The leader in industrial automation, SUPCON Technology, recently faced impacts from false rumors.

"Regarding the online rumors, we have taken legal measures to respond," is the statement from SUPCON Technology's Hangzhou headquarters to the media on May 23rd. There were earlier reports that due to instability in the Middle East, SUPCON's overseas business might be negatively affected. The company's stock experienced a short fall on the day the news broke, with the drop reaching up to 16% at one point.

An individual suspected to be a SUPCON executive clarified: "Our business in the Middle East isn’t significant, amounting to only about one to two hundred million yuan, and we do not have operations in Iran, so this incident has no impact on our company."

To stabilize investor sentiment, SUPCON promptly held an investor communication meeting, led by founder Chu Jian and Chairman and President Cui Shan, both of whom emphasized that the company's operations were running normally.

Despite SUPCON's swift response, by the close of May 24th, its stock price only recovered to 41.79 yuan, with the market value decreasing to 33 billion yuan, a fall of approximately 10% from the previous week.

SUPCON Technology has deep roots in the domestic market, which accounts for up to 96% of its main business. The company has been maintaining high-speed growth, with last year's revenue and net profit growth both exceeding 30%, and in the first quarter of this year, net profit reached 145 million yuan, a 57% increase year-on-year. Although the income from exports and overseas sales is just over 300 million yuan and the company remains relatively small-scale, it is precisely an essential part of SUPCON's current strategy, with the potential to drive further growth.

Last year, SUPCON made significant progress in overseas markets, securing cooperation with several high-end international customers and signing new contracts worth nearly 1 billion yuan; it opened its first overseas 5S store in Saudi Arabia and set up subsidiaries in places like Singapore. In addition, by successfully issuing GDRs and listing on the SIX Swiss Exchange, the company further opened up international financing channels. It also acquired the high-end analytical instrument company Hobré in the Netherlands, laying a foundation for its European research and development layout.

In the industrial automation sector, SUPCON Technology boasts a renowned reputation, having held the leading position in the domestic DCS (Distributed Control System) market for 13 consecutive years.

The actual controller of SUPCON is Chu Jian from Zhejiang Chun'an, a doctorate who returned to China after studying in Japan, later became the vice-chancellor of Zhejiang University, and started SUPCON Technology, breaking the international giants' monopoly over the Chinese DCS market.

Having experienced personal adversity and serving three years in prison, Chu Jian returned to the company, leading it through a series of reforms, establishing a new senior management team, successfully going public, and consolidating the company's leadership position in the domestic market. Currently, he participates in the company's development decisions as a strategic consultant, handing over the positions of chairman and president to the respected Cui Shan.

Cui Shan, 53, joined SUPCON Technology with rich experience from Honeywell and Yokogawa Electric, and formerly served as vice president of Yokogawa Electric China.

In today's industrial domain, the application of Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology is still a largely undeveloped blue ocean. Based on a rich foundation of industrial data, our company is vigorously exploring the industrial AI track, reshaping products and technologies. Structurally, following the experience of Huawei, the company has established 16 battle teams focused on different industrial sectors, which include oil and gas, chlor-alkali, and liquor industries. Each team will focus on the unique needs of their sub-industries, using "AI + data" as the core to create specialized industry smart factory solutions.

What's exciting is that the company is set to launch its first AI time-series big model TPT in the process industry at the beginning of June. This model has achieved a technical breakthrough, no longer relying on previous independent small models, but by unifying a large number of industrial application scenarios and interaction patterns, committed to solving a series of unresolved industrial problems. Its main functions involve the operation of process industry equipment, decision optimization, and other aspects, aiming to improve the efficiency of equipment operation, optimize control strategies, and parameter decision-making.

In terms of business expansion, the company's investment actions are very active. The company recently announced that it would use about 14.48 million yuan of its own funds to increase the capital of "Zhejiang Humanoid Robot Innovation Center" together with its related parties, after which it will hold 44.4% of the company's shares. The company's keen interest in the field of robotics is evident. Mentioned in its latest annual report, the company is planning and developing a general-purpose humanoid robot controller and SROS (robot operating system) software, and will focus on two business directions: logistics and packaging robots, as well as intelligent inspection and vision robots. The company's business in this emerging field has started quickly and has successfully won orders from high-end customers such as CNOOC and Saudi Aramco.

The cooperation with Zhejiang Humanoid Robot aims to promote the industrialization of humanoid robots and their derived intelligent robots and key components, to build "unmanned factories" in the process industry, and to achieve "lights-out operations". In addition, last year the company also invested in several companies such as Beijing Damesheng Software and Hangzhou Peimu, expanding into new tracks such as robotics, new energy, smart coal mines, smart laboratories, etc., with some businesses growing rapidly and entering a fast-growing stage. The company has also enhanced its capabilities in traditional industry sectors that rely heavily on imports through external investments and other means, such as by acquiring the Dutch company Hobré, obtaining orders for high-end analytical instruments in the Chinese market, and significantly improving the revenue of the instrument and meter segment, with a year-on-year increase of 80%.

The company's senior management team, represented by Cui Shan, has summed up the company's investment and acquisition principles: "Enhance core technology, perfect the product system, and expand marketing channels." The company is steadily expanding into the international market, launching new products, and actively exploring new opportunities in the industry. With the management's confident attitude, the company's pace is getting faster, and the outlook for performance growth in 2024 is also quite optimistic. If the company can achieve expectations and continue to maintain an upward momentum, the current rumors and turbulence will soon become a thing of the past.