Another year has come and gone! As we’re getting closer to the New Year, I would like to, on behalf of YOFC, wish all of our customers, partners and those who have supported us every step of the way a prosperous and happy new year! I want to extend gratitude and best wishes to all employees and your families for your hard work and dedication as we make an entry into 2022.  

When we take a look back, the year 2021 was extraordinary and wrapped up with celebrations for YOFC in the midst of favorable and thriving environment in China. Various notable achievements in the year 2021 have supported our performance during the time of the global pandemic. Let’s have a quick flashback to the advancements that marked our calendar in the past year.   

We tapped new potentials for conventional products

Our conventional products with great competitiveness still gained ground in the market. The success in lab transmission verification, engineering applications and centralized procurement tenders of major operators speak for themselves. We made new breakthroughs in long-haul and large-capacity optical transmission technology as our new type optical fibre G.654.E with ultra-low attenuation played a big part in China Mobile Research Institute’s test of the 1,100km transmission of 800G systems. The fibre also helped China Telecom build the world's first all-G.654.E terrestrial trunk cable, paving the way for the development of single-wave 1T and higher speed transmission systems down the road. G.654.E’s success didn’t stop there. It was applied to the ± 800 kV North Shaanxi-Hubei UHV DC Project of the State Grid, marking a breakthrough in long-distance transmission without repeater with a single span of 467 km. What deserved celebrations was that YOFC won the largest share of the centralized procurement tender of 143.2 million fibre kilometers of ordinary optical cable from China Mobile at greater volume and better price in the past year. It predicted that the industry was and will be doing better.

We developed diversified business as the new driver of high quality development

While we built on what we excelled, we also channeled great energy into diversified business, such as AOC, 5G+ Industrial Internet solutions, optical transceiver, maritime cable, optical cable products for power sector by setting YOFC Hanchuan Science Park in motion. Among them, AOC-oriented EverPro Technologies Co., Ltd, a subsidiary of YOFC, secured significant Series A and B funding of nearly $600 million, and has been invested by well-known institutions such as YE Capital, (Meituan) DragonBall Capital, Firstred Capital etc., with great headway made in offerings applied in virtual reality, UHDV, medical system, machine vision and data center. Our project with an annual capacity of 10 million high-end optical devices and optical transceivers came on stream in 2020. In addition to the rollout of 400G data center optical transceivers, we also extended our presence in Silicon Photonics, OBO (On-Board Optics), CPO (Co-Packaged Optics) and other new technologies while sharpened competitiveness in optical transceiver offerings. We were also on the right track to bring 5G + Industrial Internet solutions to optical communication industry and beyond.

We went deeper in international market

YOFC has been expanding its footprint in overseas markets, such as Thailand, Indonesia, Myanmar, South Africa, the Philippines and Peru, since internationalization was defined as one of its major strategies. The June 2020 witnessed the acquisition of Brazilian Poliron, a milestone for YOFC’s business development in Brazil and Latin America region. We are proud of our resilience during the pandemic as we managed to keep overseas projects well underway. Good news came from many markets. We played a significant role in the warp-up of the Philippines DITO Phase I project, DITO’s first self-owned communication pole station in the countries. We delivered the communication station in Peru. We are working on building Poland plant from the ground up.

Our efforts and dedication didn’t go answered. Overseas business revenue is rising as a bigger share in total income. In the first half of 2021, the international market generated a revenue of RMB 1.428 billion, a year-on-year increase of about 59.44%, and accounting for 32.81% of total income.

We worked on technological innovation and digital transformation

Digital transformation holds the key to moving up our value chain and technological innovation is part of our DNA. A number of honors we won in 2020 can speak volumes of that, including 2020 Pilot Demonstration Organization of Integrated Development of Manufacturing and Internet by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Green Plant, 2020 Smart Manufacturing Benchmark Enterprise, one of the first batch of National Supply Chain Innovation and Application Demonstration Enterprises, one of the Top Ten Intelligent Benchmark Plants in Wuhan. Its all-process digital supply chain was the only one in the sector that made into the successful cases of deep integration of logistics and manufacturing industries. We felt deeply motivated and promise to build on these honors towards a greater success in core competitiveness and digital transformation.

The past year brought a lot of opportunities for our progress. With 2021 behind us, we look forward to 2022 with great expectation despite the adversity. When we look at the big picture, the year 2022 may be unfolded with challenges as China will be under much pressure for economic growth and the pandemic may continue to test us as a nation. However, more opportunities still lie ahead than challenges. It is the similar case for optical communication industry. 5G, Dual Gigabit, FTTR, Industrial Internet etc., are turning into reality and gaining significant traction in China. The pandemic is catalyzing faster digitalization in foreign countries. These shifts at home and abroad fueled rapid development of communication network infrastructure and greater demand for optical fibres and cables. We are convinced the optical fibre and cable industry has headed into the third growth stage.

Therefore, we shall capitalize on the opportunities presented to us and focus on creating value for our customers and for ourselves.

At last, I would like to wish you and your family a prosperous year filled with peace and health.

                         Dan Zhuang, Executive Director & President

               Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Joint Stock Limited Company