Zhongtai Securities: The rise of the unmanned logistics industry may fully benefit unmanned forklift companies

According to Zhitong Finance APP, Zhongtai Securities released a research report stating that since 2024, autonomous logistics vehicles are moving towards full commercialization. Autonomous forklifts, as a bridge connecting the production end and the logistics end, are the new cornerstone in the field of unmanned logistics warehousing. The automation transformation of forklift companies can significantly reduce labor costs and improve warehouse operational efficiency. Forklift automation features continuous operation, high precision, sustained operational efficiency, and a low turning radius, making this solution an important strategy for companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. It is recommended to pay attention to the following related targets: LANJIAN (688557.SH), EP (603194.SH), HANGCHA GROUP (603298.SH), AHHL (600761.SH), Noli (603611.SH).

The main points of Zhongtai Securities are as follows:

The unmanned logistics industry is moving towards a fully commercialized stage

After the exploratory period from 2010 to 2016 and the commercialization breakthrough phase from 2016 to 2023, since 2024, autonomous logistics vehicles are advancing towards full commercialization. The application scenarios for unmanned delivery vehicles have expanded from specific areas to completely open roads, with leading technology companies/logistics companies beginning large-scale production, and the fleets/capacity of leading enterprises aiming for the level of tens of thousands.

Key component costs have dropped to commercial thresholds, driving large-scale orders

LiDAR and domain controllers are two major intelligent driving hardware components with significant single value. Benefiting from factors such as technological iteration and scale expansion, costs are rapidly declining. Unmanned logistics vehicles are continuously restructuring the cost structure of last-mile logistics through hardware cost reductions and operational model innovations. The express delivery industry has long been mired in price wars, with the last-mile delivery segment being the core battleground for cost reduction due to high reliance on labor, low automation levels, and relatively high cost proportions. As supply chain maturity improves and large-scale production advances, the overall price of unmanned logistics vehicles is significantly decreasing, leading to a 40% reduction in average operating costs and a 60% increase in efficiency after the logistics industry adopts unmanned vehicles.

The unmanned vehicle market has entered a high-speed growth channel, with overall scale showing explosive growth

According to predictions from the National Intelligent Connected Vehicle Center (CICV), around the integration of vehicle, road, and cloud, eight innovative application services such as autonomous taxi, last-mile delivery, logistics delivery, port transportation, and trunk transportation are expected to create an incremental output value of 52.5 billion yuan in 2025 and 745.9 billion yuan in 2030. The main growth driver is likely based on unmanned logistics.

Innovation in unmanned forklift products is ongoing, with increasingly diverse product forms, and new lightweight products continuously emerging to meet diverse warehousing and logistics needs

As a bridge connecting the production end and the logistics end, unmanned forklifts are the new cornerstone in the field of unmanned logistics warehousing. The automation transformation of forklift companies can significantly reduce labor costs and improve warehouse operational efficiency. Forklift automation features continuous operation, high precision, sustained operational efficiency, and a low turning radius, making this solution an important strategy for companies to reduce costs and increase efficiency. Taking LANJIAN as an example, automating a warehouse with an area of 3,000 square meters and introducing a laser-guided unmanned forklift costs approximately the same as the warehouse transformation plus the salaries of two operators for 2-3 years, allowing companies to still enjoy good investment returns in the medium to long term. From multiple perspectives, unmanned forklift solutions have significant advantages over traditional methods Risk Warning

Industry technological progress is below expectations; industry scale reduction leads to overall profit decline; related targets' business progress is below expectations; related targets' performance is below expectations; there is a risk of outdated information in research reports; market size estimation deviations