In the 90s of the last century, China's automobile industry flourished. Wang Dingxiao, the "old factory director" who has been operating a machinery parts factory in Zhouxiang Town, Cixi, Ningbo for many years, aimed at the production of auto parts and founded Zhejiang Changhua.
In 2006, Zhejiang Changhua was separated, and the surviving Zhejiang Changhua undertook the assets and business of automotive fasteners, and at the same time derived and established Ningbo Changhua (the predecessor of Yibin Technology) to undertake the assets and business of automotive decorative parts, and Wang Changtu and Wang Jianhua brothers respectively controlled a company, each operating independently.
In September 2020, Zhejiang Changhua was listed on the main board of the Shanghai Stock Exchange, and in 2022, it was renamed Changhua Group, and in March 2023, Yibin Technology was successfully listed on the main board of the Shenzhen Stock Exchange, and the first pair of "brother companies" appeared in the A-share market "Ningbo Army".
Maybe it's bad luck. Since its listing, although Changhua Group's revenue has risen year by year, its profits and stock price have fallen one after another, and some shareholders have even ridiculed it as "Changlu Group".
Today, Changhua Group is accelerating the business layout in the field of new energy vehicles, and it is worth looking forward to whether it can surpass its brother companies in terms of stock price in the future.
As of April 11, the latest price of Changhua Group is 8.98 yuan per share, with a total market value of 4.248 billion yuan, and the latest price of Yibin Technology is 18.20, with a total market value of 2.252 billion yuan.
Build three major product systems
Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Cixi, Ningbo, Changhua Group has been focusing on the R&D, production and sales of automotive metal parts. The company started with fasteners, is the leading enterprise of fasteners for passenger cars in China, with the continuous deepening of cooperation with customers, as well as the accumulation of technology, began to cut into new fields.
At present, Changhua Group has formed an auto parts product structure integrating "fasteners + stamping and welding parts + large aluminum castings".
Among them, the field of high-strength fasteners for automobiles mainly includes bolts, nuts and special-shaped parts, and the use positions cover the three electric systems, engine systems, suspension systems, steering systems, transmission systems, drive systems, braking systems, fuel systems, safety systems, etc.
The field of automobile stamping and welding integrated parts mainly includes sunroof reinforced assembly, instrument assembly, trunk partition assembly, rear subframe reinforcement, wheel cover, floor middle beam, front subframe, etc. The field of new energy vehicles mainly includes IPU fixed brackets, electric motor brackets, VCU brackets, battery fast and slow charging socket brackets, ECU brackets, rear subframe supports, battery protection brackets, etc.
In the field of automotive lightweight, the company's aluminum die-casting products mainly include body parts and chassis parts. After an in-depth understanding of the customer's needs for both lightweight and cost-effective, the company's R&D center has laid out a flexible assembly production line for aluminum castings and stamping and welding parts, and created a lightweight fist product of cast aluminum stamping and welding integration, which has been supplied in batches.
With the continuous expansion of the market share of new energy vehicles, Changhua Group focuses on strengthening the service and development of new energy vehicle companies and related supporting customers on the basis of continuing to consolidate in-depth cooperation with existing customers.
In the past year, the company has increased cooperation with traditional car companies in the field of new energy vehicles, mainly in Dongfeng Honda, Dongfeng Nissan, Guangqi Honda, FAW-Volkswagen, SAIC-Volkswagen, SAIC-GM, SAIC, Geely, Chery, FAW Hongqi, Great Wall and other major new energy vehicles, adding a large number of new product designations; The intensity and scope of cooperation continue to expand, the types of fixed-point products show a trend of diversification, and the output is gradually released.
Profitability bottoms out
Thanks to the rapid development of the new energy vehicle market, Changhua Group's revenue continued to grow. However, due to external factors such as rising raw material prices, increased costs for new molds and insufficient capacity utilization caused by the epidemic, the company's net profit attributable to the parent company, gross profit margin and net profit margin have decreased.
According to the third quarter report of Changhua Group in 2023, the company's main revenue was 1.60 billion yuan, up 25.4% year-on-year, the net profit attributable to the parent company was 57.0684 million yuan, down 14.19% year-on-year, and the non-net profit was 47.590 million yuan, down 23.46% year-on-year, of which in the third quarter of 2023, the company's single-quarter main revenue was 651 million yuan, up 27.09% year-on-year, and the net profit attributable to the parent company in a single quarter was 33.0643 million yuan, down 8.66% year-on-year; The non-net profit deducted in a single quarter was 31.6088 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 7.48%.
It is worth noting that after the listing of Changhua Group, the internal control was gradually refined, and the rate showed a downward trend during the period, of which the management fee rate and sales rate decreased significantly, and the R&D rate continued to rise, maintaining the company's core competitiveness.
Changhua Group adheres to the policy of self-production of the whole process chain, and highlights its advantages in dealing with complex and uncontrollable supply risks and cost control.
In the field of fasteners, the company has more than 6,000 square meters of mold research and development processing center, molds can be independently designed and processed, and more than 80% of the main molds have been self-made;
In the field of stamping and welding equipment, the degree of automation is leading in China. 5 fully automatic robot welding lines, which have obvious manufacturing advantages in terms of automation, process stability and efficiency improvement;
In the field of lightweight, the company actively expands the series of aluminum stamping products, and the production process adopts progressive die rapid production, 3D visual automatic identification and feeding, automatic riveting and online detection, robot automatic stacking, and the advanced product quality and manufacturing process are highly recognized by customers.
At present, the company has a nationally recognized laboratory and 3 high-tech enterprises, and the R&D center has been recognized by the provincial enterprise technology center and the provincial enterprise research institute. As of the first half of 2023, the company has 197 patents, including 21 invention patents, and has led and participated in the drafting of 3 national standards and group standards.
It is worth mentioning that in order to ensure the provision of high-quality and efficient localized supporting services to customers, the company has established a number of production bases around major domestic automobile industry clusters, among which Changhua Group, Ningbo Changsheng and Bushi Luozi cover the Yangtze River Delta automobile industry cluster, Wuhan Changyuan covers the central automobile industry cluster, Jilin Changqing covers the Northeast automobile industry cluster, and Guangdong Changhua covers the Pearl River Delta automobile industry cluster.
Changhua Holding Group disclosed in the announcement on March 28 that the original fund-raising investment in the "Lightweight Automotive Aluminum Parts Intelligent Production Base Project" has built a total production plant area of 17,428.93 square meters, purchased 1 set of aluminum ingot furnace, 1 4000T die-casting machine, as well as heat treatment aging furnace, CNC machining center and other equipment, has the experience of introducing and debugging die-casting production lines.
In addition, it was agreed that the company would change and close the "lightweight automotive aluminum parts intelligent production base project", and invest all the surplus raised funds of 82.9294 million yuan (the actual transfer amount is subject to the surplus amount on the day of fund transfer) into the "annual output of 2 billion pieces of automotive high-strength fastener production line construction project (phase II)".