"To make" is better than to "buy"?
| new strategy
As the two major appliance giants in China, Midea and Gree have begun to lay out intelligent manufacturing business in recent years. Midea bought one of the four major families of robots, kuka, Germany, Gree Intelligent Equipment Manufacturing Division independently established Gree Intelligent Equipment Co., Ltd., and proposed industrial robots and high-end CNC machine tools as the company's future two major research areas.
Although the starting points of both sides are roughly the same, the acquisition of midea and the independent research and development of Gree are two different development logics, which still make the industry look forward to its trend. Recently, Midea and Gree have released their 2021 annual reports, how is the progress of their robot business?
Midea – achieved positive growth for the first time
According to midea group's 2021 annual report, in 2021, Midea Group achieved a total operating income of about 341.2 billion yuan, an increase of 20.06% year-on-year; achieved a non-net profit of about 25.9 billion yuan, an increase of 5.34% year-on-year. Among them, the robot and automation business achieved revenue of about 27.3 billion yuan in 2021, an increase of 26.37% year-on-year.
Behind the revenue growth of the robot and automation business is the efforts of KUKA, a subsidiary of mid-the-united group, in various fields. In 2021, the overseas business of robotics and automation will release software products such as the new operating system iiQKA.OS, the intelligent simulation software KUKA.Sim 4.0, and the industrial Internet platform iiQoT to accelerate the layout of the digital field, and launch new products such as KR DELTA and KMP 600-S diffDrive in non-automotive fields such as electronics, food and medical care, actively expanding diversified industry opportunities.
In the domestic business, KUKA China's revenue increased by 48.4% year-on-year. It is understood that last year, KUKA China completed the release of 24 new products and applications, further completed the domestic product series, and comprehensively laid out in the fields of robot body production, industrial automation solutions, system integration and intelligent logistics. KUKA China's customer structure continues to improve, and sales in other industries exceed that of the traditional automotive industry, of which the proportion of revenue in electric vehicles, construction machinery, new energy, consumer electronics and other industries has increased significantly, and new customer sales account for more than 10%.
From the overall situation in 2021, this is the first time that Midea has achieved positive growth in performance after the acquisition of KUKA Robot, and the data shows that from 2017 to 2020, the revenue of Midea's robot and automation business was 27.037 billion yuan, 25.678 billion yuan, 25.192 billion yuan and 21.589 billion yuan, accounting for 11.23%, 9.89%, 9.05% and 7.6% of the revenue.
The recovery of revenue in 2021 seems to indicate that the run-in between Midea and KUKA is gradually entering a better state, and Midea's future planning for KUKA is gradually becoming clear.
On the evening of March 26, Midea announced that Midea Electric, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the company, intends to fully acquire and privatize the shares of KUKA. After assessment, the purchase price is 80.77 euros per share, and the total purchase price is about 150 million euros (1.05 billion yuan). Midea Group currently indirectly holds a 95% stake in KUKA. After the completion of the transaction, it means that Midea will make a full acquisition of KUKA, and the latter will also become an overseas subsidiary controlled by the former 100%.
In the view of industry insiders, the acquisition of remaining shares and the privatization of KUKA robots are conducive to Midea's complete control of kuka's independent operation and management rights. Although Midea was already the absolute majority shareholder of KUKA before, it originally promised not to interfere in KUKA's operations, but in the actual business synergy, it was found that if KUKA was not transformed, it was difficult for KUKA and Midea's own business to achieve synergy and docking. Midea and the original management of KUKA also had difficulty agreeing on many decisions. In addition, after KUKA entered the U.S. system, its development was not smooth, and the report card handed over by its overseas senior management also made the United States dissatisfied. Midea needs to take full control of KUKA to further connect its high-end manufacturing and robotics business with its existing home appliance and industrial manufacturing businesses.
At present, Midea is also gradually promoting KUKA's localization operation in China. In 2021, KUKA will shift the center of its AMR business to the Chinese market and set up an independent business department, shanghai will become the global headquarters of KUKA mobile robots, mobile robot R & D and production base is located in Shunde, focusing on automotive, new energy, chips, home appliances, warehousing and logistics and other industries.
After the full privatization of KUKA, how Midea's robot business will usher in changes, it remains to be answered.
Gree - the growth rate is stable, but the volume is small
According to the 2021 financial report of Gree Electric Appliances, the company's operating income in 2021 was 187.869 billion yuan, an increase of 11.69% year-on-year; the net profit attributable to the mother was 23.064 billion yuan, an increase of 4.01% year-on-year. Among them, intelligent equipment was 858 million yuan, an increase of 42.77% year-on-year.
As early as the end of 2012, Gree decided to enter the field of high-end equipment and began to develop industrial robots. In 2013, the first intelligent equipment product was developed - five-axis servo manipulator GM1400, and in the same year, the industrial robot GR8A/1 was developed. 4。 In August 2015, Gree's Zhuhai Nanshui Robot Industrial Park was officially put into production, and Gree Industrial Robot began mass production, and relevant research institutes were established.
Gree intelligent equipment mainly cnc machine tools, industrial robots, intelligent warehousing and logistics, factory automation four major sectors of the series of products, in 2021, its related business sector development is as follows:
In terms of CNC machine tools, the existing products have been optimized and upgraded, and the market scale has been continuously expanded in the fields of 5G communications, machinery manufacturing, medical treatment, etc., focusing on high-speed, high-torque electric spindles, linear motors high-speed movement and high acceleration of new energy vehicle structural parts processing machine tools, and establishing cooperation with well-known parts manufacturing enterprises to provide one-stop solutions for the world's new energy vehicle manufacturing leading enterprises.
Intelligent warehousing and logistics, based on the technical planning route of intelligent warehousing and logistics, has made a demonstration project of intelligent logistics three-dimensional library in the domestic electric power, machinery manufacturing, food cold chain, auto parts and other industries and overseas markets, and has made project breakthroughs in new fields such as rubber tires, book publishing, and beauty manufacturing.
Industrial robots and automation solutions, based on the rich project experience and application cases accumulated in the manufacturing fields of motors, small household appliances, stamping, machining, etc., continue to open up the external market; at the same time, quickly enter the emerging market or subdivisions such as photovoltaic, wood, etc., expand the application scenarios, and have provided robot and automation solutions for many well-known enterprises.
It can be seen that Gree, which takes the road of completely independent research and development, has a good growth rate, but due to its small volume, its intelligent equipment business is difficult to grow into a new business growth engine of the group in a short period of time.