Can photoresist usher in a highlight moment?

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Recently, there is such a sector in the capital market that has risen for more than a month. Yes, the author is talking about the photoresist sector, the index has risen by nearly 20% in a month, and many players are warming investors with waves of daily limits.

The photoresist sector gained

As the most important process in semiconductor processing, lithography accounts for 40-50% of the chip manufacturing time and 30% of its total cost, which can be said to directly determine the minimum feature size of the chip. Photoresist is a key consumable for photolithography, accounting for about 6% of the global wafer fabrication materials market, which shows its importance.

The cost structure of wafer fabrication materials

It is also known as the "crown jewel" of the electronic chemicals industry because photoresist is the material with the highest barrier in chemical materials, and the next problem is the low localization rate of photoresist. Does the recent surge in the capital market mean that domestic players have some new moves or phased results?

First, rub on the concept and take off directly

In order to better understand this industry, we dismantle the industrial chain of photoresist, the core of which is mainly upstream, mainly relying on basic chemical raw materials to produce resins, solvents, photoinitiators and other electronic chemicals, the highest core technical barriers in the midstream are of course semiconductor photoresist, and the downstream is needless to say.

Photoresist industry chain

Therefore, in the capital market, as long as the concept of photoresist is rubbed, it is easy to take off, such as Xilong Science (002584), which soared by more than 100% in the previous 9 days, is one of the players in the plate, and the company quickly clarified that it did not produce and sell photoresist, but only produced some photoresist supporting reagents (such as cleaning agents, developers, stripping solutions, etc.), and the sales revenue used for photoresist accounted for a low proportion of Xilong Science's operating income (see 10 days and 8 boards for details!). Xilong science, this wave of rise, is it scientific or not?).

Changes in the share price of Xilong Science

The author analyzed the financial report of Xilong Science, in recent years, the performance of Xilong Science has declined significantly, this year has increased revenue without increasing profits, and the net profit has fallen significantly year-on-year (down 82% in the first three quarters), and electronic chemicals such as cleaning agents, developers, and stripping liquids only accounted for less than 15% of Xilong Technology's total revenue last year. In addition, it is worth noting that Xilong Science has been concerned and punished by the regulatory authorities many times recently, mainly because of the inflated income and profits.

Fortunately, the stock price of Xilong Science has begun to correct from a week ago, and the capital market needs more rational investors.

Second, the localization rate, the lifeline of players

In September this year, the mainland imported lithography machines from the Netherlands increased by 1036% year-on-year, and in the first three quarters, ASML, a monopoly company, accounted for nearly 50% of the sales in the mainland.

In fact, its research and development is the process of continuous formula debugging, and the research and development of a formula requires the arrangement and combination of various additives, and it is difficult to reverse deconstruct its formula through the existing products on the market, and the formula is definitely the core business secret of the enterprise.

In addition, coming out of the laboratory to stable mass production is also one of the technical barriers in the industry, and it is necessary to ensure the purity and performance of the photoresist stably. To put it bluntly, it is difficult for photoresist players to go from 0 to 1, and the process from 1 to 100 is by no means easy.

Because of this, as a technology-intensive and capital-intensive industry, the core technology of photoresist is mainly in the hands of large international companies such as Japan and the United States. The global market concentration is very high, and five leading companies such as Japan's JSR occupy nearly 90% of the global photoresist market. The localization rate of domestic players in photoresist is less than 5%, and domestic players such as the most high-end EUV photoresist are still in the research and development stage.

Competition in the photoresist market

Third, from the low-end to the high-end

The more people are suppressed, the more they have to stand up and resist, in addition to Xilong Science, there are still many players in China who are trying to break the blockade of foreign technology.

For example, Tongcheng New Materials (603650) has completed the development of some models of relatively high-end semiconductor ArF photoresists. The shipment indicators of the first batch of ArF photoresist can benchmark the products of major international photoresist manufacturers, and they have mass production capacity, and they are only waiting for the products to pass the customer verification stage from the real mass production, and the G-line photoresist with low barriers has a large market share in China.

In addition, the company has about 20 kinds of semiconductor photoresist monomer materials, mainly for foreign customers, which is also an important means for the company to cultivate new profit growth points.

As one of the leading photoresist companies in China, 300655 has been able to provide ultraviolet broadband and some g-line, i-line, KrF photoresist and other products, with a rich product line.

Therefore, it can be said that the main technical routes of domestic photoresist players are starting from relatively low-end panel or PCB photoresists, and slowly marching towards semiconductor photoresists, and many players already have production lines of display panel photoresists, such as 6,000 tons of Tongcheng new materials. In semiconductor photoresist, more players are still in the stage of laboratory research and development and customer verification, and there is still a certain distance from real mass production.

Progress of domestic photoresist players

Therefore, the feedback of follow-up customers will almost become an important voice for photoresist players to survive the cold winter.

Note: This article does not constitute any investment advice. The stock market is risky, and you need to be cautious when entering the market. There is no harm in buying and selling.