If all goes well, the Shaanxi Kuntong flexible semiconductor service manufacturing base project, located in Xixian New District, Shaanxi Province, will start production in the fourth quarter of this year and formally mass production in the third quarter of next year.
Kun Tong Semiconductor settled in Mianxi New City in 2018 with a total planned investment of 40 billion yuan. Recently, however, it has been reported that Shaanxi Kuntong Semiconductor Co., Ltd., the investor of the project, announced the end of the project in a disguised way of "severing employees".
On the eve of May Day, a reporter from Securities Times e Company successively came to the office of Kun Tong Semiconductor and the construction site of flexible semiconductor project. At the office location, the reporter saw a notice with the words "go through departure procedures" posted on one side of the glass door of the company; at the construction site, the reporter learned that the supporting living area of the project had been suspended for more than three months, and the planned production plant land was still barren.
"our company does not have Huang, it is still in operation, but it is quite difficult." In response to a reporter's question about whether the progress of the project was slow due to lack of funds, Li Xiaoyan, chairman of Kun and Semiconductor, said on the phone that everyone should understand each other for such a large project. "I think there is nothing wrong with our company and we will continue to run it well."
According to the person in charge of Mianxi New Town, after the establishment of Kun Tong Semiconductor, Kun Tong Technology (Beijing) Co., Ltd., a major shareholder of Kun Tong Semiconductor, failed to fulfill its investment obligations in accordance with the articles of association of Shaanxi Kun Tong Company and the resolution of the shareholders' meeting. as a result, Shaanxi Kun Tong fell into an operational crisis, and the project is currently at a standstill.
At present, another member of Kun Tong Semiconductor, Jianxi Development Group Co., Ltd., in the East-West Xianxian New area, has made a number of calls to ask Kun Tong Technology to fulfill its actual contribution obligations and comprehensively solve the cash flow difficulties of Kun Tong Semiconductor.
The construction site of the project has been suspended
There are many technology enterprises in the incubation period in the western Yungu, which is located in Xixian New District, Shaanxi Province. The fourth floor of the C3 floor is the registered address and office of Kun Tong Semiconductor.
At noon, employees came out of the Kun Tong Semiconductor office area one after another. On the glass door of the office area is a notice with the words "go through the departure formalities" and the relevant contact number. The registration of the notice shows that the notice was issued on March 27.
A reporter from the Securities Times learned from the official website of the Xincheng Management Committee that recently there has been a reflection of the failure of Kun Tong Semiconductor to return to work on time. In its reply, the relevant department said that Kun Tong Semiconductor is still unable to resume normal operation due to the epidemic. The company now has eight staff members on duty, mainly responsible for purchasing epidemic prevention materials and dealing with emergencies.
Kun Tong Semiconductor is not adjacent to its flexible semiconductor project, which is more than ten kilometers apart. Subsequently, the reporter came to Lianzhuang Village, which is located in Dawang Town, a new town in Yixi, where the flexible semiconductor project is built. The reporter saw here that some of the surrounding houses still have the words "flexible semiconductor relocation area".
According to a land expropriation notice issued by the Xi Xi Management Committee in early 2019, in a construction land project called "Agricultural Land conversion and Land expropriation of 71st and 72nd batches of Xixian New area in 2018", it is proposed to expropriate the collective land of the relevant village groups, such as Lianzhuang Village, Dawang Town, totaling 48.9239 hectares.
From the reporter's on-site visits, the land expropriated above gathered a number of projects with Silk Road Cochuanggu as the core, and the flexible semiconductor project is only one of them.
Near Lianzhuang Village, there is the G211 National Highway, where the direction of the national highway changes from north-south to east-west. Local residents told reporters that the supporting living area of the flexible semiconductor project is located on the east side of the G211 national highway, and the planned production plant is located in the northwest of the national highway.
Some local residents said that there has been no sign of construction in the supporting living areas since the Spring Festival shutdown. On the periphery of the living area, the reporter saw that the facilities in the area had begun to take shape, including towering steel structure buildings and a number of mobile board houses with blue roofs and white walls. Compared with the busy scene of the nearby construction site, there are no workers working in the living area, only one security guard is left.
A person near the living area of the flexible semiconductor project told reporters that migrant workers had gone back and the shutdown was probably due to financial problems and the impact of the epidemic. In his view, construction may start again in September. However, the feedback from the two local residents is not optimistic-"the project is over". This means that something is broken or cannot be used in Shaanxi dialect.
The reporter then came to the planned site of the project production plant located on the northwest side of G211 National Highway. It is still deserted, and there is no sign that construction has started. "several pile drivers were shipped here, but then all of them were shipped away." Local residents told reporters.
Across the road from the planned production plant, there is a project called Miaoxi New City 110 kilovolt Kun Tong Substation. From the project overview board, the project plans to build a 110kV substation with a total capacity of about 480MVA. Local residents told reporters that the substation was originally built for flexible semiconductor projects.
The person in charge of Miaoxi New Town told the reporter that in the early preparation of the project, in strict accordance with the district entry agreement, Jiaxi New Town transferred the business backbone from a number of functional departments to form a special work office to coordinate and solve the problems of staff dormitory, office space and catering supporting services. Provide support and services in project planning, land requisition and relocation application and approval, import tax rebate, environmental impact, power supply, water supply, municipal roads and other supporting projects and related procedures to ensure the smooth progress of the project. At present, the requisition and approval of the relevant reserve land have been completed, which can meet the needs of the projects entering the area at any time.
There are early signs of crisis.
At the beginning of the project, the total investment announced by the flexible semiconductor project is 40 billion yuan. The core of the project is the sixth generation fully flexible AMOLED demonstration production line with a production capacity of 30,000 pieces / month, the size of the substrate is 1500mm × 1850mm, and the products are mainly small and medium-sized flexible AMOLED display modules.
The current problems encountered by Kun Tong Semiconductor and the hindrance of project construction may have been a sign for a long time. Tianyan check data show that the main shareholders of Kun Tong Semiconductor are Kun Tong Technology and Guanxi Development, with a stake of 95% and 5% respectively. Earlier, Kun Tong Semiconductor had three shareholders, namely Kun Tong Technology, GSF Global Co.,Ltd (hereinafter referred to as GSF) and Guanxi Development.
In January this year, a number of industrial and commercial information changes took place in Kun Tong Semiconductor, of which there were three key ones: first, the registered capital increased from US $2 billion to US $13.89 billion; second, GSF withdrew from the ranks of shareholders, and Kun Tong Technology's shareholding increased from 60% to 95%; third, the senior management changed and the former general manager Zhuo Jianhong withdrew.
The majority shareholder of Kun Tong Technology is Li Xiaoyan. As the largest contributor of Kun Tong Semiconductor, she also serves as the chairman of the latter. The development of Xixi depends on the management committee of Jiaxi New Town. In addition, industry media information shows that GSF is an enterprise under the name of Zhuo Jianhong.
Talking about the recent situation of Kun Tong Semiconductor, a person who had been in contact with the company said to the reporter that it was a bit of a surprise. "Last year, I learned that Shiyuan Technology sent dozens of personnel to Kun Tong Company to carry out preliminary work. Because Shiyuan Technology is a relatively well-known design and consulting company in the semiconductor industry, people still recognized Kun Tong at that time. In addition, at that time, Kun Tong Company also had more than 100 employees. It seemed that the whole company was bustling and would objectively think that the whole project was going well. "
"to put it bluntly, (the stagnation of flexible semiconductor projects) is still a funding problem, especially the funding of investor Kun Tong Technology has not been able to be put in place. Of course, government-related funding may not be fully in place, because in the face of such a large-scale investment, local governments certainly do not want to be wronged. " People in the above-mentioned industry told reporters.
In addition to capital, talent and technology are also key factors restricting the development of Kun Tong Semiconductor. In October 2019, a group of core senior managers, such as the general manager of Kun Tong Semiconductor, suddenly left one after another, which had a great impact on the normal development of the company. " With regard to the current problems of Kun Tong Semiconductor, the relevant person in charge of Kun Xi New Town told reporters.
A reporter from the Securities Times confirmed from a number of sources in the industry that the original core technical team of Kun Tong Semiconductor, including Zhuo Jianhong, came from Shanghai Hehui Optoelectronics Co., Ltd. According to the official website of Hehui Optoelectronics, the company is a high-tech enterprise specializing in the research, development and production of small and medium-sized high-resolution AMOLED displays. In order to form a mass production scale, it is building a sixth-generation AMOLED production line.
The above interviewed industry insiders told reporters that compared with BOE, Vicino and other enterprises in the flexible screen investment and achievements, there is still a gap between Hehui Optoelectronics and the leading enterprises. "the OLED investment scale is huge, with such a team to implement a large-scale investment plan, it is really a question mark whether the project can be put together."
Catch up with the OLED investment boom
Kun Tong Semiconductor was founded in July 2018, just in time for the OLED investment boom that year.
A reporter from the Securities Times combed and found that from the middle of 2018 to the end of 2018, a number of listed companies in the panel industry announced intensively to invest in the construction of OLED production lines. Among them, Shen Tianma announced the expansion project of the second phase of the sixth generation LTPS AMOLED production line in Wuhan; BOE invested 46.5 billion yuan to build the AMOLED production line in Fuzhou; and Vicino started the construction of the sixth generation full-soft AMOLED production line in Hefei with a total investment of 44 billion yuan.
The capacity of the above-mentioned projects is different. The design capacity of the Weixinuo Hefei production line is 30,000 pieces / month, the design capacity of the Fuzhou project of JD.com Fang is 48,000 pieces / month, the total design capacity of the first and second phase of the Shentianma Wuhan production line is 37.5 thousand pieces / month, and the design capacity of Kun Tong Semiconductor is 30,000 pieces / month.
OLED is a new display technology in recent years. Driven by the trend that Samsung and Apple Inc mobile phones are equipped with OLED panels one after another, the major mobile phone manufacturers around the world are targeting the application of OLED. Previously, the market share was mainly concentrated in the hands of Korean manufacturers such as Samsung and LG. With the accession of domestic manufacturers, OLED is also rapidly localized.
According to market research firm DSCC, Chinese panel manufacturers will spend $29.7 billion to increase OLED panel production capacity between 2018 and 2023, while LCD panel investment will turn conservative from 2022. In addition, shipments of OLED panels will nearly double to 818 million from 2018 to 2022.
A person from a listed company interviewed told reporters that with the acceleration of the domestic substitution process, Samsung OLED's market share has declined, at the same time, from the OLED market demand, basically maintain double-digit growth every year.
The reporter combed the latest annual report and public information, found that the 5.5th generation AMOLED of Weixinokun Mountain has supplied to a number of well-known brand customers at home and abroad; the production capacity and yield of the sixth generation flexible AMOLED production line in Gu'an have made good progress, and the products have entered the supply chain of customers of many first-tier brands; the construction of the sixth generation flexible AMOLED production line in Hefei has been continuously promoted, and the main structure of the production line has been capped in the middle of October 2019.
The sixth generation flexible AMOLED production line in Mianyang of Beijing Oriental has realized mass production, and the sixth generation flexible AMOLED production line in Chongqing has completed the pile foundation. The production capacity and yield of the 5.5th generation AMOLED production line and the 6th generation LTPS AMOLED production line of Tianma in Wuhan continue to improve, while the second phase of Tianma project in Wuhan is in the stage of equipment moving and installation and commissioning. TCL Technology's T4G6 flexible OLED production line achieved mass production in the first phase in December last year, and the second and third phases will be completed this year.
The wrestling between localities and enterprises
How to match the huge investment scale and capital demand of OLED has always been a problem. The above listed companies told the Securities Times that the industry has explored an effective construction model, that is, joint ventures and cooperation between panel companies and local governments.
Li Xiaoyan told reporters that the reason for planning flexible semiconductor projects is to see that although the industry has a lot of production lines and production capacity, there is no output. "the problems encountered by our company today are the same for any startup, especially for projects like this [with huge investments]."
From the existing investment cases of listed companies, OLED projects are generally established by enterprises and local governments to set up joint venture project companies, the registered capital of the project company covers part of the total investment, and the difference is solved through debt financing and other external financing methods. "in order to express sincerity and support for cooperation, Kun Xi Development held 5% of the shares when Kun Tong Semiconductor was founded, and now it has fulfilled some of its capital contribution obligations in accordance with the provisions of the articles of association." In an interview with reporters, the relevant person in charge of Jiaxi New Town specifically mentioned this point.
"the demand for funds for OLED projects is too large, and the government will be more cautious when inviting investment, fearing that there will be overcapacity like LCD when blindly investing in too many production lines. Of course, the investment in the display panel also needs the accumulation of technology, and people, money and technology are indispensable. " Talking about the current situation of Kun Tong Semiconductor, a domestic OLED manufacturer told reporters.
The introduction of Kun Tong Semiconductor and its OLED project also bears the local government's desire for industrial transformation and upgrading. According to the data provided by the person in charge of Miaoxi New Town, according to the original plan, the annual output value of the flexible semiconductor project is not less than 26 billion yuan, which can drive the output value of the flexible semiconductor industry chain to exceed 18 billion yuan and directly absorb more than 5000 employees, which plays an exemplary and leading role in promoting the innovation and development of the new town.
He Xiaoning, Executive Vice Chairman and Secretary General of Shaanxi Semiconductor Industry Association, pointed out that although different levels of semiconductor display industry systems such as LCD, LCD and LED have been formed in Shaanxi, and the annual output value of the industry has exceeded 10 billion yuan, the development of the industry has been restricted because it has not formed a local supporting industry chain.
The reporter learned that Xianyang Rainbow Optoelectronics is the local LCD industry leader in Shaanxi. When the flexible OLED project of Quintong Semiconductor was introduced, the place was to expand the semiconductor display industry into a "one soft and one hard" pattern with both hard and soft screens.
He Xiaoning told reporters that at present, governments at the Shaanxi, municipal and district levels have given strong support to the semiconductor display industry, especially at the provincial level, which has put forward the development idea of "core network end screen". He expressed the hope that in the future, government departments will further increase their support for the electronic information technology industry with semiconductors and integrated circuits as the core.
The person in charge of Mianxi New Town told reporters that when Jiaxi Development found that there was a funding gap in Kun Tong Semiconductor, it carried out calls many times and asked Kun Tong Science and Technology to fulfill its actual contribution obligations through letters, meetings, interviews, and other means. comprehensively solve the cash flow problem of Kun Tong in Shaanxi Province.
The person in charge said that Guanxi Development will continue to urge Kun Tong Technology to fulfill its actual contribution obligations, solve the difficulties faced by Kun Tong Semiconductor, and promote the normal progress of the project at an early date. "of course, if the project comes to a standstill for a long time due to the failure of Kun Tong Technology to make its actual contribution, Ganxi Development will protect its legitimate rights and interests in accordance with the articles of association, laws and regulations of Kun Tong Semiconductor Company and other relevant provisions."