In the traditional impression of the industry, Cainiao has always been the image of supply chain alliance service providers such as express delivery, logistics, parks, warehousing. However, in fact, Cainiao has been deeply engaged in the field of manufacturing digitization and automation for many years, and recently launched a self-developed industrial control core product PLC.

Cainiao self-developed PLC product core chip to achieve 100% localization

Recently, at the 2023 Global Smart Logistics Summit, a number of new products and new solutions developed by Cainiao were officially exposed.

The Cainiao PLC (Programmable Logic Controller, programmable logic Controller) series product information released at the summit shows that the core chip of the product has achieved 100% localization, effectively avoiding the “stuck neck” problem, equipped with Linux PREEMPT_RT real-time system. It can ensure the stability of the product in aerospace grade.

Cainiao self-developed PLC machine has obtained EU CE certification, and has operated stably in more than 200 automation projects. Next, Cainiao will introduce standard slave station, distributed IO module, communication gateway, high-performance master station, economic slave station and other PLC products to the market.

Domestic high-end product supply is insufficient, China needs to speed up the process of PLC autonomy

In recent years, with the increasing demand for automation in the manufacturing industry, the PLC market, one of the most important equipment for industrial control, has developed rapidly. In 2020, the size of China’s PLC hardware market is about 11.2 billion yuan, but the foreign market share is nearly 90%, mainly in Europe and the United States Siemens, Rockwell, and Japan’s Mitsubishi and Omron.

In the list of the top 22 programmable logic controller manufacturers selected by foreign media “Robotics&Automation” in 2020, many industrial control giants such as Siemens, Honeywell, Schneider, ABB, and Mitsubishi Electric are prominent in the list, which is still dominated by Europe, the United States and Japan, of which there are 9 Japanese companies and 5 German companies. Two American companies, one Chinese.

Foreign brands PLC grasp the vast majority of the market, especially in the field of large and medium PLC occupies an absolute dominant position. For various reasons, the proportion of domestic brands of PLC in the domestic PLC market share is very small, has not formed an industrial scale, mainly concentrated in the field of small and medium-sized PLC. In 2022Q3, the localization rate of small PLC is about 20.2%, the localization rate of medium and large PLC is less than 10%, and the localization rate of large PLC system is only about 1%.

At present, the problems that PLC needs to solve are still the adoption of new technology, system openness and price. With the expansion of the production scale of the industry, the production automation level of general basic products is improved, the cost-effective advantage is more significant, the competitiveness in the global low-end market is significantly enhanced, and the export volume is growing rapidly. It is worth noting that China’s PLC imports have also maintained a relatively stable growth, mainly due to the lack of supply of domestic high-end products, downstream traditional industries and the sustainable development of new industries, the demand for high-end PLC products growth, the industry’s imports continue to grow.

The domestic industrial infrastructure field for PLC, especially large and medium-sized PLC localization and intelligent voice is getting higher and higher, which also brings opportunities for the local PLC industry curve overtaking. In recent years, with the continuous efforts of domestic industrial control enterprises in product technology research and development and market promotion, many local brands such as Huichuan, Delta, Zhongcong, Hollyse, Fatek, Security Control, Tai ‘an, Fengwei, Aoto, Xinjie, Kowei, Zhenghang and so on actively explore the market. Open source Securities said in the latest research report that domestic manufacturers are seizing the share of small PLC market and Taiwan manufacturers by relying on the advantages of cost-effective products, short delivery time and rapid response to customer needs. Many domestic PLC head companies have been listed in A shares. Under the continuous development demand of emerging industries and traditional industries, the downstream application field of PLC industry has also shown a diversified development trend. In particular, domestic power batteries, automobiles, semiconductors and other industries, as well as traditional manufacturing industries such as textiles and machinery, have become the focus of the future PLC industry to develop markets.

1. Huichuan technology: Perfect general automation layout and strengthen investment in control layer

As the company gradually implements its own integrated solution of “information layer, control layer, drive layer, execution layer, sensing layer”, the PLC product series is also continuously improved in the iterative update, and the product types cover small PLC, medium-sized PLC and intelligent mechanical controller.

2. Hechuan Technology: PLC has a deep accumulation, product upgrading + sales to promote performance growth

PLC products have experienced upgrading and will achieve rapid growth in 2022. In 2021, the company’s PLC product operating income was 40 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 30.08%, accounting for 5.44% of the main business.

3. Leisai Intelligence: Focus on the field of motion control and create an overall solution for the industry

In 2021, the company’s operating income of control technology products reached 181 million yuan, with a CAGR of 21.6% from 2016 to 2021, with a fast growth rate, but PLC products accounted for a relatively low proportion.

4. Xinjie Electric: Relying on the traditional advantages of PLC, promote the layout of the whole product line of intelligent control system

The company focuses on the complete product line of “programmable controller + servo, frequency conversion and other motion control components + human-machine interface + machine vision and other detection components + robot arm” as the main strategic direction, and continues to optimize PLC products while laying out servo system business.

5. Baoxin Software: the breaker of large PLC in the field of iron and steel metallurgy

Backed by Baosteel Group, after ten years of successful self-developed large-scale PLC, to achieve domestic breakthrough. Baoxin Software deeply cultivates the iron and steel industry, has a deep understanding of the downstream application scenarios, and concentrates on the development of production control software combined with the core process algorithm of the metallurgical industry, of which PLC has obtained certain results.