Category Archives: Devices

Devices, Tech

‘Smartphone City’ aims high with R&D boost

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One of the reasons for Dongguan having enjoyed such a strong economic performance in 2019 (GDP +7%) is because China’s smartphone industry escaped the ire of US President Donald Trump. Or, more particularly, it is why Chang’an Town, home of Vivo and OPPO, had a good year. With smartphones managing to avoid tariffs in the US-China trade war, the town’s GDP broke the 70 billion mark thanks to surging industrial output that reached 266.73 billion yuan. 

More importantly, however, 2019 will be remembered as the year these homegrown tech giants broke ground on large-scale new R&D centers in the town, pushing up fixed-asset investment by 42% to 7.44 billion yuan.

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Devices, News, Tech

Zhaoqing lands RMB10bn industrial park

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Zhaoqing, the municipality to the north of Guangzhou, has landed a major investment project. Last week a signing ceremony was held for the Zhongke Ruilong industrial park, which will develop high-end precision new materials. The investment amount of RMB10.6 billion is one of the largest in the Zhaoqing High-Tech Zone.

Guangdong Zhongke Ruilong Technology Development Company was established in Dongguan in 2007. Focused on R&D and application of new materials, and precision cold-drawing technology, it has been engaged with the China Academy of Science & Technology Development in the metal and battery industries for many years. The company has world-leading technology, mainly for the processing of metal molds of well-known branded mobile phones and the production of accessories.

The new park will build bases of battery shells for smartphones, smart watches and new-energy vehicles as well as high-end battery precision accessories. Its output is expected to reach RMB12 billion annually when completed.

Read more in Chinese.

Devices, News, Tech

Guangzhou OLED plant fires up

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The world’s largest and most advanced production facility for OLED screens opened this week in Guangzhou. Led by Korea’s LG Group, the facility cost RMB46 billion to build and is expected to crank up to annual output of RMB20 billion by 2021.

The new facility is only the most advanced within a cluster of at least 30 upstream and downstream companies that has grown up in the Huangpu district. By 2021, the combined output of this cluster, led by LG, is expected to reach RMB120 billion. Moreover, that is only half of the city’s overall output in the display-panel industry, which is projected to hit RMB250 billion this year.

As the first large-size OLED panel production line established by LG Display overseas, the plant produces 55-inch, 65-inch, and 77-inch panels with 4K ultra-high-definition. CEO Han Sang-Beom said the facility will become the leading force in the global panel industry, and a “strategic base for accelerating the OLED trend.” Local officials are clearly pleased that it will also raise the city’s role as a center of cutting-edge manufacturing in the GBA.

Companies, Devices, News, Tech

Guangzhou gets big AMOLED plant

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Visionox Technology, a major Jiangsu-based developer of organic light-emitting diodes, plans to build a sixth-generation flexible active-matrix OLED(AMOLED)factory in Guangzhou’s Zengcheng Economic and Technological development zone, reports Yicai Global.The project with a total investment of RMB11.2 billion will focus on researching, developing, producing and selling various high-end AMOLED modules.

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Foxconn boss changes mind on Guangzhou LCD plant

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Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou, founder of the world’s biggest OEM supplier, Foxconn, has a lot on his plate. His biggest customer, Apple, has seen its smartphone share plunge in China, and he’s been making a public fuss about entering the presidential race back home. Still, headlines today suggesting that he wants to sell out of his biggest investment to date, a new RMB 60 billion factory in Guangzhou, within days of it opening, are undoubtedly turning heads in the provincial capital.

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Companies, Devices, Tech

Flex closes Zhuhai plant as Huawei sales slow

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American OEM giant Flex International has shut down production at one of its Zhuhai plants serving Huawei Electronics and begun laying off workers, according to local media. It has also recently closed its factory in Hunan’s Changsha as Huawei cut down its smartphone production orders. 

Founded in California 1969, Flex is the world’s second largest OEM enterprise after Taiwan’s Foxconn. It entered the Zhuhai market in 1996 and its industrial park there is its largest in the world. At its peak, the park employed up to 18,000 workers. It has shut its South plant, keeping its North plant going.

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Companies, Devices, Tech

Foxconn affiliate’s US$9b Guangzhou panel plant opens

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Guangzhou opened its biggest-ever investment in hi-tech manufacturing this week: a RMB61 billion (US$9b) plant invested by Foxconn billionaire Terry Guo and Japanese panel-maker Sharp.

The plant, which will make glass substrate for use in ultra-high definition large screens, is expected to annually produce 90,000 units of 65- and 75-inch displays, smart televisions and electronic whiteboards worth an estimated RMB92 billion.

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Companies, Devices, Tech

Huawei’s shipments in China market surge

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As analysts worry about the challenges facing Huawei to launch its flagship smartphones in Europe, it turns out that the firm’s Chinese sales – surprise! – are booming. According to new data from research firm Canalys, Huawei’s smartphone shipments in China surged to 37.3 million in the second quarter, up 31% year-on-year. That pushed its market share up to 33%, from 25% in the same period last year. 

This being a zero-sum game, Huawei’s competitors saw their smartphone shipments in China fall 6% in the second quarter. Applewas a big decliner, down 14%,but it was the other Chinese brands that felt the crunch hardest: Oppo, Vivo and Xiaomi tumbledby 18%, 19% and 20%, respectively. 

There is no guess as to why this happened. Huawei, brilliantly, played the nationalism card. Buying their phones has become a patriotic act of duty in the context of the US-China trade war. But they executed well, also. “Huawei’s core strategy remains investing in aggressive offline expansion, and luring consumers from rival brands, while unleashing a wave of marketing spend to support new channels and technologies,” said Canalys analyst Mo Jia. 

Devices, Tech

Chipmaker to spend RMB3b on Guangzhou plant

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Shenzhen-listed Fastprint Circuit Tech’s shares gained by the daily trading limit yesterday after the chipmaker laid out plans to build an integrated circuit substrate plant in Guangzhou for about RMB3 billion (USD436.2 million.) 

Fastprint Circuit (SHE: 002436) signed an agreement with the Guangzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone to set up production lines for integrated circuit substrate and relevant products. Investment in the plant, which is needed to both supply major global customers and meet future domestic demand, will be made in two phases of CNY1.6 million and CNY1.4 billion.

The company officially became a supplier to Samsung last year and its existing monthly output of 10,000 sqm of IC package substrate is already at full capacity and needs expanding. Readmore.