Japan took the lead in entering this research field and applied it to industrial production processes in the 1980s. Machine vision technology relies on core technologies such as optical imaging, mechanical motion, electrical control, analysis algorithms, and application software, so that intelligent detection and assembly equipment have high-precision 2D/3D model acquisition capabilities, image processing, image recognition, cognitive decision-making and other artificial intelligence and abstract understanding capabilities, and can complete complex industrial precision motion tasks, thereby realizing intelligent detection, measurement, positioning and identification functions.

The upstream and midstream of the machine vision industry mainly include: hardware manufacturers, software, equipment and system integration, and visual system solutions. The main downstream markets are semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industries. In addition, it is also applied to automobiles, printing and packaging, agriculture, medical equipment and metal processing.

Machine vision: The scale continues to grow, and domestic capital accounts for more than half

The scale of my country's AOI continues to grow. In 2018, the scale of my country's AOI market was 6.863 billion yuan, 16.888 billion yuan in 2022, and is expected to be 22.556 billion yuan in 2023, with a CAGR of 27% from 18 to 23 years. With the development of downstream application fields, the scale of my country's AOI is expected to continue to grow.

Domestic AOI companies have gradually achieved domestic substitution by improving their product strength and process level. The proportion of domestic AOI market sales has increased from 44% in 2018 to 60% in 2022, and is expected to be 63% in 23 years.

Testing equipment: The localization rate of the back-end process is nearly 90%, and the front-end process still needs to be broken through

1. In 2021, the market size of new display device testing equipment in mainland China is about 5.9 billion yuan, of which Cell/Module process testing equipment is about 3.4 billion yuan. 2. New plant construction and expansion will drive the testing equipment market to 9.2 billion yuan in 2024, with a 3-year CAGR of 16%, of which the market size of Cell/Module process testing equipment will reach 4.6 billion yuan in 2024.

SMT: The trend of domestic substitution is accelerating, and domestic sub-segment leaders are gradually growing

1. Dispensing machine

Space: 1) Global: In 2022, the global dispensing machine market size is US$9.03 billion (of which the Asia-Pacific region accounts for 53%), and it is expected to be US$10.68 billion in 28 years, with a CAGR of 2.84%. (SEMI, Zhuozhao Glue Dispensing Announcement) 2) my country: In 2017, the scale of my country's glue dispensing machines was 14.16 billion yuan, and it is expected to exceed 30 billion yuan in 24 years (Zhiyan Consulting, Keg Precision Machinery Announcement) Pattern: The overall market is relatively fragmented. The global market is dominated by well-known overseas manufacturers such as Nordson in the United States and Musashi in Japan; the domestic market is mainly Anda Intelligent (20 years of glue dispensing machine revenue of 260 million yuan) and Zhuozhao Glue Dispensing (2022 years of glue dispensing machine revenue of 190 million yuan).

2. Solder paste printing equipment

Space: In 22 years, the global solder paste printing equipment scale is 2.7 billion US dollars, and it is expected to reach 3.7 billion US dollars in 29 years. (QYResearch data) Pattern: Illinois Tool Works Inc in the United States and ASMPT in Singapore are leading the world; Keg Precision Machinery is leading in China, with a revenue of 400 million yuan in solder paste printing equipment in 23 years.

3. Welding equipment

Pattern: The domestic leader Kuake Intelligent, with a revenue of 530 million yuan in precision welding equipment in 23 years.