Chapter One Overview of 3C Automation Equipment Industry

  I. Overview

3C automation refers to the production process of using automatic control machines and systems in the 3C (computer, communication, consumer electronics) industry. Due to its high value-added and high gross profit characteristics, the 3C industry has become one of the earliest and most widely used fields of industrial automation in the manufacturing industry.

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, which mainly produces core components such as electronic components, flat panel displays, and mobile chips; the midstream is the 3C automation equipment industry; the downstream is the 3C automation equipment application industry, including computers, mobile phones and other fields.

In order to realize the need to replace labor, the 3C automation system has high precision requirements and technical difficulties for the required mechanical equipment. 3C automation equipment usually integrates mechanical systems, motion systems, electrical control systems, sensing systems, information management systems, cloud computing, big data, etc. In recent years, under the background of rising labor costs and continuously improving production efficiency requirements, the demand for 3C automation equipment has grown rapidly, and the industry has developed rapidly.

Chapter 2 Analysis of the Market Status of 3C Automation Equipment Industry

1. Market Analysis

China is the world's largest 3C manufacturing base, and the automation equipment market is nearly 100 billion. Since Apple launched the first-generation iPhone in 2007 and the first mobile phone equipped with Android system in 2008, the 3C industry represented by smart phones has ushered in a golden period of development. According to IDC data, global smartphone shipments rose from 495 million units/year in 2011 to 1.371 billion units/year in 2019, with a CAGR of 14%. The huge market space of the 3C industry has driven the prosperity of the upstream manufacturing industry. In recent years, relying on a vast consumer market and cheap production factors, China has become the world's largest 3C manufacturing base. Taking smartphones as an example, in 2019, the global smartphone shipments in China were 370 million units, accounting for 27.1% of the global smartphone shipments.

China's 3C manufacturing industry completed a fixed asset investment of about 1,758.7 billion yuan in 2019. If roughly calculated based on the 30% investment in equipment in the electronics manufacturing industry, the scale of China's 3C equipment market in 2019 will be about 500 billion yuan. Related news has reported that Foxconn, which has the highest degree of automation in the mobile phone industry, has about 30% automation in the production line of Apple mobile phones. If the national 3C automation equipment penetration rate is between 10% and 20%, the corresponding market space for 3C automation equipment is about 50 billion to 100 billion. In the future, as the penetration rate of automation equipment gradually increases, the market space for automation equipment will also expand accordingly.

At present, the automation rate of production equipment in my country is still at a relatively low level, and industry penetration is far from being saturated. The density of industrial robots is an important indicator of the rate of industrial automation. In 2015, the density of industrial robots in my country was only 49 units per 10,000 people. There is still a big gap compared with advanced manufacturing countries Japan, South Korea and Germany.

The competition in the 3C manufacturing industry is fierce, China's demographic dividend is gradually disappearing, and the cost side drives the industry's automation rate to increase. At present, my country's 3C production enterprises mainly exist in the form of OEM, producing products with low added value, mainly relying on the comparative advantage of labor force, and the profit level is not high.

Chapter 3 Prospect Analysis of 3C Automation Equipment Industry

1. Relevant Policies

"The Outline of the 14th Five-Year Plan" proposes "implementing the strategy of manufacturing a strong country", and it is necessary to "deeply implement intelligent manufacturing and green manufacturing projects, develop new service-oriented manufacturing models, and promote high-end, intelligent, and green manufacturing." The state encourages manufacturing The upgrading and transformation of the industry and the development of intelligent manufacturing will help promote the development of the 3C automation equipment manufacturing industry.

2. Industry prospect

The 3C manufacturing industry has the characteristics of a large number of workers, many repetitive tasks, and fast update speed. Under the background of China's intelligent manufacturing and the disappearance of demographic dividends, the 3C industry is becoming more and more urgent to upgrade automation. In recent years, although the growth of traditional consumer electronics products has slowed down, emerging consumer electronics products represented by mobile phones, tablet computers, and wearable devices have grown rapidly. The application of 5G is an important change in the smartphone industry. 5G mobile phones have higher requirements for chip processing capabilities, battery technology, and heat dissipation. Testing and assembly equipment need to be upgraded or replaced. The 3C automation equipment industry has a good development prospect.

With the gradual disappearance of my country's demographic dividend, the gradual increase in manufacturing labor costs, and the improvement of the comprehensive strength of domestic component companies, 3C industry automation is the only solution that can effectively reduce production costs.