A new opening for capital competition

With the acceleration of the construction, reconstruction and expansion of the distribution center of express delivery enterprises, the proportion of semi-automated and automated sorting equipment has steadily increased. Data show that in 2019, China’s express delivery industry has built more than 5,000 kilometers of automated assembly lines, which is equivalent to the total mileage of China’s subway. Thanks to the booming development of upstream e-commerce, express delivery industry and the huge market demand of manufacturing, China’s automatic sorting equipment market has maintained a rapid growth trend.

Iresearch Consulting data statistics show that in 2019, China’s automated logistics equipment market size is about 144 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of about 24.1%, of which automated sorting equipment market size is about 16.55 billion yuan, with an annual growth rate of about 22.8%. Although the market growth slowed down in 2019, slightly lower than the overall growth rate of automated logistics equipment, since 2012, the compound growth rate of the dynamic sorting equipment market has reached 29.2% in nearly 7 years, which is significantly higher than the growth rate of 26.7% in the industry. “The automation penetration rate of China’s express logistics equipment is only 20%, far lower than the level of 80% in developed countries.” Five years ago, the express delivery industry required full mechanization and information technology, appropriate automation, and now we must be ready for full automation, which also means that a huge market space will be released.” Yto Express vice president Xiangfeng has said.

Under such a development prospect, local governments and the capital market are also paying more and more attention to the sorting equipment industry. Nanling County, Anhui Province, as the only national express science and technology innovation test base in the country, with the strong support of the State Post Bureau, the express logistics intelligent equipment as the first industry to build, to achieve the progress from scratch, beginning to take shape to rapid development. It has signed strategic cooperation agreements with the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and leading enterprises in the industry such as SF Express and “Three to one Da”, and high-quality industrial chain projects such as Shibei, Xingneng, Hengyun, Jiuli, and Ai have landed successively, bringing together more than 40 upstream and downstream enterprises with a total investment of more than 7 billion yuan.

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Automated sorting equipment manufacturers have also been “sought after” in the capital markets over the past year.

In June 2020, Dema Technology officially landed on the Science and Technology Board, becoming the “science and Technology board logistics equipment first stock”; In November, Suzhou Jinfeng completed more than 100 million yuan of C round of strategic financing, and there are many well-known investment institutions involved in the investment, such as Yuan He Chongyuan, Guofa Venture Capital, Zhidao Capital and Mingchuan Capital. In November, Zhongke Micro to the science and technology board issued listing documents were accepted, which is another intelligent logistics equipment enterprise seeking to go public after Dema Technology.

It is worth noting that Zhongke Micro is a typical representative of the rapid rise of express automatic sorting equipment. Founded in 2016, Zhongke Micro was incubated by the Institute of Microelectronics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and has in-depth cooperation with Zhongtong Express after cutting into the field of express delivery. According to the prospectus, from January to September in 2017, 2018, 2019 and 2020, the revenue of Zhongke Micro to ZTO Express sales accounted for 100%, 98.18%, 73.97% and 54.94% of the current main business income, respectively, which were higher than 50%. According to the disclosure, at present, Zhongke Micro to customers have covered Zhongtong, SF Express, Best, STO, Jitu, Yunda, China Post, Suning, Deppon, Vipshop and other major domestic express, logistics and e-commerce companies, has delivered 300 sets of intelligent logistics sorting system.