Chairman of the chip company: I can’t believe that customers only want chips, regardless of price

Macronix’s chairman Wu Minqiu said yesterday (27) that from the company’s current order/shipment ratio (B/B value), "the market conditions are so good that I don’t even believe it." Now customers’ first solution is "to get Arrival, price is not the point.” Macronix will continue to sprint for shipments, especially in the automotive field. It aims to become the leader in automotive NOR Flash this year.

Macronix’s main products include NOR chips, storage-type flash memory (NAND Flash), and read-only memory (ROM). Among them, NOR chips are essential components for all electronic products, and the output of Macronix related products is the global leader in the industry. Wu Minqiu talked about the good shipments of its three major product lines, reflecting the booming electronics industry at this stage.

Macronix held a legal meeting yesterday and announced that its gross profit rate for the first quarter was approximately 34.3%, which was an increase from 32.4% in the fourth quarter of last year and 31.3% in the same period last year; profit margin was 12.1%, a quarterly decrease of 2 percentage points, and a year-on-year decrease of 0.3 percentage points. With an advance of 48 million yuan in inventory depreciation losses, the single-quarter net profit was about 916 million yuan, a quarterly decrease of 21%, a year-on-year decrease of 25%, and a net profit of 0.5 yuan per share.

Regarding the performance of the first quarter, Wu Minqiu pointed out that the exchange rate of the New Taiwan dollar last year was 5 percentage points different from this year, and the turnover also affected 500 million yuan. If the exchange rate effect is not calculated, the first quarter revenue should be better and exceed 10 billion yuan.

Macronix’s inventory in the first quarter reached 13.2 billion yuan, up from 12.945 billion yuan in the previous quarter. Wu Minqiu emphasized that chips are very popular this year. The three product lines are expected to have more than 7 billion yuan in inventory before the third quarter. Coupled with the reversal of the loss of inventory decline in the first quarter, the profit will be considerable in the next few quarters.

Wu Minqiu believes that the second quarter will no longer be affected by factors such as exchange rate, inventory, and 3D NAND chip R&D expenses. Operations will be better than the first quarter. At the same time, the price increase will help improve profitability and actively sprint electric vehicle-related in-vehicle NOR applications . It is expected that the gross profit margin and overall profit in the first quarter should be the low point of this year, and it will be better than the first quarter in the future.

According to Macronix statistics, in the first quarter, NOR terminal applications accounted for 28% of communications, followed by 26% for computers, 17% for consumption, 16% for IMA (industrial control, medical and aerospace), and 13% for vehicles.

Wu Minqiu said that in the first quarter, computer applications grew substantially, which was mainly due to the large increase in remote applications due to the epidemic. Although the revenue of automotive products fell by 2%, it increased by 8% annually. In addition to the recent shortage of automotive chips, there are also Fire in a major Japanese factory has interfered, but at present, it seems that demand for vehicles continues to increase and improve, and Macronix related products still have explosive growth space.

Wu Minqiu emphasized that the overall market output value of automotive NOR chips is estimated to be at least US$1 billion. Macronix’s main automotive application markets are in Japan, South Korea and Europe. Recently, new European customers have also joined. The new ArmorFlash is based on safety certification and is expected to enter the field of electric vehicles.

According to Macronix’s internal statistics, the company was the second largest automotive NOR chip manufacturer in the world last year. As its products enter the supply chain of first-tier car manufacturers, the products cover various automotive control systems such as entertainment and tire pressure. It is expected that Macronix NOR chips this year The market share in the automotive market will jump to the first place in the world.

In addition, Macronix has already sent 48-layer 3D NAND chips to the client in April this year. It is hoped that the client products will be shipped smoothly in the second half of the year, and Macronix will be operating simultaneously. As for 96-layer 3D NAND products, there will also be a chance for formal production this year.

The 6-inch factory hopes to sell as soon as possible

Speaking of the sale of its 6-inch fab, Macronix’s chairman Wu Minqiu revealed yesterday (27) that two reasons contributed to the company’s decision to dispose of the 6-inch fab. One is that the 6-inch fab is too old, and the second is that the 6-inch fab is too old. Some fabs are not suitable for producing memory products that Macronix is ​​engaged in. As for the disposition of the benefits of the 6-inch factory, Wu Minqiu said that he hopes that as soon as possible, according to the contract situation, it will not be accounted for in the second or third quarter.

Wu Minqiu emphasized that Macronix’s sale of a 6-inch factory is better for the company in the long run. The main reason is that even if the 6-inch factory is completely destroyed and rebuilt, there is not enough space for a new factory. In addition, the 6-inch factory is converted to an 8-inch factory or a 12-inch factory. The factory has insufficient capacity to withstand it.

Talking about the supply and demand of the memory market, Wu Minqiu said, "Customers want to get the goods, so the price is not too much to account for. Now, no matter where it can be delivered, money is not a problem.

Wu Minqiu also said that after observing that many large NAND manufacturers have switched to 3D and then faded out of SLC NAND, Macronix has become a stable supply in this field and has become a leader among them.

Wu Minqiu also mentioned that it is difficult to add new production capacity this year because of the long delivery time for equipment. Maintaining the view that NOR chips will continue to be produced today and next year, even if the mainland has newly opened production capacity, it will only belong to lower-end products, Macronix’s route It is difficult to replace other manufacturers. In addition to exclusively supplying high-quality products to Japanese customers, there are also new European customers.

In terms of capacity allocation, Wu Minqiu also mentioned that Macronix’s 8-inch factory has a monthly production capacity of 45,000 pieces, mainly for the production of NOR chips and the deployment of foundries; the 12-inch factory has the largest proportion of NOR chips, followed by NAND. Chips, and finally ROMs, are the main considerations of gross profit margin.