苹果敦促立讯精密挑战富士康
作者：天月剑
TAIPEI -- Apple has advised one of its Chinese AirPods assemblers to make a major investment in an iPhone and MacBook metal casing provider, a move the California tech titan hopes will create a formidable alternative to another of its longtime suppliers, Taiwan's Foxconn, multiple sources told the Nikkei Asian Review.
Luxshare-ICT, a fast-rising Chinese tech company known for its aggressive growth strategy, has been in talks with Catcher Technology, the world's second-largest metal casing provider, for more than a year and has recently entered a deeper round of negotiations, said one of the people who is familiar with the situation.
The deal, if realized, would give Luxshare the ability to produce high-quality metal casing as well as access to smartphone assembly know-how, which would take it a step closer to becoming the Chinese version of Foxconn -- a single company with operations that span nearly the entire electronics supply chain. Such a move could ultimately help Luxshare grab a share of iPhone production, which ships around 200 million units each year.
Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer, has long been Apple's biggest supplier, accounting for more than 50% of iPhone production since the device's debut in 2007. Sources say the U.S. company is keen to reduce this heavy reliance.
"Apple is encouraging Luxshare to make the investment. The rationale is to raise a competitive Chinese assembler to counterbalance the Taiwanese assemblers," an executive-level source who is familiar with the ongoing talk said. "The more qualified suppliers Apple has, the more bargaining power it will own." Taiwanese companies have dominated the contract electronic manufacturing industry for decades.
The deal in discussion includes some of Catcher's facilities in China, its workforce, managerial employees and its business opportunities with Apple, while the price being discussed would make it Luxshare's biggest investment, the source added.
The casing, or metal frame, is a crucial component that helps give the iPhone its distinctive look. The material of the case, moreover, determines the performance of wireless connectivity. Metal casing production is also the last step before the final assembly of an iPhone. Both Foxconn and Pegatron, its smaller rival, have their own metal casing subsidiaries, with Foxconn's the world's biggest.
Taiwan-based Catcher, established in 1988, has been focusing on light metal technology for electronics use for decades and has been a key supplier for iPhones and MacBooks for years. Catcher had a market cap of 187.59 billion New Taiwan dollars ($6.28 billion) as of Monday, and logged NT$91.62 billion in revenue last year. Its capital expenditure topped NT$10 billion in both 2017 and 2018, mainly to purchase equipment for molding metal casings. Its capital expenditure last year was NT$4 billion. Taiwanese media Digitimes last week reported that Catcher is evaluating the feasibility to build a new facility in Southeast Asia and in the meantime mulling to sell some of its assets in China.
"For Apple, it is a win-win situation to support the growth of Luxshare," a supply chain manager said of the proposed Catcher deal. "Not only do Chinese companies offer lower prices with competitive quality, but it would also help Apple further deepen its network in a market with 1.3 billion people."
Such deals are less of a win-win for suppliers, the manager added. "It will be a good deal for Apple, but most of the time suppliers have to shoulder the risks of the investment. Apple's strategy is to see more competition in its supply chain so that it can have better components or better services, but still lower the cost."
Others, however, see reasons why Luxshare might opt to make the investment.
"With Apple's support and investors' favor, Luxshare does have a chance to challenge Foxconn's position in the next three years or so if it takes the move to invest in Catcher. It is a very tempting ambition for [Luxshare founder] Grace Wang to achieve," another source who is familiar with Luxshare's thinking said.
Although it has not yet entered the iPhone assembly business, the fast-rising Luxshare has become the biggest potential threat to Foxconn. As of Friday, the market value of Luxshare, which listed in Shenzhen in 2010, was nearly 254 billion yuan ($35.9 billion), on par with Foxconn's NT$1.06 trillion ($35.5 billion) market value. The size of its market cap is as well close to Foxconn's Shanghai-listed subsidiary Foxconn Industrial Internet's 290 billion yuan. Luxshare had 6.1 billion yuan in cash or cash equivalents as of Dec. 31 2019.
Luxshare has also been quick to respond to Apple's diversification efforts. It quickly built production facilities for AirPods in Vietnam and, along with Chinese peer GoerTek, started to mass-produce the products this quarter, Nikkei reported. Luxshare also became the first producer of the AirPods Pro. Apple already accounted for more than 50% of Luxshare's total sales last year, the company's data showed.
However, Luxshare has not yet made up its mind to seal the deal, as it would be a big gamble to make amid the global economic downturn with so many uncertainties brought by the deadly coronavirus, multiple sources said. Sales of Apple's iconic iPhone, first introduced in 2007, also peaked in 2018, with the first annual shipment decline in 2019. This is another factor for Luxshare to weigh before it decides whether to embark on the path to iPhone assembly, they said.
"Will the iPhone business be as profitable in the next 10 years as it was in the past decade? No one can guarantee the return of this investment," said one of the sources, who has been in the iPhone supply chain for 10 years.
Chiu Shih-fang, an analyst with Taiwan Institute of Economic Research, said Luxshare's growth strategy is very similar to how Foxconn emerged as a world's top electronics contract manufacturer over the past decades, as the Chinese company is attempting to invest in other components and mechanical parts suppliers so that it can have a more integrated part in the supply chain.
"Whether it was an acquisition or a joint venture, the companies Luxshare has collaborated with in the past few years were all suppliers to Apple," Chiu told Nikkei. "Luxshare's capability is yet to be able to challenge Foxconn at the moment, but its ambition is very obvious as it gradually closes the gap with the Taiwanese supplier."
Apple and Luxshare did not respond to requests for comment, while Catcher said it does not have concrete plans at the moment to sell its Chinese assets or jointly invest with other companies.
台北——多位消息人士向《日经亚洲评论》表示，苹果公司建议其中国的一家飞机装配公司对苹果手机和苹果笔记本电脑的金属外壳供应商进行重大投资，这位加州科技巨头希望此举能为其另一家长期供应商——台湾的富士康创造一个强大的替代者。
一位知情人士表示，以积极增长战略著称的快速崛起的中国科技公司卢森堡信通技术(Luxshare-ICT)已与全球第二大金属外壳供应商凯捷科技(Catcher Technology)进行了一年多的谈判，最近进入了更深入的一轮谈判。
如果这笔交易得以实现，将使卢森堡共享能够生产高质量的金属外壳，并获得智能手机组装技术，这将使其更接近于成为中国版的富士康——一家业务几乎覆盖整个电子产品供应链的公司。这一举措可能最终有助于卢森堡分享苹果手机的生产份额，该产品每年出货量约为2亿部。
全球最大的代工电子产品制造商富士康，长期以来一直是苹果最大的供应商，自2007年该设备首次亮相以来，其产量占到了iPhone产量的50%以上。有消息称，这家美国公司渴望减少这种严重的依赖。
“苹果公司正在鼓励卢森堡股份公司进行投资。其基本原理是培养一个有竞争力的中国组装商，以抗衡台湾组装商，”一位熟悉正在进行的谈判的高管层消息人士表示。"苹果拥有的合格供应商越多，它拥有的议价能力就越强。"几十年来，台湾公司一直主导着合同电子制造业。
该消息人士补充称，正在讨论的交易包括凯切在中国的一些设施、员工、管理人员及其与苹果的商业机会，而正在讨论的价格将使其成为卢森堡最大的投资。
外壳或金属框架是帮助赋予iPhone独特外观的关键部件。此外，案例的材料决定了无线连接的性能。金属外壳生产也是iPhone最终组装前的最后一步。富士康和规模较小的竞争对手和硕都有自己的金属外壳子公司，其中富士康是全球最大的。
总部位于台湾的凯切成立于1988年，几十年来一直专注于电子产品领域的轻金属技术，多年来一直是苹果手机和苹果笔记本电脑的主要供应商。截至周一，凯切的市值为1875.9亿新台币(62.8亿美元)，去年的营收为916.2亿新台币。其资本支出在2017年和2018年均超过100亿新台币，主要用于购买金属外壳成型设备。去年其资本支出为新台币40亿元。台湾媒体《数字时代》上周报道称，凯切正在评估在东南亚建立新工厂的可行性，同时考虑出售其在中国的部分资产。
“对苹果来说，这是一个双赢的局面，以支持卢森堡的增长，”一名供应链经理在谈到拟议中的凯切交易时说。“中国公司不仅提供价格更低、质量更有竞争力的产品，还将有助于苹果在这个拥有13亿人口的市场进一步深化其网络。”
这位经理补充道，这样的交易对供应商来说不是双赢。“对苹果来说，这将是一笔不错的交易，但多数情况下，供应商不得不承担投资风险。苹果的战略是在其供应链中看到更多的竞争，这样它可以拥有更好的组件或更好的服务，但仍能降低成本。”
然而，其他人看到了卢森堡可能选择投资的原因。
“在苹果的支持和投资者的青睐下，如果采取行动投资凯切，卢克索在未来三年左右确实有机会挑战富士康的地位。这是一个非常诱人的野心为豪华车创始人]格蕾丝王实现，”另一个消息人士谁熟悉豪华车的想法说。
尽管尚未进入苹果手机组装业务，但快速增长的卢森堡已经成为富士康最大的潜在威胁。截至上周五，2010年在深圳上市的卢森堡股份的市值接近2540亿元人民币(359亿美元)，与富士康1.06万亿新台币(355亿美元)的市值相当。其市值也接近富士康上海上市子公司富士康工业互联网的2900亿元。截至2019年1 2月31日，乐视拥有61亿元现金或现金等价物。
卢森堡也对苹果的多元化努力做出了快速回应。据日本经济新闻报道，该公司在越南迅速建立了飞机生产设施，并与中国同行哥德(GoerTek)一起，在本季度开始大规模生产这些产品。卢克索也成为了第一个专业制作空气唱片的人。苹果已经占到了50%以上营收份额。
然而，多位消息人士表示，卢森堡还没有决定敲定这笔交易，因为在致命的冠状病毒带来诸多不确定性的全球经济低迷时期，这将是一场巨大的赌博。2007年首次推出的苹果标志性产品iPhone的销量也在2018年达到峰值，2019年首次出现年度出货量下降。他们说，在决定是否走上组装iPhone的道路之前，这是另一个要考虑的因素。
“未来10年，iPhone业务会像过去10年一样盈利吗？没有人能保证这笔投资的回报，”其中一位消息人士表示，他已经在iPhone供应链工作了10年。
台湾经济研究所(Taiwan Institute of Economic Research)分析师邱世芳(Chium Shih-Fang)表示，在过去几十年里，随着富士康试图投资于其他零部件和机械零部件供应商，以便在供应链中拥有更为一体化的一部分，该公司的增长战略与富士康成为全球顶级电子合同制造商的方式非常相似。
“无论是收购还是合资企业，过去几年中与卢森堡合作的公司都是苹果的供应商，”邱告诉日经新闻。“目前，卢克思的能力还不足以挑战富士康，但随着它逐渐缩小与台湾供应商的差距，它的雄心非常明显。”
苹果和卢森堡没有回应置评请求，而凯切表示，目前没有出售中国资产或与其他公司联合投资的具体计划。
