Jingsheng Co., Ltd. announced that the case of returning more than 30 million yuan of equipment and compensation that was previously sued has been ruled in the second instance, and the court rejected all claims of China Steel Research Institute. China Steel Research Institute, which is wholly owned by China Steel Research, holds 40% of the shares and has become a discredited executor in September 2023.
On June 7th, the contract dispute case of semiconductor equipment company JingSheng was ruled.
On the evening of June 6th, JingSheng announced that the company has recently received the "Civil Judgment" delivered by the Intermediate People's Court of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province. The case in which the company was sued to return over 30 million yuan worth of equipment and compensation has been judged in the second instance. The judgment showed that all the demands of the appellant, China Steel Research Institute Group Energy Saving Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "CSR") were rejected.
JingSheng said that the ruling effectively guarantees the legitimate rights and interests of the listed company, effectively protects the reputation and interests of shareholders, and will not have a negative impact on the current or future profits of the company.
Looking back at the development of the case, in March 2023, CSR filed a lawsuit in the Qixia District People's Court of Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, against JingSheng, claiming that the 30 artificial sapphire long crystal furnace equipment delivered by JingSheng was unusable and demanding that JingSheng return the equipment fee of 27 million yuan and compensate for a loss of 10 million yuan.
It is reported that the equipment was formally delivered in 2017, and JingSheng was listed on the Star Market in April 2023. After six years, at the key node of JingSheng's IPO listing, CSR publicly accused its product technology of having problems and filed a lawsuit, which seems to be quite suspicious.
Today (June 7th), a reporter from the "Star Market Daily" asked both parties about this question.
A person from the securities department of JingSheng told a reporter from the "Star Market Daily" that due to the long time of equipment delivery, the details are not clear, but CSR had indeed completed equipment acceptance at that time. "It is unlikely that there were equipment failures after acceptance, as the company has an after-sales service team. However, it is possible that their (CSR) factory situation could not meet the usage conditions."
JingSheng mainly engages in the research, development, production, and sales of crystal growth equipment. At present, the company's business mainly focuses on the semiconductor field and is a mainstream domestic semiconductor equipment company, providing customized products, such as semiconductor-grade monocrystalline silicon furnaces, silicon carbide monocrystalline furnaces, and other equipment, to semiconductor material manufacturers and other material customers.
It is understood that JingSheng has now covered domestic silicon wafer manufacturers and domestic leading enterprises or mainstream customers in silicon carbide substrates. It has established cooperative relations with Shanghai Newsheng, Hangzhou Lion Microelectronics, ThinKom Jinzhou Corporation, Sanan Optoelectronics, Zhejiang Tony Electronic, BYD, and other enterprises.
"The technology of sapphire equipment is much simpler than that of semiconductor-grade long crystal furnace equipment, and the sapphire equipment was selling well at that time, and other customers were using it normally," said the above-mentioned person. "JingSheng had already done very little with sapphire equipment a few years ago."
According to the introduction, JingSheng mainly focused on the semiconductor-grade long crystal furnace as the main business direction in the early stage of development. However, early customers did not use domestic equipment much and mainly used foreign equipment, so in order to meet its own development needs, JingSheng entered the hot sapphire growth equipment market at that time. "The company judged that the sapphire market has been saturated in recent years, so the direction has been shifted."
Looking back at CSR, it is understood that the company is a new type of central enterprise holding mixed ownership enterprise approved by the SASAC in 2016, with a registered capital of 50 million yuan.
Among them, China Steel Research Technology Group Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "China Steel Research") holds 40% of the shares of CSR through its wholly-owned subsidiary, Xin Ye Group, realizing relative holding of the largest shareholder of the company; Hongrui Tianlan, as a holding platform for the company's management and technical team, holds 25% of the shares; and external strategic investor Guohong Huaye holds 35% of the shares.
During the previous development of CSR, the company successively developed large-sized sapphire crystal preparation technology and long crystal equipment, high-quality silicon carbide crystal and substrate preparation technology and long crystal equipment, waste tire regeneration and recycling technology and production line, new type of diamond composite material and complete production equipment, graphene carbon nano-electricity production technical process and production line, etc.
Among them, the investment of Zhongke Steel Research in the third-generation semiconductor project is greater, and the progress is more externally concerned. According to public reports, Zhongke Steel Research's silicon carbide project has planned to land in Shanghai, Qingdao, Heze, Nantong and other places.
Specifically in Qingdao, the first phase of the Zhongke Steel Research Silicon Carbide Integrated Circuit Industrial Park project was completed in February 2021. The project has a total investment of 1 billion yuan and can produce 50,000 4-inch silicon carbide crystal substrate wafers and 5,000 4-inch high-purity semi-insulating silicon carbide crystal substrate wafers per year when fully operational.
In Shanghai, Zhongke Steel Research signed a cooperation framework agreement with Baoshan District, Shanghai in 2019. Its Shanghai headquarters base project will be located in Baoshan District. The joint venture company, Guohong Zhongyu, is planned to become a high-tech conglomerate with third-generation semiconductor materials applications in 3 to 5 years.
However, by 2022, Zhongke Steel Research had fallen into silence, and there were not many public reports about its development. It is certain that the company has encountered difficulties and became a subject of breach of trust in September 2023.
According to business information, Zhongke Steel Research is currently in operation but has become a defendant in five cases this year, with a total amount of over 94 million yuan. Its historical total execution amount is as high as 272 million yuan, with the courts in Haidian, Beijing, Baoshan, Shanghai, Baoshan, Yunnan Baoshan, Anyang, Henan, Xinyu, Jiangxi, Lanzhou, Gansu, and Haian, Jiangsu. The plaintiffs include Lanzhou New Zone Investment Holding Co., Ltd., Haian Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee, Xinyu High-tech Investment Co., Ltd. and others.
In 2023, Zhongke Steel Research filed a lawsuit against Jing Sheng shares, Qingdao Changyang Investment and Development Co. Ltd. and other parties as a plaintiff for compensation in a contract dispute.
Zhongke Steel Research is currently unable to be reached through its previous public phone number. On June 7th, a reporter from "Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily" called the shareholder of Zhongke Steel Research, China Steel Research, who stated that "the group has no controlling relationship with Zhongke Steel Research, and only holds some shares. We cannot provide accurate information about the operation status of Zhongke Steel Research."