GlobalWafers held its board meeting today (March 15, 2022) to approve 2021 financial results. FY2021 consolidated revenue reached NT$61.1 billion with YoY increase of 10.4%; gross profit of NT$23.3 billion, gross profit margin of 38.1% with YoY increase of 0.9%; operating income of NT$17.7 billion, operating income margin of 28.9% with YoY increase of 1.3%; net income of NT$11.9 billion, net income margin of 19.4% with YoY decrease of 4.3%; EPS of NT$27.27. Q421 reached NT$15.8 billion with 9 consecutive quarters of growth and FY2021 revenue crossed the NT$60 billion milestone, both breaking the record! Q421 gross profit margin hit 41.3%, growing for 4 consecutive quarters and reached record high. FY2021 gross profit margin reached the second highest in the history and FY2021 operating income margin hit the third highest record!
Regarding operations, GlobalWafers will carry out capital expenditure plans with total scale of NT$100 billion (approximately US$3.6 billion), mainly for 12’’ products and compound semiconductor wafers. With investment in both brownfield and greenfield projects, the expansion plan will span Asia, Europe and the United States. Among them, GlobalWafers Italian subsidiary, MEMC SPA, will broaden its production line by extending new 12” wafer modules with value-added processes, which is also the very first 12” wafer fab in Italy. The investment is strongly supported and recognized by European customers. Construction of the investment will begin following approval of subsidies from Government/European funds (i.e. IPCEI-ME/CT) and is expected to be operational by second half of 2023. The new fab will be concentrated on the development of 12” polished and epi wafers to be in line with European market trends. Together with the 12’’ crystal growth production line and capacity expansion plans which have been already implemented, GlobalWafers will achieve the full 12’’ line integration in Italy. Apart from Italy, other sites are also expanding in full swing in Denmark, USA, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. GlobalWafers is committed to optimizing its product portfolio with innovative technologies and advanced applications. With investments across multiple regions in the world, GlobalWafers not only augments its advantage in local supply but also builds its moat for sustainable growth.
Economics rebound from the 2020 Covid-19 outbreak contributed to a fruitful 2021 for semiconductor industry. Digital transformation accelerated by the pandemic has propelled the demand for cloud services, server as well as HPC, and is very likely to continue in the post-pandemic world. Significant fiscal incentives and gradual tightening of fuel economy to achieve a carbon neutral future have further spurred the uptake of EV and underpins the scale up in EV manufacturing. Burgeoning capital expenditures in downstream semiconductor value chain along with 5G fast uptake in all regions sustain the robust demands for the crucial intermediate products- semiconductor wafer. Despite of the bright prospects, challenges from Omicron variant, geopolitical tension, surging commodity and energy price as well as delayed transportation still remain. To meet the shifting and competitive industry landscape, GlobalWafers actively increases its resilience through strengthening local supply and building multiple suppliers and production routes as global trade diversifies; in the meantime, GlobalWafers aims to be agile and responsive to the volatile macroeconomics, pursues innovations to be ahead of technological advancements in order to thrive and emerge stronger in the ever-changing world.