The company achieved operating income of 3.6 billion yuan in 23Q1, +84% year on year; achieved net profit of 890 million yuan, +100% year on year, net profit of the mother after deduction of 870 million yuan, +102% year on year; gross profit margin was 40.61%, +0.67 pct year on year. The company's revenue target for 2023 increased by more than 60% year-on-year, thanks to the continued growth in the equipment business and the accelerated release of the materials business.
The company will continue to benefit from high downstream demand and the continuous expansion of its product line in the equipment business. In the field of photovoltaic equipment, the company will continue to benefit from the trend of downstream production expansion, and the transformation of downstream silicon wafers into large-scale production capacity will bring momentum to the company's continuous growth. At the same time, the company continues to expand its equipment product matrix, extending downstream from the long crystal and processing process of silicon wafers to the core equipment of batteries and modules. The company aims to sign more than 3 billion yuan of new orders for battery equipment and module equipment in 2023. The integrated layout on the photovoltaic equipment side will further consolidate the company's advantages as a leader in domestic photovoltaic long-crystal equipment. In the field of semiconductor equipment, the company has achieved full coverage and batch sales of 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafers, and is also developing core equipment such as slicing, polishing, and CVD; the company's 6-inch silicon carbide epitaxial equipment has reached the international advanced level and has achieved rapid growth in order volume.
The company expects to fully benefit from increased production capacity for sapphire materials and core consumables in '23, and the revenue scale of the materials business is expected to double. In terms of sapphire, the company actively promoted the production capacity increase of its subsidiary Ningxia Xinjingsheng project and used core process and cost advantages to accelerate the deployment of the sapphire business in the consumer electronics sector. It is expected that revenue will continue to rise in '23. In the field of consumables, the company's large-size quartz crucibles can be used in the semiconductor and photovoltaic fields. The company has planned three phases of a total of 160,000 large-size quartz crucible projects. The first phase of the large-scale quartz crucible project with an annual output of 48,000 large quartz crucibles was gradually released under the guarantee of sufficient quartz sand reserves. Currently, the overall supply is in short supply; the company has quickly passed downstream customer verification in the gold steel wire field, and Zhejiang's first phase production capacity has been successfully put into operation and large-scale sales have been achieved. In terms of silicon carbide materials, the company's 6-inch silicon carbide substrate products have now been verified by some downstream customers and has successfully grown industry-leading 8-inch silicon carbide crystals.
Investment advice
The company's two major sectors of equipment and materials have plenty of growth momentum. The core advantages on the equipment side help develop and advance the materials business, and the accelerated layout of advanced materials has also formed positive feedback on equipment sales. We predict that the company's net profit to the mother in 2023-2025 will be 46/54/68 billion yuan respectively. Based on the company's high growth in the next few years, we will maintain the “Highly Recommended” rating.
Risk warning
The risk that the competitive pattern of the industry will worsen; the risk that aluminum nitride production capacity will not rise as fast as expected.