Industrial robots suffered a complete defeat in the first half of the year, and only this one of the five leading companies made a profit

On August 31, Estun released its financial report for the first half of 2022. During the reporting period, the company achieved operating income of 1.655 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.00%. The net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 76.3016 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 21.32%.

It is not easy for Estun to maintain profit growth under the influence of the epidemic. In fact, judging from the performance disclosed so far, industrial robot companies generally suffered losses in the first half of this year, including Siasun Robotics , Harbin Institute of Technology Intelligent Technology, New STAR, Efort and other domestic leading companies.

It can also be seen in the reports of these loss-making companies that the poor performance was mainly affected by the epidemic, which led to tight supply chains, difficulty in ensuring delivery, and affected order signing and production. At the same time, the continued rise in raw material prices also reduced gross profit margins and profits.

In terms of quarters, in the first quarter of this year, Estun's revenue was 805 million yuan, up 26.6% year-on-year, and its net profit reached 60.07 million yuan, up 83.7% year-on-year; while the net profit in the second quarter was only 16.23 million yuan, down 46.2% year-on-year and 73% month-on-month. It can be seen that the impact of the epidemic in March, April and May was still quite large.

Robotics business is growing rapidly

Estun’s main businesses include industrial robots, intelligent manufacturing and core automation components.

Benefiting from the development opportunities of new energy industries such as new energy vehicle power batteries and photovoltaics, its industrial robots and intelligent manufacturing businesses have grown rapidly, with revenue reaching 1.18 billion yuan in the first half of the year, an increase of 8.71% year-on-year, of which sales of industrial robots increased by more than 50%.

The revenue from automation core components business was 476 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.17%. Estun said that affected by the epidemic control in Shanghai, coupled with upstream inflation, reduced new export orders and other factors, the industry prosperity of general automation continued to decline, and logistics and business exchanges were blocked, and product solution delivery was delayed, affecting revenue and profits. With the easing of supply chain disruption risks in the Yangtze River Delta starting in May, the industry is expected to enter an upward cycle.

In terms of gross profit margin, Estun's industrial robot and intelligent manufacturing business had a gross profit margin of 34.05% in the first half of the year, a year-on-year decrease of 0.46 percentage points, mainly due to cost pressures caused by rising prices of important raw materials such as chips.

Estun said that it controls costs by optimizing the supply chain, increasing domestic substitution, implementing lean manufacturing management and taking measures to reduce costs and increase efficiency. It also mentioned in its first-quarter financial report that it will eliminate the impact of costs on gross profit margin by raising prices, increasing domestic substitution and other means. Looking at the second quarter alone, its gross profit margin reached 34.8%, up 2.3 percentage points from the previous quarter, which shows that the effect is good.

New energy is the future growth point of industrial robots

Although the performance of the industrial robot industry was generally under pressure in the first half of the year, the future market demand for industrial robots remains relatively optimistic, especially in the application of new energy fields, such as lithium batteries.

Estun said that in the future, as subsidies for the new energy vehicle industry decline year by year, lithium battery companies will gradually increase their requirements for production efficiency and product stability, and the use of robots will gradually increase, which will become the engine of growth in robot demand in the next few years.

In 2022, Estun established a new energy business department to deeply explore how robots and motion control products can meet the ever-changing needs and increasing requirements of the lithium battery industry.

Industry insiders said that the epidemic at home and abroad has further exposed the difficulty of enterprises in hiring, and accelerated the pace of manufacturing enterprises using machines to replace manual labor. In addition to application scenarios such as automobiles and 3C, the demand for industrial robots in many fields such as semiconductors, logistics, medical treatment and general industry will increase significantly.

In fact, there is currently a situation in which industrial robots are in short supply in the market. Data show that in the first half of this year, my country's industrial robot sales reached 131,000 units, continuing to grow rapidly from last year's high base. Due to the shortage of overseas parts, many factories have been forced to extend their delivery cycles. How to ensure delivery has become a priority problem for many companies.

Among them, domestic industrial robot companies will also have more market opportunities. On the one hand, foreign-funded enterprises have been affected by the global epidemic in many aspects such as production, delivery, and after-sales service. Domestic robot manufacturers have quickly seized the market with a relatively complete domestic supply chain system, strong technical service capabilities and flexible market strategies; on the other hand, domestic robot manufacturers have a good development momentum, and market recognition is increasing year by year. According to MIR statistics, the shipment ranking of leading domestic robot manufacturers continued to rise in the first half of 2022.