The 3C manufacturing industry is characterized by a large number of workers, repetitive tasks, and rapid updates. Against the backdrop of smart manufacturing in China and the disappearance of the demographic dividend, the 3C industry is increasingly urgent in its need for automation upgrades. 3C products refer to computers, communications, and consumer electronics, among which mobile phones are the most important component. China's smartphone shipments reached 472 million units, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, accounting for 32% of the global market share. The 3C industry has a wide variety of components, many of which do not require high technology, and there is significant room for domestic substitution.

In recent years, although the growth of traditional consumer electronics has slowed, emerging consumer electronics represented by mobile phones, tablets, and wearable devices have seen rapid growth. The application of 5G is an important transformation for the smartphone industry, as 5G phones have higher requirements for chip processing capabilities, battery technology, and heat dissipation. Testing and assembly equipment need to be upgraded or replaced, indicating a promising development prospect for the 3C automation equipment industry.

According to the "2020-2025 China 3C Automation Equipment Industry Market Deep Analysis and Investment Strategy Consulting Research Report" published by the China Research and Development Institute.

3C products refer to computers, communications, and consumer electronics, among which mobile phones are the most important component. The 3C industry has a wide variety of components, many of which do not require high technology, and there is significant room for domestic substitution. The vigorous development of domestic mobile phones has brought a huge terminal market to downstream components. With the significant increase in domestic residents' income and consumption capacity, as well as the commercialization of 4G, the demand for mobile terminals such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices continues to expand, showing a rapid growth trend in China's consumer electronics market. China is the world's largest manufacturer of 3C products, with about 70% of electronic products manufactured and assembled in China.

Current status of the 3C automation equipment market

From the perspective of the industrial chain, the 3C automation equipment manufacturing industry can be divided into three links: the upstream is the key component sub-industry, mainly producing core components such as electronic components, flat panel displays, and mobile chips; the midstream is the 3C automation equipment industry; the downstream is the application industry of 3C automation equipment, including fields such as computers and mobile phones.

To meet the demand for replacing manual labor, the 3C automation system has high precision requirements and technical difficulties for the required mechanical equipment. 3C automation equipment typically integrates mechanical systems, motion systems, electrical control systems, sensing systems, information management systems, as well as cloud computing and big data. In recent years, against the backdrop of rising labor costs and increasing production efficiency requirements, the demand for 3C automation equipment has grown rapidly, and the industry has developed quickly.

The vigorous development of domestic mobile phones has brought a huge terminal market to downstream components. With the significant increase in domestic residents' income and consumption capacity, as well as the commercialization of 4G, the demand for mobile terminals such as smartphones, tablets, and wearable devices continues to expand, showing a rapid growth trend in China's consumer electronics market. China is the world's largest manufacturer of 3C products, with about 70% of electronic products manufactured and assembled in China.

China is the world's largest manufacturer of 3C products, but the level of automation is still relatively low, leaving significant room for improvement. The manufacturing of 3C products can be divided into production, processing, component assembly, complete machine assembly, maintenance, and packaging. About 70% of electronic products are manufactured and assembled in China, and the demand for production equipment in the Chinese 3C processing market is enormous. However, the current automation rate of production equipment in China is still low, and the industry's penetration has not yet reached saturation. The density of industrial robots, as an important indicator of industrial automation, shows a significant gap compared to advanced manufacturing countries like Japan, South Korea, and Germany.

In 2019, China's 3C manufacturing industry completed fixed asset investment of approximately 1.7587 trillion yuan. If we estimate that the investment in electronic manufacturing industry equipment accounts for 30%, the market size of China's 3C equipment in 2019 is approximately 500 billion yuan. Reports have indicated that Foxconn, which has the highest level of automation in the mobile phone industry, has an automation level of about 30% on the production line for Apple phones. If the national penetration rate of 3C automation equipment is between 10%-20%, the corresponding market space for 3C automation equipment is about 50 billion to 100 billion yuan. In the future, as the penetration rate of automation equipment gradually increases, the market space for automation equipment will also expand.

The 3C manufacturing industry is highly competitive, and the demographic dividend in China is gradually disappearing, driving the increase in the automation rate of the industry from the cost side. Currently, most of China's 3C production enterprises exist in the form of OEM, producing products with low added value, mainly relying on the comparative advantage of labor, resulting in low profit levels. As the demographic dividend gradually disappears, labor costs in the manufacturing industry continue to rise, and the overall strength of domestic component enterprises improves, automation in the 3C industry is the only solution that can effectively reduce production costs.

Trends and prospects of the 3C automation equipment market

The "14th Five-Year Plan" outlines the implementation of the strategy to build a strong manufacturing country, emphasizing the need to "deeply implement intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing projects, develop new service-oriented manufacturing models, and promote the high-end, intelligent, and green development of the manufacturing industry." The state encourages the upgrading and transformation of the manufacturing industry towards intelligent manufacturing, which is conducive to promoting the development of the 3C automation equipment manufacturing industry.

The 3C manufacturing industry is characterized by a large number of workers, repetitive tasks, and rapid updates. Against the backdrop of smart manufacturing in China and the disappearance of the demographic dividend, the 3C industry is increasingly urgent in its need for automation upgrades. In recent years, although the growth of traditional consumer electronics has slowed, emerging consumer electronics represented by mobile phones, tablets, and wearable devices have seen rapid growth. The application of 5G is an important transformation for the smartphone industry, as 5G phones have higher requirements for chip processing capabilities, battery technology, and heat dissipation. Testing and assembly equipment need to be upgraded or replaced, indicating a promising development prospect for the 3C automation equipment industry.