GROUP'S PHILOSOPHY

As one of the best known large scale wires and cables manufacturer and marketing enterprise, adhering to honesty and hard working, Jiangnan Group aims to develop vigorously a better industry environment, to be among world-class brands and best international enterprises, to create social wealth, to realize staff value and to gain best return to the shareholders.

BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT

Despite the grim and complex domestic and international political and economic environments, the economy of the People’s Republic of China (“China” or the “PRC”) in 2021 continued to recover steadily, and the economic development in China showed a trend of steady strengthening and improvement. According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, while China’s gross domestic product (“GDP”) grew by 8.1% over that in 2020 to RMB114.4 trillion, it grew strongly in the first half of 2021 and slowed down in the second half of 2021 compared to the respective corresponding periods in 2020. The growth rate in the fourth quarter of 2021 was only 4.0%. National fixed asset investments in 2021 increased by 4.9% over that in 2020 to RMB54.5 trillion.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, in 2021, the utilisation rate of industrial production capacity in China was 77.5%, representing an increase of 3.0 percentage points over that in 2020. China’s composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (“PMI”) output index for December 2021 was 51.9%, which represented an increase of 1.8 percentage point from that for the previous month and an increase of 0.3 percentage point as compared to that for December 2020. The PMI output index of China remained above the boom-bust line during most of the months of 2021, indicating that the manufacturing industry in the country was expanding steadily in 2021.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission of China, the total electricity consumption in China was 8.3 trillion kilowatt-hours (”kWh”) in 2021, representing an increase of 10.3% over that in 2020. The rapid growth of exports, the continuous development of industrial production and the rapid growth of high-tech manufacturing and equipment manufacturing have driven electricity consumption of the secondary industry to increase by 9.1% to 5.6 trillion kWh, as compared with that in 2020. Driven by the growth of modern service industries such as information transmission, software and information technology services, accommodation and catering, transportation, warehousing and postal services, the service industries continued to recover and the electricity consumption of the tertiary industry increased by 17.8% as compared with that in 2020 and reached 1.4 trillion kWh in 2021. According to the statistics of the Industry Development and Environmental Resources Division of the China Electricity Council, a joint organisation of China’s power enterprises and institutions approved to be established by the State Council, the national production capacity was 2.38 billion kilowatts in 2021, representing an increase of 9.5% as compared with that in 2020, which was mainly due to the increase in the installed power generation capacity of new energy. In 2021, the major power generation enterprises in China completed investments in respect of power supply works of RMB553.0 billion, which were 4.5% higher than those in 2020. The power generated in 2021 reached 8.1 trillion kilowatts, representing an increase of 8.1% as compared with that in 2020. The investments in power grid infrastructure in 2021 completed by the State Grid Corporation of China (“SGCC”) amounted to RMB495.1 billion. The above provided a support to the sales of the Group’s cables during the year under review.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, national infrastructure investments (excluding the production and supply of electricity, heat, gas and water) in 2021 increased by 0.9% over those in 2020, which was mainly due to the 4.5% increase in investments in the water conservatory management industry and the 1.4% increase in investments in the road transportation industry. The stable investments in infrastructure in China have played a role in maintaining the stability of the demand for both the general and special power cables of the Group.

With regard to the property sector, according to the National Bureau of Statistics of China, investments in real estate development in China reached RMB14.8 trillion in 2021, representing an increase of 4.8% over those in 2020. In 2021, the floor space of commodity housing sold in China increased by 1.9% over that in 2020 to 1.79 billion square metres and the sales increased by 4.8% to RMB18.2 trillion. In 2021, the floor space of houses under development decreased by 11.4% over that in 2020 to 1.98 billion square metres, and the floor space of houses completed increased by 11.2% over that in 2020 to 1.01 billion square metres. At the end of 2021, the floor space of houses under construction by developers reached 9.75 billion square metres, representing an increase of 5.2% over that in the corresponding period in 2020. The land areas purchased by the real estate developers in 2021 amounted to 220 million square metres, representing a decrease of 15.5% over those in 2020. Although the impact of Evergrande Group’s default on its debt on the development of the entire real estate industry still remains to be observed, as the Chinese government adheres to the principle of “housing is not for speculation” and continues to stabilise housing prices and land prices and manage market expectations, the overall operation of China’s real estate market has remained stable, which also supports a stable demand for the relevant wire and cable products of the Group.

In 2021, the newly appointed President of Peru planned to implement tax reforms in his country, which would adversely affect the output of copper mines. In addition, production activities in major copper-producing countries such as Chile were constantly disrupted by the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (“COVID-19”) epidemic, which triggered market concerns over copper supply. China’s power shortage in the second half of 2021 adversely affected the operation of manufacturers such as metal smelters, which in turn further tightened the supply of copper. On the other hand, the gradual recovery of the global economy, especially in the new energy, electronics and photovoltaic sectors, had driven a significant increase in the demand for copper. Strong demand for copper and concerns over the supply of it led to the rise of its price on the London Metal Exchange Limited (“LME”) from USD7,918 per tonne in January 2021 to a high of USD10,724 per tonne on 10 May 2021, representing an increase of 35.4%. The copper prices on LME remained above USD9,000 per tonne during the second half of 2021. In 2021, the average price of copper on the LME reached USD9,315 per tonne, which was a significant 51.0% higher than that in 2020. In 2021, the average price of aluminium (another major raw material of the cable products of the Group) on the LME reached USD2,236 per tonne, which was a significant 61.3% higher than that in 2020. As the Group prices its products on a cost-plus basis, the increase in the prices of the raw materials has led to an upward adjustment to the prices of the Group’s products, resulting in an increase in the turnover of the Group for the year under review.

BUSINESS REVIEW

In 2021, the Group’s turnover increased by approximately 43.8% as compared with that in 2020, to a record high of approximately RMB19,173.6 million, which was driven by the economic growth in the PRC and a sharp hike in the prices of the raw material commodities such as copper and aluminum.

In 2021, as the global COVID-19 epidemic has basically become under control to a certain extent, and some countries have adopted co-existence with the virus, economic activities became more active than those in 2020, which drove the Group’s export business to recover from the level in 2020. For the year ended 31 December 2021, the total export sales (including both direct and indirect exports) of the Group were approximately USD64.2 million, representing an increase of approximately 65.0% as compared with those in 2020 of approximately USD38.9 million. However, in view of the current global epidemic situation still remaining severe and the geopolitical environment still being tense, the Group will be faced with a lot of uncertainties for the Group in selling its products to overseas markets.

In recent years, the Group’s annual investments in equipment for expansion of its production capacity exceeded RMB50 million on average. In 2021, the Group has increased its investments in technological transformation. New machineries and production lines of the Group which commenced operation during the year under review included a double-head 11-mold large-draw machine, a double-head 9-mold large-draw machine, a German-imported 37-core copper-core stranding machine, a 61-core copper-core stranding machine imported from Germany, a 120 extruder imported from Italy and a BTTZ copper strip longitudinal clad welding production line. In 2021, four sets of new Finnish-imported ultra-high-speed catenary medium-voltage cable CCV production lines have been purchased, of which one has been installed, and the remaining three will be installed in April 2022 with operation expected to commence in September 2022.

In 2021, the Group has supplied products to many prominent infrastructure projects, such as the Brunei PMB Petrochemical Project, the Yellow River Delta National Nature Reserve Power Reconstruction Project, the BASF (Guangdong) Integration Project, the Baihetan Hydropower Station-Jiangsu Project, the Zhejiang UHV transmission line Project, the Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics venue Project and the China-Laos Railway Project.

In September 2021, a debt crisis broke out in China as a result of the default by Evergrande Group in paying its debt. The crisis involved many financial institutions, as well as various financial products in the form of bonds and stocks, which affected many investors. In addition, certain construction in progress of Evergrande Group had been suspended, which adversely affected the interests of different stakeholders, such as the buyers, construction workers and suppliers, and had a negative impact on people’s livelihood in China. Evergrande Group has been a stable customer of the Group in the past. Since the Evergrande debt crisis broke out, the Group’s accumulated receivables due from the subsidiaries of Evergrande Group amounted to approximately RMB880 million. Due to the uncertainty of recovering the receivables, the Group has made provision for bad debts for all of the receivables due from the subsidiaries of Evergrande Group, resulting in a loss for the Group for the year ended 31 December 2021.

In 2021, the Group continued to be on the lists of the top 500 Chinese Manufacturing Enterprises* (中國製造業企業500強), the top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises* (中國民營企業500強), the top 500 Chinese Private Enterprises in Manufacturing* (中國製造業民營企業500強), and the top 10 Most Competitive Enterprises in China’s Cable Industry* (中國綫纜行業最具競爭力企業10強). The Group also won a number of awards such as “Ministry of Industry and Information Technology — Industrial Product Green Design Demonstration Enterprise”* (工信部工業產品綠色設計示範企業), “Demonstration Base for Education and Training for Veterans in Jiangsu Province”* (江蘇省退役軍人教育培訓實習實訓示範基地), “Hubei Provincial Science and Technology Progress Award”* (湖北省科技進步獎), “Brand Performance Achievement Award in Jiangsu Province”* (江蘇省品牌績效成果獎), “ Ministry of Industry and Information Technology — Green Supply Chain Enterprise”* (工信部綠色供應鏈企業), and “Wuxi Smart Factory”* (無錫市智能工廠).

In recent years, amid keen market competition, the Group which has been aiming at the domestic and overseas high-end cable and wire markets, has managed to expedite the development and innovation of its new products, processes and technologies by means of scientific research platforms such as academician workstations and post-doctoral workstations. In 2021, the Group has achieved positive results in the research and development of products such as UV-cross-linked polyethylene insulation materials, high-voltage cables for new energy vehicles, cables for battery energy storage systems, railway links up grounding wires, and aluminium alloy cables for photovoltaic power generation system.

STRATEGY AND OUTLOOK

In 2022, it is expected that the global economic situation will remain complex and severe, while the recovery will be unstable and unbalanced, and various derivative risks caused by international political conflicts and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to emerge. As China's economy is facing the triple pressures of demand contraction, supply shock and weakening expectations, its recovery will be enormously challenging. From the perspective of industry development, the COVID-19 pandemic has led to a decline in demand, and the global wire and cable market has gradually shrunk. Under the principles of "housing is not for speculation" and "three red lines" in China, it is expected that the real estate market in 2022 will not be optimistic. The short-term adjustment of the market is expected to continue while the national market size is expected to decline. The market for mining cables, urban rail transit cables and airfield lighting cables has been clearly oversupplied, with sales prices transparent and market competition fierce. Globally, the economy is under pressure due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, labour market issues, ongoing supply chain challenges and rising inflation. The United Nations predicts that global economic growth will fall to 4% and 3.5% in 2022 and 2023 respectively, after a 5.5% growth in 2021.

However, it is expected that the long-term positive fundamentals of China's economy will not change, as it has been proposed in the Central Economic Work Conference 2021 that the development of infrastructure construction will be pushed ahead of schedule moderately. On 11 December 2021, the solid promotion of the construction of 102 major engineering projects in the "14th Five-Year Plan” and the moderate advancement of infrastructure investments were proposed in the National Development and Reform Work Conference. In 2022, construction investments in new infrastructure, smart city, smart energy, smart transportation, 5G, and industrial Internet are expected to gain momentum, and major projects in Hebei, Guangdong, Shandong and other places in the country will be launched one after another, leading to an acceleration of stable investments. It is expected that there will be huge investment demand for infrastructure construction in the next few years. According to China's plans for the major fields requiring the use of wires and cables — electric power (new energy, smart grid), rail transit, aerospace, marine engineering, etc., the future prospects of China's wire and cable industry will be bright, and there is clearly a trend that products will continue to be upgraded. It is estimated that industry demand is expected to reach RMB1.8 trillion by 2026. In particular, it is expected that the following will create opportunities for the development of the Group in 2022:

• At the national level in China, the state provides policy and financial support for key strategies such as "new infrastructure”. In the "14th Five-Year Plan", the optimisation of China's energy structure, the raising of the proportion of new energy, and the building of a smart grid and an ultra-long-distance power transmission network were mentioned. State Grid promised that during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period, total investment in development is expected to be RMB579.5 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of RMB22.6 billion, of which grid investment will be RMB473 billion, representing a year-on-year increase of RMB12.5 billion.
• During the "13th Five-Year Plan" period, China's national average annual investment in wind power was RMB129.2 billion, and the investment in photovoltaic power was RMB34.9 billion. Due to the relatively fast construction cycle of wind power and photovoltaic installations, based on the above-mentioned average annual installation capacity, it is estimated that the national average annual investment in wind power and photovoltaic during the "14th Five-Year Plan" period will be RMB350.4 billion, which will be 2.1 times the average annual investment amount during the "13th Five-Year Plan" period.
• As China's national strategy for the next 40 years, "carbon neutrality" will profoundly change corporate behaviour and residents' lifestyles at all levels, and will have a huge impact on the transformation of the economic structure of the country. Renewable energy will enter into a big era, and there will be huge development opportunities for industries directly related to carbon neutrality such as photovoltaic, new energy vehicles, and energy storage.

Notwithstanding that the market is full of opportunities, there are still some issues yet to be resolved in the development of the Group, such as further improvement of the quality of its marketing function, further enhancement of its management standard and further improvement of its service capability. The Group will focus on the following areas in its business operations in 2022:

• Continue to adhere to its main line of smart manufacturing, rely on comprehensive digital transformation, further refine its processes, realise seamless connection between production, sales and logistics, so as to better meet the needs of the market and its customers.
• Strengthen the construction of its management team, deepen the cultivation of interdisciplinary talents and provide more platforms and opportunities for young employees to express themselves.
• Carry out in-depth production and lean management, invite professional teams to provide on-site guidance, improve its production system, optimise its workshops’ on-site environment, save energy and reduce consumption, improve its production efficiency and further reduce its manufacturing costs.
• Adhere to the principle of “Cash is King”, enhance its cash flow control, pay close attention to its receivables management, and selectively trim down the business operations with poor payment collection to reduce operational risks.
• Adhere to its market positioning of "marketing + brand promotion", deeply cultivate its domestic market and improve its product market coverage.