HTSC·2026-01-30 00:20Investment Rating - The report maintains an "Overweight" rating for the public utilities and gas distribution sectors [5] Core Insights - The report predicts a moderate growth in China's manufacturing natural gas demand from 2026 to 2028, with an average annual growth rate of 2%. The demand will be characterized by significant structural differentiation, with emerging manufacturing sectors and automotive manufacturing showing the highest growth rates, while traditional high-energy-consuming industries will see a decline [10][20] - The transformation of the city gas industry from "resource distribution" to "comprehensive energy services" is highlighted as a key opportunity, driven by the optimization of customer structure, expansion of value-added services, and improved pricing efficiency [24][25] Summary by Sections Demand Side: Structural Differentiation as the Core Theme - In 2022, the manufacturing sector's natural gas consumption was 155 billion cubic meters, accounting for 8.56% of total energy consumption. The demand is expected to experience a "slow climb - deceleration - stabilization" process from 2023 to 2025, with traditional industries facing pressure while emerging industries continue to grow [2][10] - The report forecasts that from 2026 to 2028, the main sources of growth will be emerging manufacturing sectors such as integrated circuits and biomedicine, with an average annual growth rate of 4.8%, and automotive manufacturing, particularly in new energy vehicles, with a growth rate of 7.8% [21][22] City Gas Industry: Three Opportunities Against Three Challenges - The recovery of manufacturing natural gas demand will be a critical juncture for the city gas industry to shift from "scale expansion" to "quality improvement." This shift is expected to alleviate short-term profit pressures and support business structure reconstruction and core competitiveness enhancement [3][11] - Opportunities include an increase in high-value customers from emerging manufacturing sectors, which are expected to improve gas sales gross margins by 2-3 percentage points by 2028. Challenges include the loss of traditional customer demand, competition from alternative energy sources, and intensified regional competition [3][11] Differentiation from Market Views - The report emphasizes the quantification of demand differentiation trends across various sectors, highlighting the dual drivers of "policy support + industrial expansion" rather than a singular focus on environmental pressures. It also clarifies the boundaries and pace of alternative energy impacts on natural gas demand, indicating that the substitution effect from emerging industries is relatively weak [4][14] Investment Focus - The investment focus is on capturing structural dividends and realizing transformation capabilities, with a particular emphasis on three types of companies: national city gas leaders (Kunlun Energy, China Gas), regional leaders (Shenzhen Gas, Fuan Energy), and energy service platform companies (Xinao Gas) [12][24]