[Source: "High-tech new industry" May issue / Hu Yanling Xiao Yuan] In just over a month, the global MOCVD equipment (LED epitaxial wafer production equipment) giant AIXTRON (Ai Siqiang) CEO Paul Hyland has not considered The road was far away and two public appearances were held at the cooperation ceremony in China.
“Last year, China’s market revenue accounted for 55% of Ai Siqiang’s total global revenue, and 70% of our MOCVD equipment was sold to the Chinese market.†On March 16, Paul Hyland reluctantly told New Industry, despite the past few In the month, the demand for LED products in Taiwan, South Korea and other markets is rising. The capacity utilization rate of LED manufacturers in Taiwan and South Korea has recovered to about 60%, but when the MOCVD demand in the Chinese mainland market can pick up, there is still no one. The timetable for the determination, "it should still wait for a while."
But waiting has made Ai Siqiang and Paul Hyland a bit anxious.
Because, in the fourth quarter of 2011, Ai Siqiang’s performance has already lost 10.9 million euros, while competitor Veeco’s fourth quarter revenue and net profit fell sharply despite the background of LED overcapacity. However, it still had a profit of $23.6 million in the fourth quarter of last year.
Paul Hyland admits that the company’s losses in the fourth quarter of last year were mainly due to inventory equipment. Although the specific timetable for the shipment of inventory equipment is still unknown, Ai Siqiang is actively helping customers solve various problems, including strengthening the training of equipment engineers and increasing the leasing business of MOCVD equipment. "All actions may not be called 'saving the market'. But based on the long-term consideration of the Chinese market." 
Inventory crisis
It is hard to imagine that in the first half of 2010 and in the first half of 2011, Ai Siqiang, whose performance was in a year, was like riding a roller coaster and sliding all the way to the bottom.
In 2010, Aisiqiang earned 783.8 million euros and realized a net profit of 275.5 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 339%. At that time, Ai Siqiang and Weiyike could be regarded as the most dazzling stars in the global LED industry, including a large number of Chinese mainland LED upstream manufacturers such as Sanan Optoelectronics and Dehao Runda, almost all waiting for MOCVD equipment with huge cash queues. Downline, and each order is moving hundreds of MOCVD.
On the occasion of the release of the 2010 financial report, Ai Siqiang also stressed that the backlog of orders in early 2011 has reached 302.3 million euros, all scheduled to be shipped in 2011. But the bane that affects performance is also buried.
Because in 2011, the global LED market including the Chinese market suddenly changed, the overcapacity crisis suddenly appeared.
“After August last year, there was no movement in the LED equipment market in China. Most of the upstream manufacturers of LEDs began to prepare for 'over the winter'.†Zhao Yuxing, chairman and general manager of Suzhou Delong Laser, which produces LED epitaxial wafer dicing machines, said .
Ai Siqiang, who just released the first half of 2011, is still optimistic, because in the first half of 2011, Ai Siqiang earned 381 million euros, a year-on-year increase of 10%. Ai Siqiang said that despite the uncertainties such as short-term fluctuations in the market, the company's 2011 revenue of 800-900 million euros remains unchanged, and the product gross margin is about 35%.
The huge difference between optimistic estimates and market upheaval eventually led to Ai Siqiang's performance in the third quarter and fourth quarter of 2011.
In the third quarter of last year, Ai Siqiang earned 89.8 million euros, a decrease of 49% from the previous quarter. In the fourth quarter of last year, Ai Siqiang earned 140.1 million euros, a 38% year-on-year decrease, and a loss of 16.9 million euros. The gross profit margin of the product fell to 8%, down 44% year-on-year. Percentage points; 2011 annual revenue of 611 million euros, down 22% year-on-year, net profit of 112.9 million euros, down 59% year-on-year. Ai Siqiang said in the financial report that the main reason for the decline in performance is that some important customers have delayed delivery.
“A MOCVD production time usually takes 4-5 months.†A senior manufacturer of MOCVD in mainland China pointed out that due to the long production time of MOCVD and high production cost, MOCVD manufacturers usually receive orders from customers. Customers are required to pay a certain amount of equipment prepayment, and then pay the remaining equipment payment when they are officially shipped.
From the public information point of view, Ai Siqiang and Weiyike received a large number of MOCVD orders from Chinese manufacturers in late 2010 and early 2011. Naturally, Ai Siqiang and Weiyike will purchase raw materials in large quantities according to the order status, and work overtime. produce.
In the second half of last year, when the mainland LED upstream manufacturers faced the crisis of overcapacity, their countermeasures were generally: one to suspend the MOCVD commissioning to avoid the emergence of larger inventory; the second is to suspend MOCVD purchases to ease themselves. Funding pressure.
"This naturally caused a large amount of MOCVD backlog in Ai Siqiang and Wyco, conservatively estimated that Ai Siqiang's MOCVD inventory has reached 100 units." The above-mentioned executives said.
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