The low-end smartphone market has recovered, and domestic mobile phone manufacturers such as Xiaomi and Huawei have increased their support for domestic CMOS image sensor manufacturers, and domestic camera chips have begun to rise.
Hu Nan Wen. After many consecutive quarters of negative performance growth, in the third quarter of 2023, the performance of domestic CMOS image sensor manufacturers finally ushered in a reversal, of which: the operating income of Weir shares was 622.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 4435%, and the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 21.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 27961%；Geke Micro's operating income was 129.3 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 130%, the net profit attributable to shareholders of listed companies was 72.56 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7367%。
For the growth of performance, Weir said in the third quarterly report that with the gradual recovery of downstream demand and the help of new products, the company's semiconductor design business revenue has achieved significant growth. In addition, since June 2023, the shipment of Sunny optical camera modules has exceeded 50 million for 5 consecutive months, indicating that the smartphone market is beginning to pick up.
More importantly, according to the data of Chaodian Think Tank, in the list of popular mobile phone Huawei Mate60, Xiaomi 14 and Redmi K70 series camera manufacturers, the proportion of foreign CMOS image sensor manufacturers has declined, the proportion of domestic manufacturers has increased significantly, and domestic camera chips have begun to rise.
Impact on Japanese and Korean manufacturers
The main function of CMOS image sensor is to convert the image signal into a digital signal, which is the core component of the camera module.
According to the Hongta Research Report, the global CMOS image sensor market size will be $23 billion in 2022 and is expected to increase to 289 by 2025$8 billion. From the perspective of downstream application fields, smartphone cameras are the largest application market for CMOS image sensors, and in 2021, mobile phone CMOS image sensors accounted for 75% of the global CMOS image sensor market90%。
According to Frost &Sullivan**, the global penetration rate of rear multi-camera in smartphones will increase to 91% by 2024, and the average number of cameras mounted on a single mobile phone will increase to 490, after the mobile phone market enters the stock competition, the increase in the number of cameras will directly drive the rise of the CMOS image sensor market demand.
It can be seen that the prosperity of the smartphone market is the core factor that determines the performance of CMOS image sensor manufacturers.
According to Canalys data, in 2022, the global smartphone market will remain sluggish, with the growth rate of shipments in each quarter being only -1053%、-8.90%、-8.54%、-18.26%, the weakness of terminal shipments has also put pressure on CMOS image sensor manufacturers. According to statistics from Debang**, from the fourth quarter of 2021 to the first quarter of 2023, 2 million pixel CIS** fell by 40%, and 8 million pixel CIS** fell by 20%.
However, this situation took a turn in the third quarter of 2023, with low-end mobile phone shipments in emerging markets picking up significantly. Canalys senior analyst Sanyam Chaurasia said that in the third quarter of 2023, Xiaomi and Transsion performed strongly, and were the only two mobile phone manufacturers among the top five mobile phone brands to achieve positive growth, specifically, Xiaomi released a very cost-effective Redmi digital series entry model in emerging markets, making it regain growth momentum in the third quarter, and Transsion's shipments in the core market of Africa continued to rise, and helped it achieve a year-on-year growth of 40%.
As the domestic CMOS image sensor manufacturers Weir Co., Ltd. and Geke Micro focus on the low-end market, their performance has also reversed in the third quarter with the recovery of the low-end market.
It should be pointed out that, according to the Debang ** research report, CMOS image sensors have a high degree of monopoly, and in terms of sales, in 2022, Samsung and Sony will account for a share of % in the global CIS market, respectively, and the market share of domestic manufacturers Weir shares (including Haowei) will be 11%, and the market share of Geke Micro will be only 4%. In the mobile phone CIS market, foreign companies have a higher degree of monopoly, of which Sony's market share is 54%, and Samsung's and SK's combined market share is about 34%.
Moreover, among the many new models released before 2022, OmniVision is the most widely used domestic CIS** manufacturer, but most of the ** part numbers are front camera or auxiliary cameras, only OPPO Reno 10 uses a HowVision**64 million main camera lens, while another domestic manufacturer, Geke Micro, only achieves ** in the auxiliary lens of Transsion mobile phones.
It is worth noting that in 2022, Gekewei will be the global mobile phone CIS sales champion, but it will only account for about 5% of the global smartphone CIS market sales share, which also shows that domestic CMOS image sensor manufacturers are still dominated by low-end products with low value.
This situation will begin to change in 2023, with the launch of high-end pixel products such as OV50H and OV50E, and new products with more than 50 million pixels will also be mass-produced and delivered in the third quarterGekewei's 32 million pixel image sensor products have also been mass-produced and shipped, and its product positioning has been improved from the traditional 2 million to 8 million pixels to 32 million pixels and above.
At the same time, domestic mobile phone manufacturers represented by Huawei and Xiaomi have increased their support for domestic CMOS image sensor manufacturers, which has created conditions for them to break through.
According to the data of Chaodian Think Tank, Haowei has successively become the leading supplier of Huawei Mate 50 and Mate 60 camera chipsIn the Xiaomi 14 series of camera manufacturers, Haowei replaced Sony to become its camera chip manufacturer, and in the Redmi K70 series, Haowei and Geke Micro also replaced Samsung to enter its list of cameras.
On November 23rd, Redmi officially announced that Redmi and domestic ** chain partners jointly launched the "2 trillion new grand plan", and announced a more detailed list of China's industrial chain partners, Haowei, Geke Micro, etc. are in the list of industrial chains, which means that domestic CMOS image sensor manufacturers are expected to snatch part of the market share of high-end mobile phone camera chips from Samsung and Sony.
Incremental competition is fierce
Automobiles are another major smart terminal arena after smartphones, and the level and penetration rate of autonomous driving are constantly improving. According to the data of Zosi Automobile Research Institute, from January to September 2022, the equipment rate of L2 and L2+ ADAS for domestic passenger cars reached 3350%, of which 28 are at the L2 level40%, 5 for L2+ level10%。With the implementation of the high-level autonomous driving policy and the large-scale mass production of pilot assistance functions, Jiwei Consulting predicts that by 2030, the penetration rate of autonomous driving above the L3 level in China will reach 30%.
According to the Caitong ** research report, a complete set of ADAS can be divided into internal view, external view, front, side view, surround view camera, etc., popular models such as Tesla Model 3, Model Y single car cameras are 8, NIO ET7 is 11, Xpeng P5, P7 are 13, 14, 13 for ARCFOX Alpha S, the average number of cameras mounted on bicycles by new car-making forces has exceeded 10, and according to Yole calculations, it is expected that by 2027, the number of bicycle cameras is expected to reach 20.
Affected by the electrification of automobiles, the global automotive CIS market will continue to grow in 2022, of which the size of the pre-installation market will be 21$7.4 billion, an increase of 821% and is expected to grow to 327 billion US dollars, with a compound annual growth rate of 1430%。
According to ICV Tank data, the concentration of the automotive CIS market is similar to that of the smartphone market, and in 2022, onsemi's market share is as high as 4405%, the world's largest automotive CIS, the domestic manufacturer Haowei ranks second, its market share is about 30%, and Sony ranks third with a market share of 11%.
Multi-party data show that the future competition in the automotive CIS market will be more intense, Hongta ** research report shows that CIS veteran leader Samsung has joined the competition in the automotive CIS market;BYD Semiconductor has also launched a 1.3 million pixel automotive-grade image sensor, and companies such as Gekewei, which focuses on the field of mobile phones, and Stewei, which focuses on the field of security monitoring, have successively laid out the automotive CIS market.
Major Manufacturer Advantages:
With the acquisition of Haowei Technology, Weir has realized the layout of the whole industrial chain from R&D, design, production and sales, and the product line has also expanded from the security field to smart phones and automotive electronics. Up to now, the company has successfully launched smartphone application products from 50 million to 200 million pixels, and has a good market share in Android smartphones in different ranges, and the proportion of high-end pixel products in mobile phone CIS revenue has also continued to increase.
In addition to the blessing of Omnivision, continuous R&D investment is also an important reason for the continuous increase of Weir's market share. According to choice data, from 2021 to 2022, the R&D investment of Weir shares will be 262 billion yuan, 321.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase82%；Geke Micro R&D investment is 52 billion yuan, 54.5 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase83%；Zhuosheng Micro R&D investment is 30.4 billion yuan, 44.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase66%；GigaDevice's R&D investment was 94 billion yuan, 102.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase49%。Judging from the data, in the domestic semiconductor industry, Weir's investment in research and development ranks first in the industry.
Another CMOS image sensor manufacturer in China, Geke Micro, is deeply engaged in the low-pixel market, according to Frost &Sullivan statistics, in 2022, the company's smartphone CIS sales volume will be 121.2 billion pieces, the shipment volume ranks first in the world, and has been the global CIS sales champion for many years, if calculated according to the shipment, its market share is as high as 26%. However, due to the low value of low-pixel products, this has led to only about 5% of the market in terms of sales.
On the premise of stabilizing the fundamentals of the low-end market, Gekewei is still transforming from Fabless to Fab-Lite. According to the Debang ** research report, on August 31, 2022, the company's "12-inch CIS integrated circuit characteristic process and R&D industrialization project" BSI production line was successfully put into production, the yield rate of the first wafer project batch exceeded 95%, and the later production capacity will climb to 20,000 pieces per month, and the factory will mainly undertake the company's 32 million pixels and above products in the future.
In addition, in 2022, Geke Micro will release the world's first single-chip 0The 7 m 32 million pixel image sensor, which combines the advantages of cost-effective area and low noise, is expected to drive the company to gain more market share in the high-end market.