Zhongrun Optics H1 2026 Revenue Up 61.85%: Lens Demand

INDUSTRY NEWS · OPTICAL LENSES & COMPONENTS · SEPTEMBER 2026

A lens maker grew revenue 61.85% in the first half of 2026 and earnings more slowly than that. The gap between the headline growth and the underlying margin is the part worth reading, because it is the same gap most optical component buyers are negotiating across right now.

Zhongrun Optics (嘉兴中润光学科技股份有限公司) published its first-half 2026 assessment report on 28 August 2026. Revenue for the six months reached RMB 404.19 million (RMB 404,185,400), up 61.85% year on year. Total profit was RMB 37.55 million, up 70.03%, and net profit attributable to shareholders was RMB 31.82 million, up 54.73%. Recurring net profit attributable to shareholders, which strips out non-operating items, was RMB 21.66 million, up 20.23%.

Read those four numbers in sequence and the story is clear. Total profit grew faster than revenue, and recurring profit grew roughly a third as fast as revenue. The company is converting volume into sales efficiently and converting sales into sustainable profit less efficiently. Total assets stood at RMB 1.573 billion, up 2.86% from the start of the year, and equity attributable to shareholders at RMB 913.48 million, up 1.18%.

The segment split is the most useful disclosure in the report

Segment growth rates published with the report give a far better picture of where lens demand is coming from than the consolidated figure does.

• Advanced manufacturing and inspection: up 66,568.40%. This is the number that will be screenshotted and misread. It reflects an almost nonexistent prior-year base combined with two real effects: the July 2025 consolidation of subsidiary Days Optoelectronics (戴斯光电) and rising demand from high-power laser applications. A percentage of this size describes a change in reporting perimeter as much as a change in demand, and should be treated accordingly.
• HD capture and display: up 190.06%. The strongest organic-looking line in the report, and the one that speaks most directly to consumer and professional imaging optics.
• Intelligent mobile machine perception: up 64.57%. Lenses for machines that move and perceive — the category that maps onto service robots, automated guided vehicles and consumer robotics.
• Video communication and interaction: up 56.16%. Conferencing, streaming and interactive imaging hardware.
• Special security and intelligent monitoring: up 13.30%. The slowest line, and a useful reminder that not every optical end market grew in the same half.

Three capacity facts matter alongside the segment data. The company’s two IPO-funded projects — a high-end optical lens intelligent manufacturing project and a high-end optical lens R&D centre upgrade — have both completed construction and reached their intended usable state. Pinghu Zhongrun, the entity that carries the manufacturing function, began operating in July 2025 and entered capacity ramp-up during the first half of 2026, focused on consumer optics with fixed-focus lenses as the main product, serving robot vacuum cleaners, drones and smart doorbells, and also supplying plastic lens components in-house. And Days Optoelectronics has multiple optical communications products in customer sampling and small-batch trial production, with capacity construction starting in parallel.

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What this means for optical lens sourcing

• Fixed-focus consumer lenses are the volume battleground. A supplier adding capacity aimed at robot vacuums, drones and doorbells is competing on unit price and yield, not on specification. If your programme needs tolerance-critical optics, you are buying from a different cost structure inside the same company.
• In-house plastic lens supply is a real cost lever. Bringing moulded plastic elements in-house shortens the chain and compresses cost, but it also means the supplier’s capacity is shared between captive demand and your order. Ask how captive volume is scheduled against external orders.
• Revenue growth without matching profit growth is a negotiating position. When a supplier’s recurring profit grows far slower than revenue, they are under pressure to repair margin. Expect them to push on tooling amortisation, minimum order quantities and specification creep, and budget for it.
• Newly ramped capacity needs time to become qualified capacity. A plant that started operating in July 2025 and is only now ramping is still proving its processes. Prototype parts from a ramping line and production parts from a mature line are not interchangeable, and your first-article plan should say so.
• Watch the optical communications entry. A lens maker moving into optical communications components through a subsidiary in sampling and small-batch trial production is a potential second source for lens-adjacent parts. It is not yet a qualified one, and no customer names, part numbers or order values have been disclosed.

Sources and disclosure

Sources: “Zhongrun Optics: semi-annual assessment report on the 2026 action plan for improving quality, efficiency and returns”, published via China Financial Information Network on 28 August 2026, covering the first-half 2026 figures, the segment growth rates, the completion of the two IPO-funded projects, the Pinghu Zhongrun ramp-up and the Days Optoelectronics optical communications sampling status. Revenue, profit, asset, equity and segment figures are reproduced as the cited source states them and have not been independently audited by us. The 66,568.40% growth figure for advanced manufacturing and inspection reflects a change in consolidated reporting perimeter alongside demand growth and is presented here with that caveat. No customer names, product part numbers or order values for the optical communications products have been disclosed. This article is original editorial analysis by TUOLAN TRADE for industry reference, not investment advice. Product and company names remain the property of their respective owners.