In 2022, profound changes took place in the investment industry, and the voice of the manufacturing industry resounded through the dust again. After the wave of lithography, operating systems, industrial software, and laser radar, the trend of industrial motherboards has finally arrived.
At the policy level, in the long run, industrial motherboards, high-end chips, new materials, and new energy vehicles will become popular racetracks for future investment. In the above fields, technical research and mastery of key technologies have become the top priorities of the current work of enterprises in these industries.
01
The importance of industrial motherboards
In the industrial field, machine tools are referred to as “industry in industry”. According to type, machine tools can be divided into various types, such as turning, drilling, boring, planing, inserting, milling, grinding, gear processing, punching, and pulling.
In the industry, ultra high precision large machine tools are the core of the industry, with machining accuracy of 0.01-0.001 μ m. That is, it can reach or approach the nanoscale, which is so small that it cannot be distinguished by the naked eye. Compared to ordinary CNC machine tools, the accuracy of ultra high precision machines is 1000 times higher, even compared to precision machining, it is also an order of magnitude higher.
The significance of developing ultra high precision large machine tools lies in their great prospects in military scenarios such as ultra low noise submarine propellers. Therefore, this field has been valued by countries around the world.
So far this year, 37 high-end equipment manufacturing companies have landed in A-shares, mainly concentrated on the Growth Enterprise Market and the Science and Technology Innovation Board, and widely covered industries such as machinery and equipment, defense and military industry, and power equipment. The total amount of funds raised is 42.3 billion yuan, ranking among the top nine national strategic emerging industries, with industrial motherboards prominently listed.
In fact, the rise of industrial motherboards can be said to be beneficial to downstream industries such as automotive, military, aerospace, petrochemical, engineering machinery, and even consumer electronics. It can be said that without high-end machine tools, there would be no aircraft carrier or aircraft, and even medical equipment, high-speed rail, cars, computers, and mobile phones could not be smoothly produced. According to the “Made in China 2025 Plan”, by 2025, China’s domestic market share target for high-end CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment will exceed 80%, and high-end CNC machine tools and basic manufacturing equipment will generally enter the ranks of world powers, which also reflects policy support for the industry.
02
How will the future of industrial motherboards develop?
However, in China, the development of high-end machine tools has experienced ups and downs, especially the debt crushing of the former giant Shenyang Machine Tool, which has cast a shadow over the industry. Now, it can be said that the development of industrial motherboards is imminent – in the field of fuel vehicles, the lack of high-end machine tools has made the manufacturing of engines, gearboxes, and chassis subject to human constraints. And this issue has also been extended to new energy vehicles.
In order to solve such problems, on October 26, 2022, the Shenzhen Stock Exchange launched the industrial motherboard ETF, which also opened the capital market for this sector. In the trend of increasing attention from the capital market, the future development of the industry is particularly valued.
Currently, the upstream of machine tools mainly includes basic materials and components, including CNC systems, structural parts, cast iron, steel, CNC systems, drive systems, transmission systems, tool magazine systems, etc.
It can be imagined that the future battle of CNC machine tools will revolve around segmented industries.
In the past, the above segmented industries were dominated by foreign giants: Mitsubishi and Mazak in Japan; Germany has Heidelberg; The United States has Haas. Currently, due to domestic technological progress, it is possible to master some advanced technologies (such as fully digital high-speed and high-precision motion control, multi-axis linkage, etc.), and its market share in domestic high-end CNC systems has increased from less than 1% to 31.9%, while the market share of digital cutting tools has increased from less than 10% to 45%.
With the continuous development of industrial aircraft, key components of aircraft engines and domestic aircraft structural components can gradually be produced by themselves, and in the manufacturing of power generation equipment, it has also shifted from imports to exports.
Now, with the accumulation of demand at the peak of machine tool procurement ten years ago, another round of purchasing is coming. In the investment community, the judgment of this rotation buying trend is that it can further enhance the pace of domestic replacement of machine tools.
03
Heavy responsibilities and a long way to go
If we combine the international environment, we will find that the localization of industrial motherboards is imminent. According to media reports, China still relies heavily on imports for high-end machine tools, with data showing that the localization rate of high-end CNC machine tools is only 6%. Among the importing countries, China, Japan, Switzerland, and other countries stand out. Due to well-known reasons, there are many hidden dangers to China’s security and the “neck” crisis.
In addition, the price of high-end machine tools has gradually increased in recent years. Overseas, the salaries of senior skilled workers in machine tools also far exceed those of other industries. However, in China, due to the low treatment of talents, talents are deterred from this.
In terms of overseas competitive products, the United States still leads the world in machine tool technology and industrial production, such as automated machine tools, automatic production lines, NC machine tools, and FMS. Particularly noteworthy are companies such as Mag MAG, Hass Haas, Gleason (Gear), Harding Hardinge, Heck Hurco, and Flu Flow International.
In Germany, companies such as Gildermeister, Tongkuai Trumpf, Schuler Schuler, Emag, Schleifling Korber Schleifling, Index Index, Henglun Heller, Julian Chiron, Graub Grob, and Heimer Hermle also occupy a dominant position in the industrial chain.
In the future, domestic industrial master machine companies need to continue to make efforts in several aspects, such as geometric accuracy, transmission accuracy, motion accuracy, positioning accuracy, and accuracy retention. Only by continuing to work hard can we tide over the difficulties.
Now is undoubtedly a critical moment for the industrial motherboard industry.
