As the localization rate of semiconductor equipment continues to rise, domestic equipment manufacturers are no longer satisfied with mere supply guarantees of product availability. Instead, they have put forward comprehensive requirements for suppliers, integrating quality, delivery, service, price, and technology. Meanwhile, as the complexity of core equipment such as etching and thin film deposition continues to increase, the depth of collaboration between OEMs and component and subsystem suppliers is steadily strengthening, and the business boundaries among materials, equipment, and manufacturing are increasingly converging.
This trend poses new challenges for upstream suppliers on two levels: first, response speed—whether they can rely on local production capacity for rapid delivery amid global supply chain fluctuations and shortage cycles; second, engineering capability—whether they can intervene in advance during the design phase, integrating engineering validation, supply chain integration, precision manufacturing, cleanroom assembly, and system testing to help customers shorten development cycles and stabilize mass production yield rates.
Against this backdrop, CKL, which has been deeply rooted in China for over two decades, has unveiled a new brand image and the "In China, for China" strategy, upgrading its business in China from a manufacturing base to an engineering and advanced system integration partner based in and independently operating in China.
Strategic Core: R&D, Manufacturing, and Service in China
In September this year, CKL launched a new brand logo in Shanghai. The Chinese name remains unchanged, while CKL becomes the unified English brand identity. Kai Fai Ng, Director and Global Vice President of CKL, emphasized that the essence of this brand refresh is to clarify the company's market positioning in China based on more than 20 years of technological and engineering accumulation: serving Chinese semiconductor equipment manufacturers with local operations, engineering capabilities, and advanced system integration.
Li Yongdai, Senior Sales Director of CKL, stated that specifically, CKL's strategy in China can be summarized as "Three in China":
First, R&D in China: Building on the existing team in Shanghai, an Engineering Center of Excellence (COE) will be established to build collaborative capabilities for a localized R&D technical team, accelerating the response to customers' equipment upgrade demands.
Second, Manufacturing in China: The Chinese team will gain full-process leadership in gas supply systems and equipment systems, providing integrated design solutions and advanced integrated assembly for valves, modules, subsystems, and more.
Third, Service in China: Establishing an independent technical support team in China to be close to customer sites and shorten the service radius.
Furthermore, at the supply chain level, CKL relies on global supply chain resources to develop new domestic suppliers and has set up a dedicated "Tiger Team" to promote the localization certification of components. Currently, the localization rate of CKL's gas boxes has reached 50%, with a target to increase it to 80% by the end of 2026, while establishing safety stock to accelerate response speed. Li Yongdai emphasized that CKL's commitment to customers of "no changes in quality standards, manufacturing process technology, and service teams" is intended to dispel market concerns about potential quality fluctuations caused by localization—a positioning that is particularly critical in the semiconductor ultra-high purity (UHP) field.
Competitiveness: Product Technology and Manufacturing Capability
CKL positions itself as a leading global service provider of ultra-high purity gas and fluid delivery systems. Its target market covers mainstream global wafer fabs and top semiconductor equipment manufacturers, involving process directions such as 12-inch and below logic, memory, silicon carbide (SiC) power semiconductors, and advanced packaging. Li Yongdai stated that CKL's core capabilities cover both products and manufacturing.
In terms of products, its gas/chemical delivery systems provide overall supporting equipment such as gas cabinets, pipeline valves, flow meters, and various sensors; the Equipment Front-End Module (EFEM) focuses on the wafer front-end transport and assembly platform; thermal management solutions provide heating and insulation system designs for gas delivery pipelines—this business line was introduced in 2018 and has now become one of the company's three major business units (BUs); precision welding components cover automated robotic welding and precision pipeline welding, providing complete welding processing solutions; and value-added services include one-stop support such as equipment cleaning and core module regeneration.
In terms of manufacturing capabilities, CKL owns two factories in the Zhangjiang Hi-Tech Park in Pudong, Shanghai, with a total area of 15,300 square meters, including 7,000 square meters of cleanrooms configured to cover Class 100, Class 1,000, and Class 10,000, forming a complete chain of "precision welding + system assembly." Steven Yan, Senior Operations Director of CKL, introduced that the ultra-clean pipeline welding workshop in the Shanghai factory is equipped with high-precision automatic cutting machines, deionized ultrasonic cleaning machines, and 4 CNC pipe bending machines, the latter of which supports continuous pipe bending with up to 7-8 bends.
In the Class 100 cleanroom, the workshop adopts two welding modes: single-station (for small-batch complex parts) and integrated (for large batches). The pipeline welding capacity reaches 10,000 pieces per week, which can not only meet self-assembly needs but also be supplied externally independently. The large-diameter pipeline welding workshop covers laser cutting, wire cutting, turning and milling machining centers, and 22 welding stations (orbital welding + manual welding). Controlling thermal strain deformation in large-diameter manual welding is an industry difficulty, which CKL addresses relying on over 20 years of technological precipitation and a mature welder training system; the post-process undergoes customer-certified Type 1 cleaning and is measured, heated, and packaged in the cleanroom.
The gas assembly workshop designs station-based production lines according to customer product characteristics and production rhythms to improve quality stability and reduce reliance on skilled employees, and is equipped with a dedicated training center. The assembly area of the second factory reserves 600 square meters for new projects such as valve assembly and system assembly, reflecting production capacity flexibility.
The core logic of this layout is to drive CKL's upgrade from "High-Mix Low-Volume (HMLV) manufacturing" to a system engineering integration capability that connects "design collaboration—engineering validation—precision manufacturing—cleanroom assembly—system testing—delivery." In the semiconductor equipment industry, different OEMs and different processes (etching, CVD, etc.) have varying requirements for gas control interfaces and communication protocols, making it difficult for subsystem suppliers to achieve scaled reuse.
Kevin Shi, Manufacturing Engineering Director of CKL, stated that CKL's approach is to translate different customers' communication protocols into modular universal signal interfaces—unifying communication downwards to actuators and components, with control modules recognizing standard module signals, thereby using standardized modules to undertake customized demands from different customers.
A representative cooperation case is: a leading domestic customer, in the application of easily liquefied cryogenic gases, originally required a separate external control system to control the heating module. Through early communication with the customer's design team, CKL suggested canceling the external control and integrating the heating control module into the existing gas control system. This not only saved costs for the customer but also introduced standardized modules, achieving a balance between customized demands and rapid, stable delivery.
This case reflects the essence of differentiated competition among semiconductor equipment suppliers: in an industry environment where equipment systems are becoming increasingly complex, what customers need is not single components or contract manufacturing capacity, but engineering partners that can intervene in advance during the design phase and bring forward the optimization of structure and manufacturability. CKL defines this as making the entire system work, making it well, and making it stable.
Conclusion
CKL's stepping up of its strategy in China is a microcosm of the localization process of China's semiconductor equipment supply chain, and also provides a sample worth observing: as the substitution rate of domestic equipment grows, the focus of competition is shifting from "whether it exists and whether it is expensive" to "whether it is understood, whether it is fast, and whether it is stable." For CKL, "In China, for China" is not a simple transfer of production capacity, but a value reconstruction based on the Engineering Center of Excellence, local supply chain certification, and full-process system integration capabilities.
The key point lies in how to ensure technological isolation and intellectual property management while serving multiple competing OEMs, and how to continuously deliver on its quality commitments during the rapid increase in the localization rate. After all, whether CKL's brand slogan "Beyond the Seen, Technology Forms a Forest" can be realized ultimately depends on every reliable delivery.