Order backlog and sufficient capacity: Listed companies across multiple sectors reveal Q1 operational highlights

As the first quarter wraps up, institutional investors have been rushing to public companies to check on their first-quarter operating performance and to gauge the direction of their second-quarter development.

It is understood that listed companies across multiple sectors—including pharmaceuticals, advanced manufacturing, and new energy—have ample order backlogs, and capacity utilization remains high. Many companies also disclosed their operating plans for the second quarter and their full-year capacity outlook, sending a clear signal to the market. In addition, a number of industries are gradually seeing smoother price transmission, competitive advantages among leading enterprises continue to strengthen, and the industrial landscape is accelerating in optimization and upgrade.

Orders are robust and capacity is sufficient

Based on institutional research and surveys, in the first quarter, order growth was clearly evident for listed companies in multiple industries. Capacity was maintained at a high level, and the acceleration of new product iteration provided solid support for subsequent performance.

In the pharmaceutical sector, many companies showed strong order growth momentum. Kelai Ying stated that from the fourth quarter of 2025 to the first quarter of 2026, the company’s order growth has remained rapid. As of the disclosure date of the 2025 annual report, excluding the 2025 already-confirmed revenue, the company’s total outstanding orders reached $1.39B, up 31.65% year over year.

HaoYuan Pharma focuses its backend business on specialty APIs (active pharmaceutical ingredients), intermediates, and other areas. As of the end of the third quarter of 2025, the backend small-molecule business had outstanding orders of over RMB 630 million, up more than 50%. Moreover, after the fourth quarter of 2025, the company has been signing well for its backend small-molecule and ADC large-molecule businesses. The cycle for turning outstanding orders into operating revenue is typically 6 months to 1 year.

In the manufacturing and new materials sector, many companies have kept capacity running at high levels. For instance, Dinglong Co. maintained growth in its polishing pad sales in the first quarter. The polishing hard-pad production lines at its Wuhan base already reached around 50k pads per month. Combined with the soft-pad capacity at the Qianjiang industrial park, current capacity utilization remains at a good level. Tianyuan Co. achieved full production and full sales of titanium dioxide (titanium white powder) via the chloride process in the first quarter. The company expects it to remain in a state of full production and full sales in the second quarter as well. Its export share of titanium dioxide is around 40%, and it has already been exported to Southeast Asia, Europe, and other regions.

Meanwhile, many listed companies have already disclosed their second-quarter capacity expansion plans or new product release plans.

Dingtong Technology said that demand for its 112G and 224G products continues to rise in the second quarter. Current orders are even more saturated than before, and customers have asked the company to add production lines in the second quarter to push forward preparations for capacity expansion. Qinchuan Machine Tool disclosed that the company has completed the development and trial verification of high-efficiency CNC internal-thread grinding machines and high-efficiency CNC external-thread grinding machines for machining planetary roller ball screws. It plans to comprehensively promote them to the market at the 14th China CNC Machine Tool Fair in April.

The global production base strategy of Tianshun Wind Energy has been basically finalized. Its Yayang base in Yancheng, Jiangsu; Tongzhou Bay base in Nantong; Jieyang Huilai base in Guangdong; and Lufeng base in Shanwei have all entered production. The company’s Yangjiang base basically completed equipment commissioning in the fourth quarter of 2025. It expects to enter production in the second quarter of 2026. The second-phase expansion project for the Yancheng base is expected to complete production-line commissioning and enter production in 2026.

Price increases driven by market demand

Affected by factors such as rising raw material prices, in the first quarter, many listed companies in multiple industries initiated product price adjustments, and the price transmission effect has gradually become visible. At the same time, advantages among leading enterprises have stood out, and industry concentration may further improve.

In the building materials sector, the cost transmission effect is clear. Taking Beixin Building Materials as an example, the company said that in the first quarter, the waterproofing and coatings industries increased prices in tandem, effectively transmitting the pressure of rising raw material costs. As market resources concentrate toward enterprises with comprehensive advantages in R&D, manufacturing, branding, and more, it may drive higher industry concentration.

In the electronic information sector, business operations have shown differentiated growth patterns. BOE, in analyzing the price trend of LCD panels, said that driven by event ticketing inventory purchases, tight supply of storage chips, and price-increase expectations, TV prices for mainstream sizes rose somewhat in the first quarter. In the second quarter, as event ticketing inventory purchases end, the price increase may narrow to parity.

“In the first quarter, consumer electronics such as mobile terminals and PCs maintained steady year-over-year growth. Meanwhile, this year, domestic GPU server business for data centers is quickly ramping up, and products from super-node will be shipped starting in the second quarter.” Huaqin Technology expects that the company’s revenue in full-year 2026 will grow by more than 15% year over year, and revenue will exceed RMB 200 billion (200B元), with the profit growth rate being higher.

In the semiconductor and new energy sectors, the pace of price transmission shows diverse characteristics relative to industry supply and demand. Beijing Junzheng disclosed that current DRAM capacity can support a certain increase in this year’s sales. The company had inventories of nearly RMB 3 billion by the end of 2025, with most of it consisting of storage products—significantly higher than in the previous cycle. Currently, the company uses a quarterly rationing and allocation mechanism to ensure stable supply, but it cannot fully meet all market demand. The company will continue to strengthen communication with upstream leading manufacturers to secure more capacity.

“In 2026, when setting new contract prices, the company has fully referred to the latest market price of lithium hexafluorophosphate, and the transmission efficiency has continued to improve.” Xinzoubang introduced: In the fourth quarter of 2025, the price of lithium hexafluorophosphate rose mainly due to a surge in energy storage demand and phase-specific supply-demand imbalances caused by industry inventories being at a low level. In the first quarter of 2026, the price declined mainly due to adjustments to power battery policies, inventory replenishment, and the release of some capacity, but energy storage demand remains strong, and the industry overall is still in a relatively tight supply-demand situation.

“After the cancellation of photovoltaic export VAT rebates in the second quarter, our production scheduling still remains relatively stable, reflecting the good resilience of global photovoltaic demand.” JinkoSolar said the company remains optimistic about global photovoltaic market demand. Especially as international oil and gas prices rise rapidly, the economics of “PV + storage” has become even more prominent, making it one of the preferred options for enhancing energy security and independence.