On August 23, Science and Technology Innovation Board Daily (Reporter Wu Xuguang) reported that on the evening of August 22, the leading silicon carbide substrate company Tianyue Advanced released its 2024 interim report.

The financial report shows that in the first half of 2024, the company achieved revenue of 0.912 billion yuan, an increase of 108.27% compared to the same period last year; achieved a net income of 0.102 billion yuan, an increase of 241.40% compared to the same period last year, achieving a profit increase on a year-on-year basis.

Regarding the performance changes, Tianyue Advanced mentioned that during the reporting period, benefiting from the continuous penetration of silicon carbide semiconductor materials in new energy autos and wind energy storage applications, the downstream application market continues to expand, with strong demand for car-level products at terminal points; the company's conductive product capacity and output continue to increase, product delivery capability improves, and profitability increases.

In the view of industry insiders, in the past few years, Tianyue Advanced's performance has experienced certain ups and downs, to some extent related to the company's accelerating business transformation. From initially focusing on the semi-insulating substrate market, to accelerating the layout of conductive substrates, helping to boost the company's performance.

As of now, Tianyue Advanced has achieved bulk supply of 8-inch conductive substrates and other products, with major customers including domestic and foreign electrical power electronic devices, 5G communication, automotive electronics, and other fields.

Tianyue Advanced is a domestic leading producer of wide-bandgap semiconductor materials, mainly engaged in the research and development, production, and sales of silicon carbide semiconductor materials, which can be widely applied in fields such as microwave electronics and electrical power electronics.

Wide-bandgap semiconductor materials, also known as third-generation semiconductor materials, have good market prospects in 5G communication, new energy autos, energy storage, and other fields, and are an important development direction in the semiconductor industry.

It is widely believed in the industry that compared to mature silicon wafer manufacturing processes, silicon carbide substrates will still face challenges in terms of difficult preparation and high costs in the short term. For example, the price of silicon carbide power devices is still several times that of silicon-based devices, and downstream application areas still need to balance the high price of silicon carbide devices with the overall cost reduction resulting from the superior performance of silicon carbide devices.

Tianyue Advanced stated that silicon carbide substrates are a core link in the industry chain and if the company and other industry enterprises cannot continuously reduce the cost of silicon carbide substrates, it may lead to the overall industry development falling short of expectations, adversely impacting the company's operation.

In terms of profitability, in the first half of 2024, the company's gross margin was 23.01%, an increase of 11.7 percentage points compared to the same period last year. The comprehensive gross margin is influenced by factors such as production costs, product prices, and product structure.

In terms of research and development expenses, during the reporting period, Tianyue Advanced's research and development expenses amounted to 56.2098 million yuan, accounting for 6.16% of the operating income, a year-on-year decrease of 37.41%. The company stated that this was mainly due to the high net amount of research and development expenses for new products in the same period last year and the decrease in net amount in the current period.

Recently, on the investor interaction platform, some investors expressed concern about Tianyue Advanced's future progress in innovative products: 'The fourth-generation semiconductor materials have already emerged. Are they overlapping with the company's use of third-generation materials? Does the company pay attention to fourth-generation materials and have countermeasures?'

Tianyue Advanced responded to this by saying: 'The company continues to lay out in forward-looking technological innovation, including in the field of fourth-generation semiconductors such as diamond substrates. Overall, the global fourth-generation semiconductor materials are still in the development stage.'