Now let's start the call. Today it's our great honor to have Mr. Ivan Tsao, AirTAC CFO, in this call. We will start with Ivan's updates on the company and then open up for a Q and A later. Ivan, I'll hand the microphone to you.
Okay.
Thank you, Ally, and good day everybody. This is Ivan Tsao from AirTAC , and welcome to this conference call and as you know . Please let me brief our third quarter results and current market situation. First of all, observing the impact of the U.S.-China tariff issue, we thought that most of the China customers have experienced the tariff from us since 2018. Although new tariff batches have had partial impact on the China current economy, it most could be caused by customers' psychological influence, and this time will not be greater than that in 2018-2019. Currently, for the recovery of the China economy, the importance of how the China government continues to implement more and more policies to restore people's confidence and improve people's consumption is far greater than the impact of U.S. tariff for AirTAC.
We are closely observing the development of tariff friction and proposing corresponding strategy to continuously increase our market share and support revenue growth. Pneumatic industry still can sustain single-digit growth annually once there is no too severe long-term issue. By continuously developing new products and improving our brand image, we expect our annual revenue growth rate can be 10% higher than the industry growth rate. Recently, some investors concerned the anti-evolution policy may affect demand for pneumatic products. However, we believe this policy has very limited impact on the pneumatic demand and is actually beneficial to the overall market. Trading orders as pneumatic products support production line rather than end product. As long as customers launch new models or engage in production activities, there will be a greater demand for pneumatic.
In addition, the impact of the cross-strait theft agreement between Taiwan and China, we see it as ECFA issue, and our operating margin has subsided by the second quarter of 2025. The year-on-year decline in our operating margin over the past four quarters will tend to recover and grow from this third quarter onward, and our unaudited consolidated revenue for the third quarter of 2025 was RMB 1.971 billion, 20% growth year on year. Gross profit was RMB 907 million and 20% growth year on year. Gross margin was 46.04%. Operating income was RMB 588 million, 28% growth year on year. Operating margin was 29.84%. Non-operating income was RMB 46 million, including RMB 35 million of FX gain, RMB 9 million subsidy from government, RMB 8 million of interest income, and RMB 3 million of interest expenses. Income before income tax was on RMB 634 million, 31% growth year on year. Pre-tax margin was 32.16%.
Net profit was RMB 502 million, 30% growth year on year. Net margin was 25.46%. EPS for the third quarter of 2025 was TWD 10.5 and is TWD 30.36 for the first three quarters of 2025. Revenue from top eight industries for the third quarter of 2025, the biggest one still was electronics, is around 26% to our consolidated revenue and it's 10% growth year on year. Second one, battery, was around 14% to revenue, 100% growth year on year. Auto was 11% to revenue, 52% growth. Packaging was around 9% to revenue, 10% growth. Machine tool was 7% to revenue, 17% growth. German machinery was around 6% to revenue, 15% growth. Textile was 4% revenue. It's flattish year on year in third quarter and early July 18 was around 3% revenue. It's 8% decline year on year.
For current market situation, we believe that the pneumatic industry demand has entered in a recovery cycle since late of 2024. Even it may only be a gradually or moderate recovery. The duration of this recovery cycle may be longer than the normal two years recovery period in the past. In addition, China government continues to release many stimulus policies in past couple quarters and attempting to restore people confidence in government policies. Some of those customers have improved their confidence and increased their end product consumption or increased their capacity expansion. Overall human was better than our expectation in Q1 of 2025 but just in line in second quarter of 2025 caused by the tariff policy from U.S. and some customers postponed their demand. However, the impact of tariff have been diluted and some customers still need to improve production process automation and replace pneumatic product.
The achievement in the third quarter of 2025 is once again better than our expected. As for the demand of variance industry for pneumatic component in 2025, pneumatic support customers production process not in their end product. What causes had more new models launch or speed upgrade. They need more new production processes to support their production. However, due to some customers observing the development of tariff negotiation in second quarter, especially those in consumer electronics industry, electronics revenue in second quarter was lower than our original inspiration, but some of such postponed orders had grown gradually being delivered. Starting from this September, there is still a chance of the growth of the growth nearly 10% throughout 2025 from electronics.
In addition, there's still so many customers say it could be a good year for electronics demand in 2026 because there could be more new model launch or spare upgrade in a year and we expect we could have another 10% revenue growth from electronics in 2026. For battery demand, government announced its guidance for the EV and battery industry for 2025 in last November and the demand has accelerated pretty fast from that time. We have had around 1% revenue growth from battery year to date and was better than our expected and still could be double digit revenue growth in 2026 because government process used to be sustained more than one year and we still expect the battery demand still could be pretty good in 2026. Moreover, government stimulus process for replacing old equipment to be new equipment can get subsidy is still in the market.
Those traditional demand like machine tool, German machinery and packaging still can enjoy positive for 2025 and 2026. It's mid to high single digit growth in first three quarter from those traditional demand and is better than our expectation. Beta revenue growth from automotive industry also could be expected from 2025. We have improved our brand match and enjoy better sh from auto customers. Even the overall automation, even the overall auto industry has not recovered significantly. We have had double digit revenue growth in past five years and we still expect double digit revenue growth in 2026 from auto customers. However, we have some demand issues on solar or energy lighting demand, but its decline rate had narrowed from 50% in first half of 2025 to 8% in third quarter of 2025. Even it still could be weak for the year.
It just around 3% of our revenue and won't affect our business too much. Selective items for selective customers have some pricing condition in pneumatic market, but it's still rational reliable. Basically, material cost have been relative stable and fragile within a reasonable range which will be friendly for our profit margin. The operating margin still has to depend on revenue scale and capacity utilization rate. Even we can improve our margins by launching more higher gross margin new items, improving our selling product mix, and continuing to improve internal production efficiency to reduce our production cost, and pneumatic capacity utilization rate currently is around 1%. The inventory turnover days at the end of this September was 122 days, and the account receivable turnover days was also 122 days at the end of September. It's including 1/3 of risk-free bank acceptance notes.
All of those numbers are pretty healthy for a development of our linear guide industry. Demand is still pretty weak, and peers still keep aggressive pricing. We have changed our pricing policy since third quarter of 2024 and also extend new sales range. Shipping volume has been around 20% growth year to date, but the revenue number is still lower than our expectation. We have asked our sales team to convince customers continually and also expect the overall demand of linear guide will be better from 2026 because the linear guide demand cycle used to be around two to three quarters later than pneumatic cycle. We believe that pneumatic cycle have entered in recovery cycle from 2024. We expect the demand for linear guide could be better in coming quarters or 2026.
Whenever demand warms up, linear guide peers is always raise same price and AirTAC will maintain the same price to widen the price gap lower than peers and persuade more customers to place more orders to AirTAC . Currently, capacity reduction rate just around 20% - 30%. Gross margin is 10%. When we can achieve 50% utilization rate, production gross margin could be around 30%, and when the utilization rate is 80%, gross margin could be around 40%. Even 40% gross margin is lower than our existing pneumatic business. We use the same sales team to do cross-selling pneumatic and linear guide and want to spend too much additional OpEx. It still can improve our consolidated operating margins, and we expect pneumatic industry can return to flat or low single digit annually.
Growth in 2025 and 2026 will be better than 2025, and we can have at least additional 10% revenue growth from pneumatic product plus the revenue contribution of linear guide. The shipment of this October have also better than our expectation, and we raised our 2025 revenue growth rate guidance to mean 10% in the mini terms. Operating margin could be nearly 3%. CapEx of 2025 still could be around TWD 2 billion- TWD 3 billion, and we have generated free cash flow from 2019, and it's around TWD 6.5 billion in 2023, TWD 8 billion in 2024. We also have increased our cash dividend payout ratio from 35% in 2021 to 55% in 2025, and it could be 60% in 2026 and still will be higher in coming years. This is my briefing, and if you have any questions we can discuss it. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Ivan. Now let's open up the floor for Q and A. I do see Mingxin has a question. Mingxin, please go ahead.
Hi. Thank you, Ally and Ivan. I have two questions. First question, Ivan, you just mentioned that in terms of the business cycle linear guide is supposedly a few quarters later than pneumatic, so since you expect the linear guide demand will also improve next year, which sector do you expect to see better demand? Is it also 3C and auto and also battery, and also specifically, do you think Apple's upgraded affordable smartphone launched next year will drive overall FAA demand next year?
Thanks Ivan.
T hank you Ming, and basically compared to pneumatic, linear guide could be CapEx component mostly in non-pneumatic with component replacement demand and capacity demand. For AirTAC linear guide business, basically we have limited market share in linear guide industry, so in 2026 we expect we could get more orders from the market and still will follow current policy. We won't target on any specific application or industry demand. We just ask our sales team to assess any customers once they can pay receivable to LT on time, and whenever these customers is bigger customers, small customers.
In.
Any application or any industry we still will accept those orders to improve our pneumatic components business. Basically, you can find pneumatic components in so many seminars and also can find in so many machine tool or German machinery. Basically, it's still pretty difficult to tell which segment will enjoy higher growth in 2026 for new for pneumatic components. Thank you.
You, Ivan, and another question is your op margin. As you mentioned, I think this quarter is the first time in the past few quarters you start to see op margin turn a positive Y basis. Looking into 2026, do you expect overall margin can recover back to maybe 31%- 32% if the linear guide utilization continues to improve and also the pneumatic component utilization is supposed to improve as well? Could you share your outlook? Thank you.
Hu mentioned earlier the operating margin still will be affected by the revenue scale even we have find some additional ways to improve our internal production efficiency, and we also can find some higher gross margin new items to support our operating margin improved, but it's still too early to tell it will be 31%- 32% operating margin in 2026 or not. Basically, it could be higher than 2025, it's very high probability, and also could be higher than 3% in 2026.
Okay, thank you Ivan and Ally, that's all my question.
Okay, thank you Ming. Okay, while we are waiting for others to raise questions, let me, I actually have two. So first is on the semi customers. Ivan, can you share with us more color on how your product and also business expanding in the semi and semiconductor equipment related categories?
Yes, basically we could be a beneficiary of China government policy, local procurement, local production. We have limited SKU can support semi customers currently and we just can find some SKU product which used to support other industry and also can support partial of new semi customers. Our monthly revenue from semi customers just around RMB 5 million or RMB 6 million. We began to be more aggressive to develop semi items from later 2024. We also total market maybe it takes around two years to develop and improve it to a better or based cost structure. We will launch the semi items and current schedule it seems a little faster than our expectation. Maybe in the second half of 2026 we can launch some semi items gradually and also can improve our revenue from semi customers. Thank you.
Okay, understand. Can we have a little bit like a background on the customer? Are they like local equipment manufacturer, equipment suppliers, or can you give us a little bit color on the background, like what type of industry subsidiary within the semi industry?
Okay. Basically, most of our current semi customs could be back at local China semiconductor equipment players and limited from international customers.
Okay, understand. Okay. I also want to ask you another question on pricing strategy. AirTAC has been aggressive in gaining market share, and particularly some pricing strategy for SMC. Do you foresee a change in the rest of this year or next year? Also, when we talk about market share again, you just mentioned actually next year you can still have 10% market share gain.
What. What.
What market segment do you get more market share from?
Basically we still have so many SQ have not developed and launched as could be in so many different application. For example, even electronics is our biggest sector of our revenue, but our market share number in China electronics demand still lower than our total China limited market share. Our electronics market share in China just around 20%+ and auto it just run 10% market share by AirTAC and we still will ask our sales team and marketing team to find what items AirTAC have not produced and sell. The market says bigger demands urgent and we used to pass those items and develop them in first priority and it could be so many different application and we also have not focused on any specific application to develop new items just for such specific application.
It still could be so the sugarcase still could be from so many different industry and our aggressive pricing just focused on specific customers not across the list of the customers. Most our existing customers the pricing is still pretty stable and we're just talking on those customers whom do limited business with AirTAC. Mostly could be international peers or Japanese peers support such kind of customer demand in past such customers have very deep brain age and place limited even zero orders to AirTAC. Once the orders volume is small and pricing for AirTAC could be very high. Even this custom is a very big company or big demand volume. From second quarter, third quarter of last year, we ask sales people to base them these customers total demand volume whenever they buy the pneumatic product from any peers, any suppliers.
We just based on their total demand volume and give them pricing low prices directly so we can get more choice from such kind of customers. Our aggressive pricing not across the list customers, just the best customers can enjoy a great price tag from AirTAC. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Ivan. I see more questions in the list. Helen, please unmute yourself, it's your turn. Thank you.
Thank you, Ally. Hi, Ivan, this is Helen from HSBC. Thank you so much for the briefing, and it's glad to hear that you are getting more positive for the outlook. I just want to double check with you because next year some of your peers have been talking about the potential replacement cycle of the machine tools that were purchased during the last peak cycle, that is during the year 2017 and 2018. Would you expect something similar to happen, and do you think it is going to benefit AirTAC, and if so, by how much? Thank you so much, Ivan.
Thank you. Basically, customers could be pretty conservative. From late 2021 and what I mentioned earlier, pneumatic can enjoy single digit growth annually. From late 2021, the demand was deserted, caused by COVID issue or government abnormal control. The human industry suffered double digit decline year on year in 2022, single digit decline in 2023, and around 10% decline in 2024. Many customers just spend or replace their pneumatic component casually. Maybe we won't say the replacement cycle will be pretty obvious, they're pretty strong demand in 2026. Just based on our prediction or assessment, the pneumatic cycle could be entering recovery cycle from net of 2024 even if it was affected by U.S. television in second quarter. The human also be better in third quarter of 2025 even in this October.
Basically, the pneumatic demand will be better and better or recover moderately in 2026 and its CapEx demand or repurchase demand still depends. Once customers have more or higher production activities, they should need more replacement demand for pneumatic product. Thank you.
Understood. Thank you, Ivan. If I may follow up, when you are guiding for about 10% of the growth for the smartphone sectors in next year 2026, are you already considering the potential model change for, you know, some smartphone companies, or would that be an additional catalyst for 2026? You're just giving a baseline kind of the guidance for smartphone growth.
Basically, we have not finalized our forecast or budget for 2026, but we still contact with our customers closely, and we could have some numbers from customers' feedback or information from the market. We can say currently the opportunity for pneumatic demand to have low single digit growth for the whole industry is very high. Demand from smartphone or electronics still could be good in 2026. We always ask our sales team to enjoy additional 10% revenue growth higher than industry growth, and just mention we expect electronics revenue growth rate could be 10% at least in 2026, and we have not allocated or chosen any specific sector or application. Thank you.
Understood.
Thank you Ivan.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. The next question comes from Kenny. Kenny, please.
Thank you.
Ally.
Hi, Ivan, thanks for taking my question. I have two questions. First off, I want to have a follow-up on the semiconductor equipment. Could you give us some more color on whether the entry barrier is relatively high compared with your current portfolio, and do you have any initial thoughts on how much bigger the total addressable market will be unlocked thanks to this SPE development?
Pneumatic is a very mature industry and also have more than 100 years and we don't have too many semi items. It doesn't mean we don't have such capability to develop and produce, it's just because we have so many easy money items have not developed and launched in past, so we prefer to do those easy money other easy money items first, and second one, semi could be the last territory of our main competitors or main competitor. Now it's, and in past we don't want to attack their last territory, so we have not focused on semi items development, but we believe we have been stronger enough currently and also follow China government policy, local production, local procurement, so became more aggressive to develop semi items from late up last year, and we don't think it's difficult for AirTAC to develop and support semi customs demand.
Maybe from late of 2026 or 2027 we'll have higher and higher semi revenue to support our business. Thank you.
Appreciate it. I have a follow up on the OpEx. I just noticed that in the fourth quarter in 2023 and 2024 you were having relatively higher R&D expenditure. I'm wondering if this will be a new pattern continuing in 2025 or 2026. Thank you.
We spend what we should spend. The higher on these business in 2023 or 2024, it doesn't mean 2025. We also have had higher on these expenses. Still depends.
Thank you so much, Ivan.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Our next question comes from KekYee. Please go ahead.
Hi Ivan, how are you? This is KekYee from Principal. I like to go back to semi as well. Can you give us an idea like how big can semi be as a segment over the next few years? Can it be like as big as auto in one year down the road or two years down the road? That's my first question.
Okay, basically, as we know our biggest competitors in China, their semi revenue in China could be around RMB 2 billion - RMB 3 billion . It's still too detailed how much AirTAC can enjoy it. Basically, it's a new setup for AirTAC, and based on past experience, we still can get shares from this sector in coming years.
My second segment is related to humanoid. I was just wondering because you also developing linear guide, right? Do you have any, have you engaged any companies on parts for humanoid from linear guide or pneumatic or what? Ball screw or what segment? I'm not sure. Do you have exposure there?
Pneumatic pull all the production activities to improve their automation. Maybe we still have limited room to support humanoid customers directly because the humanoid demand still could be pretty limited. We not just have pneumatic, linear guide. We also have developed electric actuators which can support humanoid directly for years, and electric actuators. The main part could be motor, driver, screw, switch, and some frame to simply as the set of electric actuator to support robotic arms or humanoid demand. We have had stepping motor, linear guide, and sensor switch already, and still in developing servo motor and driver. We expect we could launch the set of electric actuators in 2028 or 2029.
Once the demand of humanoids or electric actuators improves to be very high, or before we launch the set of electric actuators, or before we complete the developing of servo motor and driver, we still can buy servo motor driver from suppliers and accompany our linear guide, screw, switch to be the set that you graduated to support market demand. Thank you.
Thank you, Ivan.
No further question.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Next question comes from Jason. Please go ahead.
Hello, good afternoon everyone and Ms. Ally. My first question is about gross profit margin. We see our gross profit margin is almost flat from the second quarter. However, our revenue is seasonally decreased in the third quarter. I would like to know what's the driver to keep the gross margin in the third quarter, and did we provide any sales discount in the third quarter to dilute the gross profit margin? That's my first question. Thank you.
First one, we do plant production. Basically, the product we sold in the third quarter doesn't mean we produce in the third quarter. Second one, from 2015 to 2016, we have not stressed our gross margin numbers because we used to consider the market share, again, the specific customers we want to approach or get more procurement potential from them. Many different factors will affect our pricing strategy or policies. It also depends on the overall demand, and for sustained specific percentage of the election rate, enjoy better fiscal leverage. We also have timely pricing policy to specific customers. Basically, we prefer to target our quarterly operating margin rather than to keep our gross margin. Maybe you found our gross margin in 2020 or 2014 could be around 55%, and gross margin 55%, operating margin just around 27% - 28% at that time.
We change our sales range or pricing stretch because AirTAC still is a growing company, we have different sales range on different stage. We prefer to have higher human growth, revenue growth, enjoy better fiscal leverage, enjoy higher operating margin rather than to keep very high gross margin. Also can improve our market share in the market at the same time. In the past three to four years, our gross margin just around mean 40%, but we can keep our operating margin to be around 30%. It's our sales range. It's our current sales range. Thank you.
Okay, thank you. My second question is about revenue. We saw a really outstanding revenue in September, almost 30% year to year growth. I like to double check. There's no any postpone from the second quarter or any advanced shipment from maybe sequentially months. If there's no situation, we can assume.
That.
Our revenue in the fourth quarter maybe we can achieve maybe a high 10% year-to-year growth or almost 20% year-to-year growth in the fourth quarter. Thank you.
You mean Q4, Q1.
Yeah, the fourth quarter in 2025.
Q4. Okay. Yes, we industry was entering recovery cycle from late 2024. It should be better and better from a demand even there's still some sanity in pneumatic industry. The second quarter it should be much better than. It should be much better than the shipment. What we did in this second quarter of 2025 caused by some customers they postpone their demand. Maybe from late August or this September, some of such postponed demand began to deliver to customers. Not just for this September, October even we had nine days for the national holiday, but the daily shipment still much better than September in this October. Basically we just can say postponed, postpone delivery, it should be in September or October. The industry recovery is still support better human in past two months.
It still could be pretty good in next couple months even it still could be low season for pneumatic for fourth quarter Q4 of the year. We expect the quarterly revenue of this fourth quarter this Q4 could be flat compared to Q3. It's better than past experience similar. Thank you.
Thanks for sharing. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Ivan . Have a nice day. Thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Jason. Next question comes from Jeremy. Jeremy, please.
Oh, thank you. Thanks for the opportunity. I have just two quick questions. It's very, very good news to hear that you are being more optimistic as suggested by you raising your outlook for the full year. I think that maybe this next question is a little bit, maybe not timely, but looking forward going forward, I'm just a little bit concerned because the pneumatic market in China has always been, I would say, rather like an oligopoly, so yourselves as the biggest player, about 60% market share in China. When you look at pneumatic versus other components in China, other components, you have seen very, very fierce pricing pressure, very fierce competition. Increasingly, as you are going into the field of your number one competitors, is there a risk of this sector, pneumatic, becoming much more competitive going forward, and is that going to impact profitability?
Basically our biggest competitor is a very big company, a good company, we cannot speak for that. Based on past 10 years, years experienced, even they still launch so many sales strategies want to against AirTAC and stop AirTAC getting share from that. So far those strategies seem not successful to against AirTAC. Pneumatic still is considered industry big player always will be bigger and top three players in China, SMC, AirTAC, Festo, just run 50%, 50 %+ market share totally in 15 years ago in China, perhaps increased to be around 70%. Festo is a private company, they prefer to keep their margins rather than to keep their market share. The pricing leaders could be SMC and AirTAC.
The last time SMC launched a price pricing is in 2014 and such pricing war just ascended around three or four and from late up 2020, so late of 2014 they start cutting same price and raise same price back. From 2015 to this moment have three to four times down cycle. The pricing between AirTAC, SMC or in pneumatic market still could be rational readable. Basically we think severe pricing competition, even pricing war in pneumatic market in coming years could be pretty low risk or the opportunity could be very limited. It's the same work. We cannot speak for SMC. Thank you.
Understand. Yeah. I hope that pneumatic market continues to grow so that you know the competition can remain quite benign. I'm just a little bit concerned just because I look at the inventory days outstanding at SMC and they have expanded a lot of capacity recently. I'm just worried if the demand disappoints going forward that there's some risk there, that's all. My next question is if you're going to get into newer fields like say into semis. My understanding is that pneumatic is an industry whereby you want to keep the lead times quite low, quite short, like within one week. Right. As you expand the number of specifications products that you have, does that mean that you're going to have to invest much more in terms of working capital? Will your inventory days outstanding start to go up?
Basically it won't because once we have better remove scale, we could have a higher efficient to manage our inventory. Maybe you can find our inventory over this could be around 150 days in two years ago, and even we still continue to launch more new items, and we have decreased our inventory term of this to be around 120 - 124 days in past couple quarters. More SKU doesn't mean we have to increase our inventory turnover days. Once we trackback to 10 years ago in 2015, 2016, our inventory terminal days even could be 160 days, much longer than our current inventory terminal days, even we have additional one or additional 100,000 new SKU have been launched in past 10 years. We still can decrease our inventory days.
I understand. It depends on whether or not you can increase your revenue as fast as well, is the answer. Thank you very much. That's all for me, thank you.
Thank you.
Okay, thank you. Next question comes from Iris. Iris, please.
Thank you very much, Ally, and thank you very much, Ivan. This is Iris from Deutsche Bank. I have actually a question which is more longer term oriented on the return of investment. The ROI that you have on the new products or the new categories that you are expanding to, and I mean people have asked about semiconductor. I want to ask about maybe the other areas. One is the linear guide, which is new but not so new, and the other area is the electric actuators area. Firstly, on the linear guide, because you've mentioned that even if we increase the utilization to say 80% or 80%, then the gross profit margin will be 40%, which should still be lower than the current group level. Do you think that maybe it is in the longer term a lower return business, and how do you think about it?
Should we more look at the operating margin perspective? What is the operating margin that you foresee for your linear guide business in the longer term once it reaches a more stable state? Also related to the linear guide and how to assess the competitive landscape of the linear guide business, because you've mentioned before that when you entered the business you thought the biggest competitor should be the other Taiwanese pair, but then you realize they might not be the best indicator for the market. We hear there are many local competitors also emerging who also claim to be of good quality for their products. How do you think about the question: is the ROI for the linear guide business on an operating margin perspective in the long term, and also in relation to that, the competitive landscape for the linear guide business? This is question number one.
Thank you.
Okay, basically 40% gross margin when we have 80% utilization rate just based on two shift operator working system. When we have a higher utilization rate, we still can transfer our operated working system from 2 shift to 3 shift. 40% gross margin is pretty conservative numbers. The new business of AirTAC is much lower than our expectation for five years. We prefer not to give a very aggressive number or pretty good number to the market as it is too far away from the practice. It doesn't mean we just can have 40% gross margin from linear guide. Second, we use the same sales team and don't have to spend too much additional OpEx to sell linear guide. 3% is still pretty good for our consolidated operating margin.
Another reason why we have to develop more new business, electrical controller, electric actuators, is because we are just talking on 35% pneumatic market share currently. Maybe by 2030 we have such 35% market share in China and it takes more effort to increase additional 1% or 2% pneumatic market share after we have 35%. Basically, we prefer to have more new business to have better fiscal leverage because all those new business pneumatic, linear guide, electrical controller, electric actuators, all of them use the same sales team, same base employees, and we cannot expect all of our business can enjoy such high gross margin. Pneumatic high 40%, even 50%, and it's easier to develop new business and higher for AirTAC to enjoy high revenue growth or higher revenue growth, higher operating cut and it's good. Also, it's good for our linear guide and our linear guide development stage.
Currently, we could have a better product quality, shorter return, lower pricing than Taiwanese peers and we missed the best timing to enter a linear guide market. Also, mixed customer expectation in 2020 so the sales progress was much slower than our expectation in past five years. Our current target just wants to improve our linear guide brand image so we just compete with Taiwanese and Japanese peers. We have not competed with local China players. After we have a better brand image, then we can develop inferior product quality and lower our unit production cost to compete with the local China players. If we can improve our attention rate conservatively to 80% or 90%, then we have better fiscal leverage. Also, we can decrease our high quality product pricing to compete with Taiwanese and Japanese peers.
We can transfer our operator working system from two shifts to three shifts and enjoy better fiscal leverage again. A 40% gross margin doesn't mean five years later or ten years later we just could have a 40% gross margin from any guy. The gross margin number also depends on our pricing strategy. If you want to increase our market share faster, we can have a lower pricing to speed up our share again. It's good for our real number, operating income, and bottleneck. Even if the GPM number or OPM number won't be improved to be very high, it's good for our bottom line. Thank you. We still believe pneumatic components is a good business for AirTAC .
Understand and thank you for sharing that. A very quick housekeeping question related to linear guide. Can we check how much revenue linear guide generated in the third quarter and in the first nine months of the year?
It just runs. It just ran RMB 142 million in the third quarter and around RMB 4 million in the first nine months.
Got it. Thank you, Ivan. My second question is also related to the return on investment. This relates to the electric actuator business. As you know, for electric actuators, because it can be used for humanoid robots, many local Chinese players, many of them, I'm sure you know, are also now developing electric actuators used mainly for humanoid robots, but can be used for other areas as well. Also, given that, as you've mentioned, you are developing the servo motors and the drives still, there are local Chinese players who have already developed the servo motor products. Can you maybe elaborate a bit more with us on what you think is the competitive advantage of AirTAC in this business and why AirTAC has chosen this as one of the new business areas to expand into? Thank you.
Thank you. Basically we could be expert of mechanical parts, including pneumatic, kneeling, mechanical, even electric actuator or parts of electric hydrator. We always can find some ways to achieve most competitive cost structure. We just can say we could enjoy competitive pyramids of those items we're going to develop. It's just like 20 years ago nobody believed AirTAC can compete with SMC. Just such big numerative players. Pneumatic component is much complicated than new guy electric actuator or electric controller. Basically we believe we can success in this sector. Thank you.
Okay, thank you Ivan for sharing with us. I think we are running out of time, so we'll need to end the call here. Thank you everyone participating. Thank you, Ivan, and again we appreciate your support for UBS in the Excel survey. Have a good day. Thank you. Let's conclude the call here. Thank you.
Okay, thank you, Ally. Thank you everybody and have a good day. Thank you.