ASM Pacific Technology Ltd

HKEX:522

Earnings Call Transcript 2021-Q4

[Unknown Executive]

Good morning, and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is [ Romil ] and I'm the IR consultant for the company, and I will be the moderator for today's call. On behalf of the management of ASM Pacific Technology, I would like to welcome all of you to ASM Pacific Technology's Fourth Quarter and Full Year FY 2021 Investor Conference Call. We would like to thank you all for your interest and continued support in the company.

Before we begin with the presentation, let me highlight some housekeeping rules. To facilitate the identification process, please kindly provide your company's name and your name as your display name, if you haven't done so. All participants will be muted to ensure good sound quality when the management is presenting. For the Q&A session, please either use the raise hand function and we will allow you to unmute yourself for you to ask your question or type your question in the chat to ASMPT-Q&A, and we will read out the question on your behalf.

[Operator Instructions] We will start the Q&A only after the management has gone through the entire presentation. We endeavor to answer all questions during the Q&A session, but due to time constraint, priority will be given to the covering analysts. In case we are unable to answer your question during the call, we will follow up with you through e-mails or if you have more questions, then please feel free to e-mail us with your questions and we will attend to those.

Please do note that during this conference call, there may be forward-looking statements with respect to ASM Pacific Technology's business and financial conditions. Such forward-looking statements could involve known and unknown uncertainties and risks that could cause actual results, performance and events to differ materially from those expressed or implied during this conference call. For your reference, the Investor Relations presentation related to our recent results can be downloaded from our website, www.asmpacific.com.

With us this morning are Mr. Robin Ng, the Group CEO; and Mr. Justin Tham from Investor Relations and Economic Research. Robin will begin with a brief discussion and key highlights about our latest results. Then he will provide some color to the financial performance. This will be followed by an update on the prospects and outlook and then we will open the floor for Q&A session.

Without further ado, let me hand the time over to Robin, please.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Thanks, Romil. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us today. Before proceeding with the details of our performance for 2021, let me offer my sincere wishes for your continued safety and health even as we gradually arise from the shadows tasked by COVID-19. I'm pleased to say that we have managed to achieve exceptional results in 2021 and to show sustained momentum and progress in deepening our leadership as a leading global supplier of hardware and software solutions for semiconductor and electronics manufacturing. Let me emphasize that these milestones have only been made possible to the continued commitment, focus and skillful execution of our strategic initiatives and plans. Here, the leadership team and I continue to remain deeply indebted to our more than 11,700 people across the world.

Let me now describe some of the highlights that shaped our business in 2021. As you can see here, there are a number of key developments that characterize our business in 2021. First, some color on our record-breaking financial performance. Please note that the figures in the Group and the SEMI segment financial review sections have excluded one-off items to provide a more meaningful analysis of the Group's financial performance. As you can see from this overview, we had an exceptional year.

Firstly, I want to highlight the record earnings per share of HKD 7.72 on the right of this slide, a powerful indicator of our profitability and value as an industry leader. We also achieved a number of new highs with record revenue of USD 2.82 billion, record bookings of USD 3.36 billion and record net profit of HKD 3.24 billion. Our exceptional results were in part enabled by the very strong first full year performance of our strategic joint venture, Advanced Assembly Materials International Limited, or AAMI in 2021. We achieved an EPS of HKD 7.72 for fiscal year 2021. This represents a significant 94.5% growth over fiscal year 2020 and is also a record high for the Group.

Let me provide more color on our group financial results. Our group's record full year revenue of USD 2.82 billion represented year-on-year growth of 49.3%. Our strong revenue performance was driven by a few macroeconomic growth trends that you can see here. Overall, this created heightened demand for silicon content and contributed to the performance for ASMPT throughout 2021. Let me share that in the face of this positive momentum, we also executed excellently in the face of a dynamic global supply chain environment that still continues to be there. We achieved this in several ways.

First, capacity allocation. When manufacturing utilization reached record levels, we were able to achieve a significantly higher proportion of our external manufacturing capacity to respond dynamically. It is safe to say we will have delivered even higher output, if not for this ongoing industry-wide supply chain challenges. Second, we shifted to just-in-case inventory management to strengthen our supply chain resilience for some key components. And finally, we balanced these measures with a strategic adjustment of certain prices where feasible in order to relieve the inevitable cost pressures on some component price increases, not to mention increased logistic costs.

In terms of bookings, we experienced a record year of USD 3.36 billion, representing year-on-year growth of 65.6%. And here, both our SEMI and SMT business segments achieved record bookings with semi comprising the majority. Our gross margin of 40.6% was 427 bps expansion year-on-year and our operating margin was 18.9%, representing a very strong year-on-year expansion of 1,007 bps. This strong margin performance was mainly due to both our SEMI and SMT segments achieving stronger gross margins and higher operating leverage as a result of both record deliveries and margin accretive effects from some of the strategic initiatives that I will share more about later in this presentation. Let me also emphasize that we achieved this strong margin improvement in the face of cost impact from component price increase and higher logistic costs and these trends have not abated.

Let's look at the group fourth quarter performance. Our revenue of USD 796 million, exceeded our guidance of USD 720 million to USD 770 million. This is a strong 43.9% year-on-year increase in revenue, anchored in a consistent and excellent execution of our business. Q4 bookings of USD 674 million, were a group record for fourth quarter as well, increasing 25% year-on-year, but dipping 8.2% Q-on-Q. However, this dip was largely due to a high base effect from a high Q3 booking level and general seasonality trends for the fourth quarter. Please note that this quarter's bookings still remain elevated compared to the Q4 levels of our prior year's.

Group gross margin of 41.3% was a year-on-year improvement of 188 bps and slight Q-on-Q improvement of 76 bps. Operating margin of 20% was a year-on-year improvement of 976 bps. This year-on-year improvement was largely due to relatively stronger gross margin performance across both our SEMI and SMT segments. Let me add that Group net profit, which includes the shares of results from AAMI achieved record Q4 levels of HKD 976 million, a year-on-year improvement of 182.5%.

Our SEMI segment quarterly performance was good with robust year-on-year revenue growth, encouraging revenue drivers across its business units, strong year-on-year margin improvement and a quarterly record segment profit. Q4 bookings remained elevated in line with general seasonality trends. Our SMT segment's Q4 2021 performance was characterized by bookings achieving USD 360 million, a healthy year-on-year and Q-on-Q increase. Also, demand from its key automotive and industrial markets continue into Q4. Let me mention a point here that full year SMT segment profit also achieved a record of HKD 1.38 billion. This is nearly 110% year-on-year increase. This slide shows the breadth of the markets and customers which the Group serve.

Let me now share some positive developments from our progressive, a structural shift towards higher growth markets of advanced packaging over time. Our diverse advanced packaging or AP portfolio is very broad from wafer level to die-level high-accuracy placement tools and SIP placement tools and spend a wide range of packaging technologies. This visual representation at the bottom of this slide should give you a sense of the breadth of solutions that we possess in this space. AP solutions revenue for fiscal year 2021 was approximately USD 590 million, representing 35% year-on-year growth. A book-to-bill ratio of 1.15 for AP is higher than for the year 2020.

Overall, we are seeing a broadening of our customer base and widening customer adoption of a comprehensive AP solution that span both SEMI and SMT segments. Consequently, we added a significant number of AP customers in fiscal year 2021. I would like to highlight the progress with our Hybrid Bonding solutions. They are on track for delivery this year for qualification by leading Tier 1 customers. We assess that our hybrid bonding tools will begin delivering meaningful contributions for us from year 2023 onwards, closely aligned with our customers' ramp up plans. Our sustained investment in Hybrid Bonding reflects our strong intention to capture a sizable market of this market -- a sizable share of this market.

Let me now talk about our TCB leadership and momentum. Over the last few years, our Chip-to-Substrate TCB tools have been a tool of record and leading Tier 1 customers. And this world-class TCB tools continue to dominate the share of global installations. Supported by a broadening customer base and greater customer adoption, our TCB platform is bringing some exciting opportunities that will help further cement our dominant market position.

As you can see here, we recently secured a significant order for a new generation Chip-to-Wafer TCB tools. The win is nearing USD 100 million over the next 2 years, and a significant portion of this will be delivered this year. We have scaled up both additional manufacturing site and capacity to deliver this next-generation Chip-to-Wafer TCB tools. This significant win highlights how our cutting-edge TCB innovations are boosting near-term performance. It is also a strong indication of our technology leadership in the 3D packaging space.

Looking ahead, the bullish capital investment plans from leading semiconductor companies should bode well for continued leadership as a Partner of Choice for innovative TCB tools for the future, such as the work we are presenting to enable fine solder bump pitch below 30 micron for thermal compression bonding. This will help them meet the increasingly demanding requirements from advanced applications such as high-performance computing. We expect the first of these future generation product types to be delivered by the second half of this year.

Let me now speak about some exciting growth opportunities for our business. There's no doubt that automotive electrification will intensify and establish itself as a multi-year growth driver. In this slide, you can get a sense of a unique and comprehensive automotive solution that span SEMI and SMT segment. This comprehensive solution range puts us in a good position to continue growing and capturing market share. Our automotive end market application contributed approximately USD 430 million to Group 2021 revenue. This is more than double last year's contribution. We have also added a significant number of new customers in 2021 that have qualified our tools. We believe this will help generate significant opportunities for us going forward.

Let me now cover some developments in our advanced display unit that is part of our optoelectronics business unit within the Semiconductor Solutions segment. With ongoing accelerated and global digital transformation, the industry is at an inflection point for advanced display before an imminent technology replacement wave. Ultra-fine pitch Mini LED RGB and Micro LED applications are progressively emerging to replace convention displays across both commercial and high-end consumer devices. Mini and Micro LED wafer demand is expected to expand a 5-year CAGR of 55%.

We are also poised to benefit from expanding addressable market with multiple engagement within the top-tier customers development road maps. We have seen our customer base expanded significantly over the past 3 years. Across Mainland China, Europe, Japan, Korea, Taiwan and the U.S., our customers have been increasing capital spending on Mini and Micro LED manufacturing requirements, deploying our broad suite of advanced integrated solutions.

For Mini LED, we added 17 customers in 2021 with 7 in high volume manufacturing phase. For the more nascent Micro LED space, the vast majority of micro LED prototypes, example, worldwide use of best-in-class AD300Pro tool, which is a multifunctional mass transfer-cum-mass bonding tool and to record for major customers in upcoming high-volume production for Micro LED applications. This slide gives you a flavor of how we are deeply entrenched into our customers' development road maps across Mini LED and Micro LED space.

We made a strategic breakthrough in this hitherto under representative area for ASMPT, which is a sizable addressable market. In this, our efforts have been anchored by leading memory market customers who are adopting both on mainstream wire bond and advanced packaging tools for high-volume manufacturing requirements in both conventional memory and high-bandwidth applications. With a suite of tools to address memory packaging needs, some key developments Tier 1 memory player qualifying our TCB tool to produce HBM3 multi-die stack memory chips. In another development, our workhorse wire bond tool has been qualified to deliver high volume production of new generation NAND memory chips. This represents important developments in expansion of served markets and we are confident about securing a strong position in this space.

Our solutions are ubiquitous across many end market application areas and demand continues to grow. This slide shows the approximate revenue contribution to fiscal year 2021 Group revenue from each of the key end market areas to give you a sense of the spread of our solution across these industries. This slide gives a bit more color to the 3 end market application areas that more than doubled year-on-year in terms of revenue, namely automotive, consumer and industrial. We expect the challenging supply chain environment to persist and impact the broader market in 2022. While this dynamic situation remains a concern, we are anchored by a strong order backlog and expect revenue for Q1 2022 to be between USD 640 million to USD 690 million, a record first quarter at the midpoint of this guidance.

Let me now share about our development plans to progressively transform and prepare ASMPT to achieve a bright and sustainable future. Our aim here is to help the investing and the general audience understand our business better and to provide some robust key takeaways on how we are supporting and driving ASMPT long-term performance. Let me now place this business transformation plans and strategic initiatives in the context of how our business is being structured.

We have a truly unique broad-based portfolio in the market. You can describe us as a total interconnect company as we believe we are the only one in our space able to offer solutions that truly link the entire semiconductor packaging and SMB value chain. Our SEMI segment offer solution ranging from depreciation interconnect on wafer and substract to first-ever die interconnect on wafer and substrate. And in turn, our SMT segment solutions cater for packaged interconnect on to TCB boards.

As you can see from the center of this slide, our portfolio can be roughly divided into 2 broad areas. One, mainstream and application tools and 2, advanced packaging tools. First, our mainstream and applicative tools business typically has a large install bases, providing skill that gives significant volume leverage and cash generation capabilities to fund innovation, expansion, operations and more. Second, our advanced packaging tools business, which is a higher growth and higher margin segment, addressing more complex packaging requirements with each having the potential to grow rapidly. Expanding this is a growing area of software solutions for smart manufacturing that we are also investing heavily. We are developing and supporting increased industry needs for automation, scheduling and predictive monitoring, optimization and analytics. Over time, this area has the potential to evolve into a key business in its own right.

The interplay between these businesses and ASMPT enables what we term a virtuous cycle where resources make possible by the volume mainstream business that enables further development and progress of the high growth innovation business. In addition, our unique broad-based portfolio is in turn being fueled by macroeconomic tailwinds that will provide a sustainable push to our business for years to come, as you can see on the left-hand side of this slide. These tailwinds and our unique broad-based portfolio will drive our long-term performance sustainably. This consists of 2 elements. First, reduce the cyclical revenue and profitability that is typical of semiconductor and electronic manufacturing space. Second, create a condition for structural growth, revenue growth and margin expansion that will form robust and enduring foundations for a broad and sustainable future for ASMPT and all its stakeholder.

Riding on a strong performance and supported by the positive macroeconomic tier wins I've described earlier, we confidently roll out strategic growth and cost optimization initiative that will unfold in distinct phases over the next few years. Let me provide some color to this effort that we have alluded to in the past earnings calls. First, let me talk about our growth initiatives. These are structured by the business areas that have been described in the previous slide.

So, in terms of mainstream and applicative tools business, our growth focus is on increasing our market share in targeted areas, namely the high-end segment of the mainstream and applicative tools business. There are 2 strategic areas of activity here. First, we want to meaningfully expand into targeted adjacent market. The example you can see as shown here. For the memory market, I have shared earlier about strategic breakthrough into this underrepresented yet sizable space. This will benefit our mainstream tools in the near term, particularly for wire bonders.

Next, in the ADAS or advanced driver assistance system market, we aim to capture new opportunities more quickly in the Automotive Camera Assembly and Test solutions space, assisted in a small way by tapping our newly acquired company, Automation Engineering, Inc., or AEI, which is the market leader. Next, electric vehicles or EVs provide good growth opportunities that benefit our Silver Sintering solutions for durability and reliability. Other areas of opportunity for Silver Sintering include the energy and power semiconductor space. And finally, we aim to capture new opportunities for fuel cell manufacturing in the green energy space through our SMT segment's Printing Solutions.

Our other focus area for mainstream and applicative tools business involve further strengthening of our strong market position through targeted product enhancement in the various areas that we can see here. The next growth area concerns our Advanced Packaging Tool business. Here, our growth focus is to widen our technological leadership. This will be achieved primarily through intensifying our R&D support and resources into targeted areas. Here, there are 2 areas of strategic activity. First, we want to grow in the emerging market. And here are some examples. First, for high bandwidth memory, HBM3 memory is a key growth area with reduced power consumption and a smaller form factor. Our memory market continues to be crucial here. We are anchored by a leading memory customer and are confident about capturing emerging high bandwidth memory opportunities for TCB die stacking solution.

2, for Mini and Micro LEDs, our max transfer and mass bonding solutions are ready to address customers' high-volume manufacturing needs for advanced display applications. For a System-in-Package or SiP market, increasingly complex and demanding requirements will further drive demand for our SMT SiP placement tools as well as our multi-chip module bonding solutions. And finally, HPC or high-performance computing will drive demand for hybrid bonding solution. As I have said earlier, we are expected to ramp this up for high volume manufacturing from 2023.

The second strategic focus area under Advanced Packaging Tool is to intensify the investment in process innovation in order to widen our technological position in key process areas that are shown here. A third area of growth involve utilizing the AIoT-enabled Smart Factory of the future. In this result, we have good foundation in place. We have strong growth of range of software solutions, including MES or Manufacturing Execution Systems software suite.

Our momentum here has been enabled by Industry 4.0, in-depth digitalization trends and increasing automation needs of electronics manufacturers. At the same time, we have developed a unique software-based framework we have termed AIoT or artificial intelligence of things that basically consists of integrated software solutions that bring connectivity, monitoring and analytics with AI-driven machine learning capabilities. We expect our combined efforts across our software business to progressively deliver significant value to our customers over time, positively impact the other areas of our business and possibly involve in the key business of its own. So, these are the growth initiatives which we take up the majority of these slides contain.

Let me now share briefly about the cost optimization strategic initiative that will help drive long-term sustainable operation excellence for us. Overall, there are 2 areas. One, this will improve our product and operational cost structure, including procurement and design to cost action. Second, is to enhance our manufacturing capability and flexibility in both capacity and supply chain management. Here, we want to focus especially on achieving the optimal mix of internal and external manufacturing capabilities that will help us better navigate the peaks and trough of a business cycle in this industry. We are confident that this growth and cost optimization initiatives, which are exclusive to our unique and broad portfolio will help drive and sustain ASMPT's significant and meaningful long-term performance.

Looking at this slide, our own true cycle revenue growth over the past 11 years has stayed in tandem with the semiconductor device growth in general. This is a good foundation for ASMPT to possess and we are confident that the efforts we are making to reduce this cyclicality even further will place us in good state for the future. As you will discern from our strategic initiatives, sustained R&D investment is a critical part of our ability to deliver the required semiconductor and technology breakthroughs that will tap circular growth opportunities to create value for our customers and stakeholders. On average, our annual R&D spend was about 10% of equipment revenue. In 2021 alone, we spent USD 251 million on R&D. And to date, we have generated close to 2,000 patents and pending patents as well.

Subject to shareholders' approval for a final dividend per share of HKD 2.60 per share, 2021 full year dividend of HKD 3.90 per share is a 44% increase over 2020. Over the last 11 years, we have rewarded our shareholders with consistent and sustainable payout ratio of about 50%. Over the same period of time, we have paid up more than 80% of our cumulative free cash flow to shareholders. I hope that the time I've taken to share a little bit more about ASMPT development initiatives and some key principles underpinning our business will be able to highlight our compelling value propositions.

Basically, we have and continue to be able to generate strong and sustainable cash flow from our mainstream and applicative tools and fueled by bullish global semiconductor device unit growth prospects. Margin expansion continues as a result of a consistent and significant investment in R&D for both high growth and high margin Advanced Packaging and Automotive market segment and these are funded by strong cash flows.

Our unique and broad-based portfolio is a strong advantage. It has enabled us to achieve a leadership position in key electronic sectors from the mid-end to the back end to SMT. This cushions us from the cyclicality and volatility and helps underpin true cycle revenue and profitability growth. Last but not least, we have a consistent dividend payout ratio of 50% that provides attractive and sustainable returns to shareholders. We are fully confident that we have the right foundations, plans and people in place to steer ASMPT in the right and sustainable future.

Thank you and we are now ready for Q&A.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Robin, for that. For the Q&A session, please either use the raise hand function and we will allow you to unmute yourself for you to ask your question or please type your question in the chat to ASMPT-Q&A and we will read it out on your behalf. [Operator Instructions]

For the first round of questions, can I request Leping to unmute and ask your questions, please?

[Leping Huang, analyst]

Congratulate for the good results. So, the first question is about your first quarter guidance. Can you provide some more color about your guidance between your 2 segments and between customer type? Are there any -- since you are guiding for a sequential decline for the first quarter, are there any business line which will show some positive growth this year?

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you. Let me read the first question again. You were asking more for the Q1 guidance and you would want to know and get more color between the 2 segments and also on our customer types and the timings. And are there any businesses among our line of businesses, which are showing positive growth for the guidance?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Thanks, Romil. Let me share some color. Yes, indeed, we are guiding at a midpoint USD 665 million. That is lower than Q4, but this is in line actually with seasonality trend. Q1 tend to be lower to Q4. And looking at Q4, the whole last, actually, we have 5 quarters of consecutive growth since Q4 2020. So, it was a very strong also performance last year and also Q4. So, we are comparing against also a very high base. Now at USD 665 million midpoint, as we have guided, nevertheless, it will still be a record Q1 for the Group and we believe it's also for both SEMI as well as SMT looking on how the billing development has progressed so far.

Let me put it that way. It is not because of the supply chain constraints that we are still facing, our Q1 billing could have been higher. So, we have to take into account this very challenging supply chain environment. And also not forgetting that the COVID-19 situation is still around and it has disrupted in our opinion, some readiness of our customers new' plans and that also, to a certain extent, impacted our delivery timing for some of these tools. A little bit more color in terms of where we see the end market application segment would be for -- at least for Q1, we think the -- looking at the -- looking at the development so far, we feel that the automotive momentum is expected to continue for both the SEMI and the SMT segment. I think that's what I can share at this point in time, Leping.

[Leping Huang, analyst]

So, the second question is about the AP business. I think it's the first time I -- if I remember correctly, disclosed the full exact amount of AP business and seems to be accounting for 20% of the total revenue. So, can you share some color what are the current application or end market for these AP products? And what will be the growth momentum for this AP revenue this year? I think can we assume that this will be a higher proportion of the AP this year?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Let's put it the way, Leping, I think when you talk about proportion, we have to take into account the overall business of ASMPT. So last year, as you have noted, last year was a high year for us. Revenue topped USD 2.8 billion. So, our -- even our AP revenue has grown 35% year-on-year to, roughly, around USD 590 million, not a small amount. But of course, you take into consideration the high base or denominator, it appears to be small. But more importantly, as we have highlighted, our API revenue has grown 35% year-on-year. Now, in terms of the application, we see -- we continue to see the deposition tools by our NEXX business continue to be strong. And this is in part because of the high-performance computing requirements that require high-end, multilayer laminate supply, we call it ABS substrates in order to be able to pack those devices for HPC.

Now, those laminates of plate multi-layered requires our NEXX tools, the deposits, RDLs and also a couple of pillars in order to package those [indiscernible] application basically. So, we see that momentum will continue for time to come. Of course, not forgetting TCB, as we have highlighted in our announcement and also in my call just now, we just won a recent order of nearing $100 million. This is really a testimony to our leadership position in TCB. And mind you, this is a new platform. So up to now, we have been supplying what we call a Chip-to-Substrate TCB tools, which are used to place a bigger -- a bigger die to a module or to a substrate. But for Chip-to-Wafer, we are talking about placing more smaller components, basically HI, heterogenous integration onto wafers. And also -- so these tools require higher precision, basically.

And so it's a testimony that we want this sizable order from a leading Tier 1 customer for their packaging needs. Besides these 2, I must also highlight that our laser dicing improving tools have also taken off quite a nice -- in a nice manner in 2021. We have gained [indiscernible] we have gained some market share, although it's still not a big business for us, but the progress of this dicing tool is very encouraging. Besides that, of course, I also highlighted Mini LED tools, we are seeing an inflection point as well. So, this very high precision Mini LED tools, for Mini RGB, for video wall for displays, are also seeing very encouraging sign.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Leping. Can I next request Arthur from Citi to unmute yourself and ask your questions.

[Arthur Lai, analyst]

I notice that you upgrade your presentation this time and then more informative. My first question is on the Page 33, bullet point 2, you mentioned that highlight would be continued margin expansion. And look at the quarter 4 of last year, actually, the margin already returned to quite high level. So, my question is the margin is sustainable and -- or not and how we achieve that? You also mentioned that there's a cost headwind. So, I want to learn more.

[Unknown Executive]

Arthur, let me repeat your question. So basically, your question is about our margins and you did note that Q4 2022 margin was -- 2021 was reasonably high. So, you would want to know from us whether the margins are sustainable and or not and how we plan to achieve a reasonable or higher margins going forward?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now, Arthur, I think when you -- when we compare 2021 versus 2020, I think that is one area that we have to be cognizant about. Now in 2021, it was a high year, as I said, our revenue reached USD 2.8 billion and typically in a high cycle like this, it is the mainstream tools that provide the volume. That's why in one of the page and in our business model, we have mainstream applicative tools and we have advanced packaging tools. Now, we are unique in a sense that we are playing in both high volume as well as a very niche advanced packaging tools area at the same time.

So, in a high cycle like 2021, what really provided the volume is really the mainstream tools. And as probably you're aware, mainstream tools basically comprise tools like the wire bond. Now, wire bond is really a so-called tool that has been around for decades and still very relevant, of course, still very relevant. And you don't expect wire bonder margin to be high compared to the other tools. So, as a result of this volume effect of wire bonders, so the impact on the margin can be also quite significant. But having said that on the full year, we have improved our margin for both the SEMI side as well as the SMT side.

Now all these programs that we have put in place, the strategy initiative that I took some pains to share with you guys earlier in my opening remarks, will continue to uplift our margin over time. It's not going to be an immediate next quarter or 2 because these growth initiatives will take time to execute. So, we are confident that over time, you will continue -- we will continue to see our margin improvement. And also, I must say that the fact that we are focusing on high growth, high margin area in automotive and advanced packaging, this will definitely help us to uplift also our margin over time.

[Arthur Lai, analyst]

A quick follow-up on this topic. I want to explore the Page 23. Also, we love this chart. You show that how your revenue from the key application. And if you look at the margin among those application, which 2, top 2 application would be the higher gross margin?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Thank you for your compliment. So, I mean we have taken all your feedback into consideration. And as much as we can share without losing any competitive positioning, we will try to do that over time. So, this is -- first Arthur, I must say that this is really an maximum best guesstimate. As you can imagine, when we ship our tools to our customers, sometimes they will tell us what the tools are being used for, sometimes they will not tell us for competitive reason. So, we are just using our best guess looking at a package, looking at the business of our customers, we try to give shareholders and analysts an idea where our tools are being deployed for an end application. So, for 2021, this is the result.

Now, to answer your question, I would say a month here, I would say computers, because computers have a higher proportion of advanced packaging tools in there. Communication, okay and automotive. Okay. Industrial, not in the order, but I'm trying to give you a sense of where our AP tools are being deployed. Now, our AP tools are not really deployed very much in automotive because automotive is still a very conservative industry, okay? But however, automotive segment tend to command a better margin. So, in terms of AP, we'll find a little bit more in computers, in communication, industrial and automotive is because traditionally these 2 are a higher-margin segment.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Arthur. Can I next request Gokul from JPMorgan to unmute yourself and ask your question.

[Gokul Hariharan, analyst]

My first question is on more near-term trends. If you look at bookings, bookings has been declining for the last 3 quarters. If I look at the last couple of cycles, I think the last time it happened was back in 2018, ahead of a SEMI down cycle in 2019. Could you talk a little bit about what we are seeing in terms of bookings? Is there anything specific that is happening, which is leading to this kind of decline in bookings? And could you also talk a little bit more about wire bonding specifically because some of your key customers have talked about reducing their capital outlay on wire bonding in 2022 after a very big increase in spend in 2021.

[Unknown Executive]

So, your first question is to know more on the booking, you acknowledged that the booking has been declining over the past 3 quarters. And what is the reason behind? And can we give more color about this and also a bit on the outlook. I will let Robin answer the first question, and then I will go on the wire bonding part.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now, you're right. If you look at 2021 booking trends, it has come down from Q1 to Q4. But we have to see this context. Q1 2021 was a very high booking level. We are talking about crossing the USD 1 billion mark. So, then we came down sequentially onto Q4 -- even at Q4, I must say that it's how much was Q4, let me see. Q4 booking was how much? Anyway, I think Q4 booking was around $674 million. So, that is not a low number traditionally in the Q4 quarter. So, in our equipment business with such a high booking number that we experienced already in 2021, customers need time also to digest those equipment. But I can give you a little bit more color what we are seeing so far.

Now before that, I also want to point out to the fact that if you look into a longer term -- how some industry experts are projecting in our industry, the likes of SEMI and VLSI, they are still pretty bullish for 2022. In fact, between the both of them, they are still guiding or projecting a growth year for the SEMI side of between 4% to 14% on the back of a very strong year, very strong double-digit, I think it was more than 60% or something like that. So, there are still quite -- these 2 industry business houses are still quite bullish about the SEMI industry. So, this will probably give you some idea how the independent research houses are looking at the industry. Next question.

[Unknown Executive]

Next question is more on wire bonders. You did highlight that you are witnessing some reducing capital outlay expected in 2022 by some key players. So, you would want to know, based on that, the wire bonder outlook for us.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. The good thing about ASMPT is that we serve a broad range of customers. So, we are not heavily dependent on 1 or 2 customers. So, the way we look at it is that, yes, wire bonders have a good run in last year. Now, if the industry continued to grow as predicted or forecasted by those independent research houses, from here -- from the base of 2021. So, it's still going to be a higher according to their prediction. And in such a scenario, as I have alluded earlier, typically, the mainstream tools will continue to do well. So, when we talk about mainstream tools, we are still focusing very much on the likes of wire bonder and die bonder. So, these are 2 mainstream tools that typically perform well. The demand continue will be strong in the high cycle year. So, yes I hope that also answer your question?

[Gokul Hariharan, analyst]

Maybe one more question on hybrid bonding. Could you talk a little bit more about this opportunity like compared to -- like what does it do to Advanced Packaging as this starts to ramp up? I think you talked about potentially customer sampling in 2022 for one of your customers. Could you talk a little bit about are you already tool of record for any of the 3D SOIs or 3D packaging kind of projects that are out there in the industry? Or are you still in the qualification phase on hybrid bonding?

[Unknown Executive]

Let me repeat your question. So, on the hybrid bonding side, you want to know more on the opportunities out there and keeping in mind the AP side and the ramp-up. And from your customer side, how is the progress there? Are you involved in the customers sampling and you know how is it going to go on the tool of record or qualification phase, so more details around that.

[Cher Ng, executive]

I think when we look at the hybrid bonding, we have to bring also TCB into the context -- into context. Now, hybrid bonding is a very high precision tools. So, in terms of a bump pitch in terms of accuracy, we are talking about bump pitch maybe below 20 micron and accuracy down to 0.2 microns. So, these are very high precision tools. And because it's so high precision and the cost of using such solution is very high, it's very expensive tool, no doubt.

Now in our equipment space, I think we must realize that cost is a primary driver for a customer to choose which tool they want to use. So, for packages that do not require hybrid bonding, okay, they will still choose the next closest tool will be the TCB. So, that's why I say when we talk about hybrid bonding, we must put TCB into context. So, because the closest in terms of technology to hybrid bonding is really the TCB tools. And there is still a long runway for TCB tool the way we see it. Now back to your hybrid bonding, yes, we are engaging some key Tier 1 customers, both on the logic side as well as also on the memory side as well. So, as I mentioned in the opening call, that we are due to deliver a few prototypes for some of these leading Tier 1 customers.

[Unknown Executive]

Can I request Kyna from Credit Suisse to unmute and ask your questions.

[Kyna Wong, analyst]

Congratulations for such a [ good ] results. And I have a question about the outlook. So, we see the peers like they guide single-digit growth like for 2022 financial years. Is ASM Pacific seeing similar growth this year and also extending to a more longer term as you addressed in Page 30 that every 3 years, reaching a record level. So, according to the IC content or like numbers of chips. So, this kind of level right now is extend like 2 years that will sustain into the third year? Or we should expect some kind of correction in between the migration of the next level. So, this is the first question. The second question is about materials business that the segment profit margin declined 4.6 percentage point year-over-year. Even right now, it's under the JV. Could you like give us more color about the business in the material side?

[Unknown Executive]

Let me repeat your first question. So, your first question is more on the outlook because you noted that some peers have guided single-digit growth for 2022. And you want to know whether it's similar for our company. Then you also highlighted that what will it be for the longer term, noting that we try to highlight on a 3-year basis and whether it's going to continue based on the IC content and the number of chips or what is the indication from Robin side.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Kyna, now on the outlook, as I said earlier in the earlier question, we take reference also from those industry research houses, like VLSI and SEMI. They are projecting between 4% to 14% growth year-on-year compared to a very high growth in 2021. Now, in this very challenging supply chain situation, it's really very difficult for us to see beyond a couple of quarters, very, very challenging. So, we should continue to take reference from there. Now, maybe I can give you a little bit more color what we are seeing right now so far into the first 1 month or so into our business.

Now, if you look -- if I may give you some color on this aspect first. Now, Q1 Group booking momentum so far is strong, I would say. And it looks like it's shaping up also to be a good quarter compared to previous Q1 quarters. We always have to compare with previous Q1. But however, don't expect -- we don't expect this year Q1 bookings to be higher than Q1 last year. Q1 last year was an exceptionally high year. We booked more than USD 1 billion. So, don't -- we don't expect to be. But nevertheless, I think so far, the Q1 booking momentum has been encouraging and a little bit more color on that as well.

Now, when we look at the SEMI so far in Q1, first one month or so because of the win that we have from the TCB, the $100 million because the majority of this order was booked already in Q1. So, coupled with the momentum we see in power and automotive application, which these 2 areas our strong hold. So, so far, I think this, this TCB tool booking, power and automotive applications for SEMI seems to be on the right track. We also see just I want to talk about next as well. We also see customers' continued interest in our next tools for the deposition interconnect for ABS substrates. So, that interest continued to be sustained.

And after Chinese New Year, when we do our checking with our customers, we also see Chinese customers seems to be picking up their interest in talking about new tools. So, that's also quite fairly encouraging. And we also channel with IDMs and their utilization seems to be also staying at a high level. So, that's also very encouraging so far, although it's only about 1 month or so into Q1. I must say, however, that the CIS business has relatively remained on the softer side, but there are still some green-shoots that we see in particular demand for AA tools coming from top Tier 1 customers.

So although generally, the CIS business is relatively soft compared to the other business units, but because we have a very entrenched position in terms of our active alignment tools, these are still generate a lot of interest among Tier 1 customers. And we believe they are buying these tools more for capability buy at this point in time for new innovation features that will come out of the smartphones in the later part of this year or maybe even 2023. So, when that happens, then our CIS business has also started to pick up.

Now, the other area we see so far is our opto business. We see continued interest in our Mini LED tools as well as a wire bond for lighting as well. But what's more interesting so far we see is really on the SMT side. The SMT momentum so far in Q1 is strong, particularly for automotive. I must say that the demand is also very broad-based. So, the way we see the business for SMT is not benefiting actually, SMT business is not benefiting from the high pool of packaged chips and devices coming out of the semiconductor supply chain in the last few quarters that now these devices, this huge volume of devices now need to be placed on to PCB boards using SMT placement tools. I think these are some of the color I can give you Kyna, for at least so far we see so far into Q1. But for the full year of 2022, it's really difficult for us to forecast or to give or forecast because of those challenges that we face in supply chain and yes, so I think this is something for you to takeaway, yes.

[Unknown Executive]

Kyna, your next question is more to provide an update and color on the materials business segment and in particular, highlight on the performance and the margins.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now, our material business JV or AAMI did very well for the first year. And this completely justified our decision to spin this all JV into a very capable hands of our JV partner. So, they did so well, they did meet all the pre-agreed EBIT target and the earn-out agreement, so much so that under the accounting rule or standards, we have to book a revaluation gain of close to HKD 184 million to reflect this good performance of AMI for 2021 and also into the next couple of years. So, with this performance, we are more than likely able to increase our shareholding from 44.44% to around 49% in 2024, I believe, yes. So, because we are on -- they are on track to meet those targets and under the earn-out agreement, we to meet those targets, we were able to increase our share from 44% to 49%. And that's the reason under the accounting rule, we have to book those gain in the year 2021. So, I hope I answer your question, Kyna.

[Kyna Wong, analyst]

And maybe I wanted to say is that because previously, the performance, maybe -- yes, we understood that you have disclosed in the accounting. But just the color you mentioned met already pre-agreed the target. So, should we expect this price should be also quite on track in terms of improving profitability, yes, in line with the those initiative you addressed in the past. And one more follow-up is about the hybrid bonding that [ Gokul ] also mentions. So, because the first year that you mentioned the hyper bond that should come out in 2021, late 2021 and now you have adjusted the delivery in 2022. And what's the changes here is like, is this because of like customer schedule? Or has something happened in terms of cooperation with EV group and all things?

[Cher Ng, executive]

So, I think for the -- [indiscernible]. So yes, we -- precisely because the forecast is that they will continue to do well. That's why we book the revaluation gain. Yes, we expect this JV to continue to do well. In fact, I must say that they have increased their capacity by adding additional plant on top of what we have so far. So, I think this plant are fully operational by this year, we can expect the volume also to increase, of course, subject to the prevailing industry conditions. If the demand for things to continue to grow, I think we -- this JV will continue to benefit from this. So yes, it's something positive in our opinion.

[Unknown Executive]

Now, let me repeat the last question. The last question is on hybrid bonders. Kyna noted that some of the hybrid bonders which was supposed to be out in 2021, moved to 2022. So, Kyna just wants to know more on the reasons why that happened? And what sort of changed? Is it the customer schedules? Or are there any other reasons? So, Robin needs to highlight on that?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now, considering our partnership with EV, is proceeding very well. There's nothing changed from the expect. However, we must be aware that hybrid bonding is very new tool, very new tool. They have -- and also being an advanced packaging tool, there is really no standard way of packaging. So, there are a lot of deliberations, engagement with customers exactly what, how this hybrid bonding tool will be deployed in order to package their devices. So, there's a lot of all these engagement going on.

So, in any case, we are deepening our relationship, engagement with all these Tier 1 customers, and we should be able to deliver the prototype within this year. And as we have said earlier for hybrid bonding, although we may not be the first to deliver this tool but we strongly feel that we are not late because that hybrid bonding tool is really a nascent tool in opinion. And it will take some time for these 2 to mature. And based on channel checking with customers, we still believe that the -- we are on track to deliver in a more meaningful way in line with customer ramp-up plan in 2023. So, that's how we see the hybrid bonding situation.

[Unknown Executive]

Next, can I request Sunny from UBS to unmute and ask your questions.

[Sunny Lin, analyst]

I'm really glad to see you are providing a lot more details for your business. And I believe that will be very helpful for investors to have better visibility on the company. So, good job. Well done. So, my first question is also on your hybrid bonders. So, I think last week, one of your key competitors was very aggressive about this opportunity announced to expand their capacity for this year. So, I understand you just mentioned that you think you're not too late for the opportunity. But at this point, how would you evaluate your technology gap versus the industry leaders? And how is your capacity looking like versus the competitors as well?

[Cher Ng, executive]

I think, first and foremost, we will not comment on competitors' positioning, okay? I think that's only being polite. Now, as far as we are concerned, we focus on our own development. Now, we believe our partnership with EVG is the right one. If you recall, we mentioned EVG is a leader in terms of wafer-to-wafer bonding. They have been -- their tools have been used for CMOS packaging for some years already and they provide wafer-to-wafer bonding capability as well as die preparation capability because in a hybrid bonding scenario, the die and the substrate has to be very clean. So, they have the capability to clean before we do those hybrid bonding activities. So, we believe we partner with the right team to push this heavy volume into the market.

Now, we are developing -- we are proceeding well. As I said, we have been engaging Tier 1 customers not just on the logic side, but also on the memory side. And as I mentioned before, this is a very new tool. So, the packaging requirements are still evolving. So, it's different from customer to customer. And that also explains why it takes some time for us to come up with a tool for their qualification because all these new innovation features that we have to incorporate into the tool. So, I think -- I hope that sort of give us some color where are we in terms of hybrid bonding.

[Sunny Lin, analyst]

Maybe a very quick follow-up is that within the logic customers that you are working with, are they mostly foundries and IDMs or are you seeing any momentum from OSATs?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. Yes. I think for such tools, typically, we see IDM foundries will take the lead. They will take the lead in this kind of capability before it start to proliferate down to the OSATs in the future.

[Sunny Lin, analyst]

My second question is on your lead time. I think back in October, you mentioned that on average, the lead time was about 4 to 5 months, SEMI, roughly 5 to 6 months. I wonder how that's looking like at this point?

[Cher Ng, executive]

I would say if there is no supply chain constraint, it could be better, it could be better. But because of supply chain constraint, even though we are ready in terms of technology, but we simply let the component to put in our tools. So, that will hamper the lead time. So, that's why it's very challenging. That's why I forgot to also answer Kyna just now. One of the factors that we do not really predict too far away is really the constrained environment in terms of the supply chain.

Now, so we -- so coming back to your question, probably mid-time is still around 3 to 4 -- or maybe 3 to 4 months for SEMI and SMT, but for certain tools, for certain tools as usual, those Advanced Packaging tools, the lead time typically will stretch to beyond 6 months. So, we have a mix of tools. So, I can't give you an average, but I can give you some color. So, mainstream tool, probably 3 to 4 months, but for certain Advanced Packaging tools, more than 6 months.

[Unknown Executive]

Next, can I request [ Dillon ] from Morgan Stanley to unmute and ask your questions. Hi, Dillon. We can't hear you.

[Unknown Analyst]

Hello, hello.

[Unknown Executive]

Now, we can hear you. Yes, go ahead and ask your questions.

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes, my first question is on the automotive side. Yes, I wonder how the company reconciled a strong auto sales and versus the weak car production right now? And how do we think about the 2022 growth is going to be along with the car production recovering, especially for our automotive segment?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now in terms of automotive, we say -- we believe this is a multiyear, driven by automotive electrification, EVs and so forth. So yes, we also look at the car production. According to one research analyst, they are still thinking of an expansion in terms of car growth, vehicle car growth, passenger vehicle car growth this year. So that should bode well for the industry as well.

Now I must also highlight that for automotive industry, we don't just serve the customers that are in high volume. As you can see in one of our slides, we also mentioned that we engage much more customers compared to last year. And some of these customers are actually doing some prototyping, using our tools for future years production. So it's important for industries like them to engage customers early, because the characteristics of the automotive industry is that, once they qualify the tools, they will use the tool for a long time to come, because of safety reasons. So it's important that we must continue to expand our customer base, so that we serve both customers that are on high volume production now, as well as customers that are doing qualification of tools, which will generate significant future opportunity for us. So in this way, we continue -- we feel that the automotive for us will continue to grow in years to come.

[Unknown Analyst]

Yes, I see. Thanks for that. Very helpful. My second question is also about the booking trend. Yes, as other analysts just suggested, the booking trends has continued to tone down in the past several quarters. And from what we can see right now, when do we expect this kind of a decline to end, and probably to see some sort of a booking rebound, and what would be the driver here?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. I mentioned just above, I gave some color just above, so far we see in Q1. I know it's still early days, we are talking about perhaps just 1 month, slightly 1 month of data. So it's still early days, but it's pretty encouraging so far, at least for ASMPT, the booking momentum is strong. and the various areas that we look at, will continue to underpin the booking for us, going forward for TCB too, I don't want to mention everything, but I'm sure you heard what I said just now, so TCB, power, automotive. So we continue to see those main drivers driving our business so far into Q1. Yes.

As I said, we can't really see beyond too far, but we have to take guidance from some of these industry experts. They are saying that the -- our industry, the semi industry will also continue to grow this year from already -- from a very high base already. So they're still predicting 4% to 14% growth this year. So it's not going to be small for industry even for 2022. Yes.

[Unknown Analyst]

Maybe a little follow-up here. So in terms of Q1, as far as we know, is the booking momentum major driven by semi solutions or SMT segment? Because I noticed that our semi solution booking has continued to cut down, and I'm not sure if in the first quarter, we will see some sort of a rebound for SEMI solutions?

[Cher Ng, executive]

As I said earlier, for SMT, we are pretty encouraged by the SMT booking so far. We attribute this to really -- the semi has been enjoying a boom run last year. So as a result, the supply chain has a lot of packaged and sample chips that need to be put on the PCB Board. So we are benefiting from that, the way we see it, that's why the SMT booking already in Q4 was high, which is quite unusual also for SMT. Typically, Q4 booking was -- is not a high quarter compared to Q3. But for SMT, Q4, we've seen Q4 booking increase over -- Q-on-Q. And this momentum, so far into 1 month or so, seems to be continuing for SMT.

So I think that's a benefit, I must say for ASMPT, because we are spending across the semi and SMT segment, and the timing in terms of peak and trough are different. So that's just the advantage of ASMPT from that perspective. And we took some pain to explain to analysts, view us from that perspective. We are unique, we have both semi and SMT. So I hope I give you a little bit of color on how we see booking trending so far into Q1. Yes.

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks, Robin. Next, can I request Donnie from Nomura to unmute and ask your questions.

[Donnie Teng, analyst]

Yes. Hi, Robin, can you hear me?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes, Donnie. Go ahead.

[Donnie Teng, analyst]

Congrats on the good results. And just first question, pretty simple, because you have commented on the bookings. So I'm just wondering if you are seeing the first quarter booking direction-wise, to be a little bit improved from the fourth quarter level?

[Cher Ng, executive]

It's too early, Donnie, but if this momentum we see just on the first month, possibly -- but this is not a guidance, I hope -- don't treat this as a guidance, Donnie. We don't guide Q1 bookings, but we definitely will give you some color, since you guys are so interested in Q1 bookings so far. It's just some kind of color for you guys. So just purely on the momentum, possibly it could be a high quarter. Yes.

[Donnie Teng, analyst]

Okay. Great. And second question, I'm interested in your comment on chip-to-software and chip-to-wafer TCP order wins in your prepared remarks. So may I ask a couple short follow-ups on these. So first, were the order wins from same customer or different customers? And what are the regions these customers locate? Then the second quick follow-up is that, you are mentioning above that hybrid bonding equipment could be a high-cost solution for your customers. So it does not -- does this imply that the chip-to-wafer TCBs ASP is lower, a little bit lower than hybrid rebounding equipment in your perspective?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. Yes. Donnie, you're right. Now okay, maybe on the TCB, I mentioned just now about the -- TCB being the closest in terms of technology compared to hybrid bonding. And for that reason, if hybrid bonding takes some time to mature, TCB will still have its place in advanced packaging; because we -- if you have a high-end packaging requirement at this point in time, either you use a TCB or hybrid bonding. So first and foremost, I must say that we are capable for both solutions, okay? Needless to say, we are already a dominant leader in TCB.

We are now coming up with hybrid bonding. So whichever takes off in a big way, we will also stand to benefit, all right? But as far as TCB is concerned, we are waiting for hybrid bonding to mature. It will take some time, you look at TCB, we started TCB probably 8 years ago, right? It takes some time for new technology to mature, because at a point when we introduced TCB, it was an expensive solution, say compared to flip chip, at the point in time. Flip chip is closest to TCB, right? So it takes time for a new technology to mature. Of course, we hope that hybrid bonding can be different. If it's different, it can take off in a big way, in a fast time. We also stand to benefit.

So now coming back to TCB. Now we're waiting for hybrid bonding to mature, TCB is the solution for increasing HPC needs. And we -- customers and us are pushing -- continue to put the TCB technology envelope further and further. Now TCB at this point in time, is capable of maybe around 40 micron pitch, plus and minus 2 micron accuracy. It's already a very accurate tool. Just imagine, a human hair is 100 micron thick, and so we are talking about a very fine precision, even for TCB too. Now we are pushing the envelope together with leading Tier 1 customers, to push down the bumped pitch of TCB to 30 micron and below, and accuracy down to maybe even below 1 micron. So while we are pushing this envelope, we are developing a hybrid bonding, right? So the way we see, is that TCB has a long runway for advanced packaging application and being a dominant player in TCB, we will stand to benefit.

[Donnie Teng, analyst]

And the first one, you haven't answered is that, where are the orders win from? And is this the same -- because the common chip-to-substrate and chip-to-wafer TCB in your prepared remarks. So I was just curious if these are 2 separate projects or these are all from the same customer. So it sounds like it's more than USD 100 million order issue, if these are 2 different projects. So I'm wondering if you can have some [ clarifying here ]?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. So I think, Donnie, you know, we have been always very open. TCB, we have one very dominant customer, but we can't name them, okay, under very strict NDA. Yes. So I think this is my response to you. Yes.

[Donnie Teng, analyst]

No problem. And last one for me is that, I think you have seen that other companies this year are shifting more CapEx to testers and AP, like flip-chip? So just curious, are you seeing, for example, like die bonder order momentum start to pick up, or not happening yet due to the substrate shortage? So when should we expect the order from maybe like die bonder to pick up this year? Thank you.

[Cher Ng, executive]

In general, die bonder also done very well. If I had not mentioned it in my call, okay? So when we talk about mainstream, we typically focus on 2 type of tools, die bonder and wire bonder, okay? So die bonder also did very well last year, because in a high cycle, these are the 2 mainstream tools. Now in terms of flip chip, we are very dominant in the low pin-count flip chip area. So this tool is also very strong -- was very strong rather, sorry. It was very strong in year 2021. Yes.

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks, Robin. Next, can I request Frank to unmute yourself and ask your questions.

[Frank Lee, analyst]

Just I guess the first question was just, on an earlier question or discussion was on shortages, component shortages. Can you guys give us an update in terms of -- I think you had talked about earlier in some of the component shortages, maybe improving, and what the current outlook is like right now, and that it was a bottleneck in the past?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes, [indiscernible] is not improving at this point in time. In fact, it still continues to be very, very challenging. As I mentioned earlier, we could have guided our revenue to be higher, it's not because of component shortages, we had to defer some of our shipment to Q2, because some of the components really did not arrive in time. So what are we doing is really -- we are taking very proactive stats. We are engaged, not just our immediate supplier, but we -- because most of these -- some of these components are actually our customers. So we engage directly with some of the customers and ask them for help, to deliver these components through their supply chain to ASMPT. So we are proactively managing this, but it's still very challenging.

Now on the longer term, faced with this kind of challenge, we also have -- we also took steps to see how we can redesign -- yes, redesign our products, our modules, our components and modules, using alternative components or materials. So this part of the activity we are currently engaging internally, just to make sure that we don't depend on just 1 or 2 success to manufacture our tools. So these are the actions that we are taking.

[Frank Lee, analyst]

Is there any view, in terms of when that component situation might start to improve? Do you guys have any kind of view on that?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now if you look at the number of new fabs, the IDMs of the world are talking about -- coming up. I think in time to come, it will mitigate the situation. But unfortunately, all these new effects take time to build and to really go into production. So probably, it takes a little bit longer before this situation can be somewhat better.

[Frank Lee, analyst]

So it's unlikely, I guess, to be resolved in the next 1 or 2 quarters, based on a...

[Cher Ng, executive]

No, no. No Frank, no. Definitely no. I think we'll continue to face these challenges in the next 2 quarters. Yes.

[Frank Lee, analyst]

Okay. And then my second question is just in terms of your CapEx, I think your CapEx for 2022 looks to be about maybe 70% higher than last year. But I guess you guys have also talked about the visibility not being that long and your booking ratio for semis has continued to come down. So I was wondering, can you give us a little bit of guidance in terms of how the CapEx is going to be allocated?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. It's a little bit higher frank compared to maybe to 2020 and 2019. But you can imagine during those COVID-19 height, we are also more conservative, more prudent in the way we manage our CapEx. So come to a point, we have to renew some of our aging equipment in the plant. So we have to start to do that in 2021. And also, we also alluded to the fact that, we will continue to increase on intensifying R&D. So those also need new and more capable equipment in the lab, in order to perform those activities. So those are mainly the drivers behind this CapEx.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you. I think we will take questions from 2 analysts more who are on the queue, then we will have to end the call. So can I request Laura to please unmet yourself and ask your questions.

[Laura Chen, analyst]

Can you hear me?

[Unknown Executive]

Yes, we can hear you.

[Laura Chen, analyst]

Thank you very much for your detailed presentation. I only have one question on competitive landscape. So we understand that China has been the biggest market for SMT. But given rising local competition, how [ good is SMT ] to sustain your market share in China. In particular, you mentioned your shares in mainstream wire bonding market? And also separately for the fast-growing advanced packaging and also automotive market, since your targeted price might be more for IDMs or advanced foundry makers, how is your position comparing to your international competitors? That's my question.

[Unknown Executive]

All right. So let me repeat the first question. You want to know more on the competitive landscape in the Chinese market. You noted that the local competition has been rising. So you want to know more color and more details from Robin's side?

[Cher Ng, executive]

I think this competition is everywhere. So the more lucrative market is, the more competition. Now, we just simply have to up our game, Laura. There's no magic formula, honestly. In all equipment makers, we must continue to innovate, spend resources into R&D, which is our bread and butter, and push out new products that are faster, more accurate and makes more sense in terms of COO, total cost of ownership for a customer. These are the 3 metrics that we continue to monitor. Otherwise, anyone can be out of the game in this industry, in the equipment industry. So I repeat, nothing new. Competition is nothing new, whether it's in China or in other places. We have to continue to be faster, more accurate and improve our TCO for customers.

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks, Robin. I think, Laura, your second question is more on the AP solutions. And to simply put it, it's -- you want to know, how do we compare versus the international competitors. Do add more color, if you want?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes. Now, I think for AP, yes -- I think for AP tools at this moment, mainly the competition are coming from international competitors. Now I will just speak more on ourselves, right focusing really more on ASM. Now if you look at Page 15 of our presentation, now what really differentiates us from our competitors is, we offer a wide range of advanced packaging tools. Just like our business model for mainstream tools, we also offer a right portfolio, and this has worked well for us over the last 47 years. So we are replicating what we know best, how we do best in the mainstream side, to the advanced packaging side. So you look at Page 15, we have a whole range of tools, and we believe strongly that we have the most comprehensive suite of solutions to cater to all the advanced packaging needs of the industry, okay? I hope that also answers your question, Laura.

[Unknown Executive]

Thanks, Laura. For the last bunch of questions, can I request Simon from Bank of America to unmute yourself and ask your questions.

[Simon Woo, analyst]

Congrats on the great results. Very quick clarifications. You said high -- sorry, you don't provide the guidance for the Q1 booking, but yes, we appreciate sharing the color. But the definition of high quarter for Q1 means, is kind of a quarter-on-quarter improvement in your booking kind of a trend?

[Cher Ng, executive]

As I said earlier, Simon, I'm just purely looking at 1 month kind of data, so looking at the momentum is really quite encouraging. Now if this momentum continues, it can be a good quarter for Q1 booking for ASMPT as a whole. And as I said earlier, maybe worth repeating, we see SMT very strong, because of the lagging effect. A lot of chips need to be packaged on to the PCB Board and for IC and Opto, we see certain segments are very strong. That also helped in part Simon, because we won the order, the $100 million orders because the order -- a significant portion of the order was booked in Q1. So that really helped us form a baseline for Q1 booking. I hope that helps.

[Simon Woo, analyst]

Yes. This sounds not much SEMI solution related, more SMT related.

[Cher Ng, executive]

SEMI is equally -- I don't want to highlight SMT, because it's entering a cycle because, as I said earlier, we experienced very strong cycle in the SEMI side. Now we are seeing SMT experience, the cycle.

[Simon Woo, analyst]

And then very quickly, sir, page 20 -- page 22, sorry. Yes, it's a great update for the memory market related trend. But the higher bandwidth memory, even with DDR5, do you see any meaningful order - [ acumen ] order increase for the new, more advanced memory for, I mean, the HBM3 type. I think it's a very early stage to see this kind of new memory chip demand. But do you see the [ acumen ] order can be more meaningful for this area? I mean the HBM DRAM, die stack, multi-stacking area?

[Cher Ng, executive]

Yes ,Simon, possibly, possibly because if you look at the demand by consumers for more and more data, so all this data have to be kept somewhere, have to be kept in memory. So memory will continue to grow. That's why this strategic breakthrough by ASM in this space is kind of timely. We have never been strong in the memory market. But with this recent breakthrough in terms of wire bonder for key customers and also for this particular application, using our TCB to stack HBM3, we are seeing some good signs for ASMPT in this memory market.

[Simon Woo, analyst]

And then lastly -- some analysts already asked in a very traditional, true methodology for the back end. But the -- again, this presentation material, page 22, wire bonder for the NAND flash. You think is -- will be continuously the necessary tool, no need to further more advanced back-end equipment for NAND flash, we are still sufficient with current wire bonder -- yes.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Now typically, if you look at the memory space, there are 2 types. We have the DRAM and the NAND, right? So the way we see it is that, NAND typically do not require advanced packaging tools. They are more using wire bond, because they don't need kind of high-speed transfer data because it's really keeping the memory and just -- NAND is a permanent memory. Whereas DRAM is different. DRAM has to interact with the logic chip constantly, so it has been faster, and because of that DRAM typically, sometimes they do still use wire bond, but DRAM, we see more flip chip application for DRAM.

[Unknown Executive]

Thank you, Simon. And I think with that, we want to officially end this call. We would like to thank all of you for attending today's investor conference call and there was quite a good bunch of questions posted to us. We hope to see you during the next quarter's call. In the meantime, please take care and stay safe. Thanks.

[Cher Ng, executive]

Thank you.