Wired
In the morning news on March 9, according to the “Taiwan Economic Daily” report, Apple’s new generation of iPhone will be unveiled in the second half of the year, and the market came out. Under the order of Apple, Pan Hon Hai Group’s iPhone lens supplier Japan Kantatsu (Kantatsu) It will sell its Lianyungang factory in mainland China for 18 billion yen (over NT$4.7 billion), the mainland lens duo Sunny and AAC Technology (AAC), and Taiwanese factory Yujingguang have all been named potential buyers.
According to the report, the major shareholder of Kangdazhi, Hon Hai’s investment in Sharp, and its Hongteng speech channel did not comment on rumors on the 8th; Yujingguang, who was named for possible acquisition, also did not respond.
It is understood that this time Kangda Zhizhi sold the factory, and the Lu factory expressed the most positive attitude to buy. If the Lu factory is finally settled, it means that the mainland Apple’s supply chain will grow stronger, and it will face Largan’s head-to-head confrontation when the Apple chain extends to the most profitable optical field in Taiwan.
The iPhone supply chain has undergone a major reshuffle since last year, and the mainland supply chain has been pushing forward. First, the iPhone assembly plant Wistron sold its Kunshan plant to Luxshare. Luxshare has also participated in the capital increase case of Kaishengsun, a subsidiary of Pegatron Group. It holds more than half of the shares in Japan and indirectly obtains tickets for the iPhone metal case; the case factory Catcher re-sold the Taizhou factory to Lens Technology. Recently, it has been reported that the reshuffle has been extended to the upstream lens supply chain. The protagonist is Kang Dazhi.
Kangdazhi, Largan and Yujingguang are listed as the top three suppliers of iPhone lens, and Kangdazhi’s action of selling factories means that it will withdraw from the iPhone supply chain. According to the supply chain, Kangdazhi had already sold the factory at the end of last year. At present, Sunny has replaced Kangdazhi and has sent samples of at least one lens for the new iPhone in the second half of the year.
Hon Hai Group reinvested in Sharp and is the major shareholder of Kangdazhi. Sharp currently holds more than 50% of the shares. If Hon Hai Group’s Hongteng holdings are added, Pan Hon Hai Group holds 75% of Kangdazhi’s equity. It is understood that Dai Zhengwu, vice president of Hon Hai Group and president and chairman of Sharp, is currently leading the sale of Kangda Zhilu factory, and the internal expectation is to make a final decision before the end of this month.
Since the Lianyungang factory is an Apple-certified factory, obtaining an “entry ticket” equivalent to knocking on the iPhone door to the factory. According to the supply chain, compared with Sunny’s sample of Apple, it is said that AAC is more willing, and even stated that it is willing to let Kangdazhi’s R&D team continue to stay in Japan.
The headquarters and R&D team of Kangdazhi are located in Japan, but the lens production bases are in Lianyungang, Jiangsu, and Pinghu, Zhejiang. Among them, Lianyungang mainly focuses on iPhone, and Pinghu supplies Huawei. Last year, due to the impact of the epidemic and the double blow of Huawei’s ban, the performance of the Pinghu plant was tarnished. In addition, the failure to secure a new iPhone model caused internal senior management to retreat.
Kangdazhi has been in the iPhone lens supply chain for many years, but the cost of competition and the scale of production capacity are not as good as Largan and Yujingguang. In recent years, it has been in a loss situation. Among the three lenses of the iPhone 12 last year, Kangdazhi only obtained a part of the order for telephoto lenses, both wide-angle and ultra-wide-angle lenses. Covered by Largan and Yujingguang.
Sharp proactively issued a press release at the end of last year, announcing that the internal investigation subsidiary Kangdazhi suspected of fraudulent accounts and overstated revenue of nearly 10 billion yen. According to the outside world, this move has paved the way for Sharp’s future sale of the Kangdazhilu plant.
Kangdazhi’s fiscal year 2019 (April 2019 to March 2020) revenue was 19.241 billion yen, an annual increase of about 5%, operating profit was 1.535 billion yen, and net loss after tax was 246 million yen.