Text/Wu Di
Editor/Yanqiu Zhao
Underrated "helplessness"
At the end of May, at a celebration held by Sany Heavy Industry for the sales performance of more than 98,700 excavators in 2020, Xiang Wenbo, director of Sany Group and president of Sany Heavy Industry, bet on the future of Sany on electrification, intelligence and digital transformation. He quoted internal statements that in the face of such an opportunity in the times, Sany "either turned over or overturned the ship."
As a "construction machinery Mao", Sany Heavy Industry is a domestic excavator leader and the construction machinery company with the richest product line, but many investors are pessimistic and believe that the development of this leading enterprise seems to have "peaked". A big doubt in the market is also, "Why sany heavy industry sales have repeatedly reached new highs, but the stock price cannot match." The company's stock price movement has triggered a hot discussion in the market. Some investors have commented that no matter how good the news is, it cannot stop the top of the stock from going down.
A capital market person analyzed the AI Finance and Economics Agency that the decline in the stock price of Sany Heavy Industry is mainly due to the greater pressure in the early stage, and the important factors related to the development of the construction machinery industry such as infrastructure construction are also in a relatively inactive state, while the business of Sany Heavy Industry is basically stereotyped, relying on infrastructure policies, and lacking high-growth market imagination space.
In addition, one of the most direct influencing factors this year is the increase in the price of upstream raw material steel. Xiang Wenbo told the media not long ago that steel rose by 1,000 yuan per ton, and the procurement cost of 2 billion yuan will be increased a year. "However, the company's production costs are decreasing every year, and ultimately rely on the scale effect of enterprises to resist the risk of rising raw material prices, and there is no price increase expectation at present."
In the view of the above-mentioned senior person, Sany Heavy Industry has the ability to ensure business stability, but it is difficult to achieve rapid growth, and investors have lost interest. Sany Heavy Industry only has a price-earnings ratio of a dozen, which also shows that the market performance of its stocks is in a normal or even undervalued range.
In fact, many excellent traditional manufacturing listed companies also have the same "embarrassment". Midea and Gree, which are even public industry stocks with good fundamentals for the consumer market, have long been considered undervalued. Compared with the Ningde era as the representative, the stocks of manufacturing companies in the current new energy industry are obviously more sought after by the market.
Gree Electric Appliances has also faced "peak doubts" for many years. In 2016, Dong Mingzhu once said harshly, "Gree Electric Appliances has occupied 40% of the share in air conditioners, and there is not much room for growth." It is difficult to be a god and must be expanded. "Today's Sany Heavy Industry excavator in China's share has also reached 30%, and it has firmly sat in the first position in China." Recreating a Sany Heavy Industry" is the new expectation of the outside world after the sales of Sany Heavy Industry's fist product excavators surpassed the US and Japanese giants to reach the top of the world for the first time.
The challenge of "turning over"
At that "late arrival" celebration. Xiang Wenbo took the stage with a hint of wine and gave an impassioned speech. "Thank you for this great era." He said that the great era created Sany Heavy Industry, but Sany is not yet a great enterprise.
He mentioned Jobs and Apple, arguing that great businesses should contribute to the development of human civilization. And "Trinity still has a long way to go. ”
Sany Heavy Industry has spent more than 10 years to break the monopoly of foreign brand excavators in the domestic market. According to Hu Qi, general manager of Sany Heavy Industry China Mining Company, five years ago, the core components of Sany excavators such as hydraulic presses and electronic components still relied on the import of foreign brands. In order to break the shackles of foreign capital, Sany began to carry out a full range of independent research and development from core components such as cylinders, pump valve motors, controllers, and displays, "and now all core components can be produced independently." ”
In the excavator production plant located in Lingang, Shanghai, Sany has built a complete digital system and automated production system, and every part and equipment is linked to the digital workshop, and all big data applications of the production process are retained and analyzed.
"An excavator can be rolled off the line in 6 minutes at the fastest time." Hutch said.
In the entire automated factory, the production line is arranged the same as the automobile production line, and the automatic production line of different parts is finally turned into a complete excavator.
According to Hu qi, they are still spending a lot of effort and energy to rebuild this production line and continue to improve efficiency. At present, the daily production capacity of this production line is from 120 units, and the monthly production capacity is between 3600 units and 4000 units.
Intelligence is a major future direction for Sany's bet. The moment these excavators go offline, all of its data is uploaded to the cloud platform, and the electronic control system in the cab serves as the nerves and brains of the machine itself, and the large number of sensors in the fuselage give the machine self-perception and environmental perception.
"Behind the excavator will be an unmanned direction, everyone is like playing a game, you can also remotely manipulate, as long as you enter the command to tell it where to dig, dig what, and then all automatically completed." A staff member of Sany Heavy Industry said that labor costs are getting higher and higher, and the economic benefits brought by unmanned manipulation are very large.
In order to adapt to the transformation, Sany Heavy Industry plans to reduce the number of blue-collar workers to 3,000 during the 14th Five-Year Plan period, while increasing the number of engineers to 30,000. It is basically equivalent to the adjustment of the proportion of blue-collar workers and engineers. Automation and digitalization in Xiang Wenbo's view are a major opportunity for Sany Heavy Industry not to be eliminated by the times and "turn over". "In the future, operations will be driven by digital, and machines will rely on machines to make precise decisions." He said.
Electrification is also seen by Xiang Wenbo as a major opportunity for Sany to turn around. "Electrification is a new track, and starting with new energy sources will help push for carbon neutrality." Xiang Wenbo said that reducing carbon emissions and environmental pollution can also be regarded as Sany's contribution to the development of human civilization and help to achieve Sany's goal of becoming a "great enterprise".
The electrification of the construction machinery industry brings huge lithium battery market prospects, and there are statistics in the industry that in the next 5 years, according to the penetration rate of 30%, it is expected that about 600,000 units of electrified construction machinery and equipment will be born, and the lithium battery required will be 60GWh.
The benefits to the industry itself are also obvious, industry statistics, compared with traditional excavators, the cost of electric excavators can be reduced by more than 60%. According to media reports, a Canadian mining customer claimed that after using an electric machinery from the US company Caterpillar, the annual cost of saving electricity can save $7 million.
However, the electrification and intelligence of the construction machinery industry are actually still facing market tests. An analyst told AI Finance and Economics: "Construction machinery is not a popular industry, the necessity and urgency of upgrading electrification and intelligence are much worse, and the effect of electrification and intelligence on expanding the functional machinery market is not obvious, and can only be reflected in the original stock to upgrade." ”
The implication is that sany heavy industry's self-evolution iteration itself is worth looking forward to, but whether it can achieve the reshaping and subversion of investors' cognition and capital market expectations through such an evolutionary iteration can only wait for time to verify.
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