As a representative of the third-generation semiconductor, silicon carbide is known as the environment friendly semiconductor. It possesses superior properties such as high temperature resistance, high voltage tolerance, and high frequency capabilities. It can be widely used in new energy, photovoltaics, and other fields, making it a future trend in semiconductor development. SICC, established in Jinan, Shandong Province in 2010, is a scientific and technological enterprise focusing on R&D, production and sales of silicon carbide single crystal substrate materials.
With the blessing of the sector with high prosperity, SICC has attracted more and more attention from all walks of life in recent years. At present, SICC, which has only been established for 12 years, has obtained more than 460 core patents in the semiconductor field and undertaken many national R&D and industrialization projects. In 2022, SICC was awarded the title of Leading Enterprise in Science and Technology in Shandong Province and Leading Enterprise in Top Ten Industrial Clusters in Shandong Province, and became one of the key scientific and technological enterprises supported by Huaiyin District Government of Jinan City.
According to Yole's data, the market size of SiC devices will reach 596 million US dollars in 2020, and it is estimated that it will reach 2.562 billion US dollars by 2025, with a compound annual growth rate of 33.6%.
Figure2: headquarters of SICC advanced Co., ltd
Recently, domestic silicon carbide leader SICC announced its performance forecast for the year 2022. During the reporting period, the company is expected to incur a loss of 1.5 billion to 1.85 billion yuan, turning from a profit in the previous year to a loss."
As for the reasons for the loss, SICC said that in 2022, due to repeatedly epidemics, global geopolitical turmoil, inflation and other macro factors, the progress of the company's new production capacity was adversely affected. The company actively adjusted the production capacity of the existing jinan factory and gradually increased the production capacity of conductive substrates.
In the process of adjusting the structure of major products, the temporary production capacity declined due to the adjustment of production lines and equipment, which further affected the decline of operating income and comprehensive gross profit margin. According to the Company's preliminary calculation, the operating income this year is expected to be 415 million yuan to 430 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 12.93% to 15.97%, and the comprehensive gross profit margin for the whole year turned from positive to negative.
In addition, in 2022, SICC recruited a large number of personnel due to the production of new production capacity, which led to a sharp increase in salary expenditure. At the same time, increased investment in research and development and relatively reduced government subsidies also had a great impact on its net profit.
Figure2: the net profit of silicon carbide
According to Yole report, market share of SICC semi-insulating silicon carbide substrate ranks among the top three in the world for three consecutive years. In January, 2022, SICC landed in Science and Technology Innovation Board of Shanghai Stock Exchange as the "first stock of silicon carbide", which was highly expected by many institutions. However, the performance of SICC in the secondary market is surprisingly disappointing. On the first day of trading, the stock opened below the IPO price, dropping more than 6%. After being listed for about four months, the decline has reached as much as 40%, resulting in a market value evaporating by 14.7 billion yuan."
As of now, SICC has been listed for over a year, and the stock price has relatively stabilized. However, at the same time, the performance of SICC is still somewhat unsatisfactory. From 2018 to 2021, SICC did not lose money only in 2021, and its net profit attributable to shareholders in that year was RMB 90 million. In the three years from 2018 to 2020, SICC lost 42 million yuan, 201 million yuan and 642 million yuan respectively, with a total loss of nearly 900 million yuan. From the recently released performance forecast, it appears that SICC, which managed to turn a loss around in just one year, is expected to incur losses again in 2022 As of the end of June 2022, the gross profit margin of SICC core product silicon carbide substrate was only 5.92%, down 26.91% from the same period of the previous year; The gross profit margin of other products was-43. 92%.
Despite the support from the sector, SICC Advanced faces a setback, with a loss exceeding 150 million yuan in 2022-China.exportsemi.com
