Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily, October 27th (Reporter Yu Shiqi)On the evening of October 26th, 688367.SH released its third quarter report of 2023. In the first three quarters, the company achieved revenue of 127 million yuan, down 6.92% from the same period last year; net profit belonging to shareholders of listed companies was 10.4934 million yuan, down 56.24% from the same period last year.

The high-tech department of the University of Technology told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily thatThe sharp decline in performance is mainly due to the impact of the market environment in the iron and steel metallurgical industry, and the company's core business ground railway signal control and intelligent dispatching product revenue has decreased, and the current orders on hand are similar to those in previous years.

It is understood that the main business of Tech is railway signal control and safety dispatching, and intelligent mine construction solutions, and its main customers are large state-owned enterprises in mining, metallurgy, petrochemical, port, electric power and other fields. To put it simply, it is to provide intelligent solutions for iron and steel-related enterprises.

In the first three quarters of this year, the business of domestic iron and steel enterprises was relatively low. According to the China Iron and Steel Association, the operating income of iron and steel enterprises in the first three quarters was 4.66 trillion yuan, down 1.74% from the same period last year; the total profit was 62.1 billion yuan, down 34.11% from the same period last year, and the average profit margin was only 1.33%, ranking at the bottom of 41 industrial categories and at a low level.

The performance pressure of downstream customers has been transmitted to the upstream. In this regard, Tech said that the company is strengthening the construction of the marketing system, while based on the existing product framework, but also want to add new application scenarios. Therefore, it is also necessary to increase investment in R & D and introduce professionals.

This also affects the performance of net profit to some extent. Data show that in the first three quarters of this year, sales expenses increased by 1.8441 million yuan over the same period last year, and R & D expenses increased by 2.7759 million yuan. Accumulated, accounting for more than 40% of the net profit in the same period.

At the same time, it should be noted that the special customer structure also leads to the quarterly performance of Tech. Its downstream customers are all large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises. Most of them plan and implement project bidding for investment and procurement for the whole year in the first half of the year, and carry out project acceptance and project settlement in the second half of the year.

The hi-tech side of the University of Technology told Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily that their products are different from the traditional equipment delivery, but a complete system, and it will take a period of implementation cycle after delivery.Therefore, like the bid-winning order in the second quarter, the entire delivery process cannot be completed in the third quarter. Affected by the above factors, the company's revenue and net profit are mainly concentrated in the second half of the year, with a relatively large proportion of revenue in the fourth quarter.

According to the data, the revenue of Tech in the fourth quarter of 2022 accounted for 54.63% of the annual revenue; the net profit belonging to the shareholders of the listed company accounted for 53.02% of the annual net profit.

However, this special customer structure also brings a relatively high risk of accounts receivable. In the first three quarters of this year, the company's accounts receivable were 253 million yuan, accounting for 33.20% of the total assets.

Prior to this, Tech said in its semi-annual report that the company's main customers are large state-owned enterprises in mining, metallurgy, petrochemical, port, electric power and other fields, and the overall credit situation is good, but the payment cycle is long. If future customers are affected by changes in the industry market environment, or national macro policies and other factors, major adverse changes in business or financial conditions, or improper management of the company's accounts receivable, there may be a risk that accounts receivable can not be collected on time, or bad debts may not be recovered.