Tokyo Electron Ltd

TSE:8035

Earnings Call Transcript 2024-Q1

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Now it's time for us to start Tokyo Electron Financial announcement of the First Quarter of the Fiscal Year Ending on March 31st, 2024. Thank you very much for joining us today despite a very busy schedule. I am Yatsuda of IR department acting as a moderator of today's session.

I'd now like to introduce today's attendees. Mr. Toshiki Kawai, Representative Director, President and CEO.

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

I am Kawai. Nice to meet everybody.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Next, Mr. Hiroshi Kawamoto, Senior Vice President, General Manager in-charge of Finance Division.

[Hiroshi Kawamoto, Vice President and General Manager-Finance Unit]

I am Kawamoto. Nice to meet you.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Prior to the presentation, let me explain the flow of today's conference. First of all, Mr. Kawamoto and Mr. Kawai will make presentations. After that, until 6:30 Japan Time, we will have a question-and-answer session where we take questions from the audience. This meeting uses two channels on Webex for the simultaneous interpretation between Japanese and English. As we explained in our e-mail, you are kindly requested to use apps on PCs or mobile terminals, if you plan to ask questions. But if you are not going to ask questions, you can use telephone.

In addition, since this conference is intended for the institutional investors and analysts, we would like to appreciate your understanding that we received questions only from institutional investors and analysts. We will post the audio contents of this conference in Japanese and English on our website within a couple of days. It would be appreciated if you could also visit our website. Now Mr. Kawamoto will present the consolidated financial summary.

Mr. Kawamoto, please.

[Hiroshi Kawamoto, Vice President and General Manager-Finance Unit]

Once again, I am Kawamoto. Now I would like to present the consolidated financial summary of the first quarter of this fiscal year. First of all I'd like to present quarterly financial summary. The blue portion represents the results of the first quarter. In the first quarter, we generated sales of ¥391.7 billion, 29.8% decline from the previous quarter due to the drop of the customer's WFE spending. Along with the decline of the net sales, gross profit was ¥162.3 billion, 35.5% decrease from the previous quarter and operating income was ¥82.4 billion, 46.0% drop from the previous quarter.

Net income attributable to owners of parent was ¥64.3 billion, 45.8% decline from the previous quarter.

R&D expenses shown on the bottom were ¥43.6 billion increasing from the previous quarter as we continue R&D investment for the future growth.

Capital expenditures were ¥39.3 billion increasing by 49.2% from the previous quarter as we are constructing a development building in Miyagi and purchase the evaluation tools in order to prepare for the future business expansion.

This is a graphic representation of the financial summary shown on the previous page. I hope you like it. This slide shows net sales by region for the first quarter. This is the competition of company-wide net sales by region as we have switched to a single segment disclosure from this fiscal year. As you can see, proportion of sales to China rose to 39.3% due to active WFE spending to matured nodes in this region. This slide shows SPE new equipment sales by application. In the first quarter, on the right hand side from the bottom of this chart, sales to logic customers accounted for 70%, non-volatile memory accounted for 14%, and DRAM accounted for 16% compared with the previous quarter. The proportions of logic and non-volatile memory had declined while the proportion of DRAM increased.

This slide shows field solution sales. In the first quarter, sales amounted to ¥100.2 billion. The sales declined from the previous quarter, which is attributed to the decrease of modifications due to the decline of the customers' WFE investment On the other hand, parts and service sales remains strong since the utilization ratio of the customers' fab was maintained. This slide shows the balance sheet. Total assets were ¥2,179.0. Cash and cash equivalents were 401.0 billion yet decreasing by ¥72.0 billion from the previous quarter due to dividend payment, tax payment and share repurchase.

Notes and accounts receivable - trade and contract assets were ¥368.8 billion decreasing by ¥96.0 billion due to progress of collection. Inventories were about ¥716.5 billion, increasing by ¥64.3 billion due to procurement to get us ready for future shipment. Other current assets were ¥65.0 billion, decreasing by ¥85.7 billion due to refund of consumption tax.

For liabilities and net assets [ph] on the right hand side, liabilities were ¥639.9 billion decreasing by ¥72.0 billion this is primarily attributed to the decrease of tax payment and accrued employees bonuses.

Net sales were ¥1.539 trillion decreasing by ¥60.4 billion from the end of previous year due to dividend payment and share repurchase.

The equity ratio was 69.9%. Just for your information.

This slide shows the cash flow. The cash flow from operating activities was ¥125.7 billion. The cash flow from investing activities was minus ¥36.8 billion. Cash flow from financing activities was minus ¥164.1 billion primarily due to the dividend payment and share repurchase. As a result, the free cash flow was ¥88.8 billion shown in the line chart.

Finally, I will present updates of the share repurchase. As of July 31, 2023, total number of shares purchase amounted to 3,069,200 shares. The total cost of share repurchase was about ¥60.9 billion. As you can see on the bottom, we will continue share repurchase up to ¥120 billion till December 31, 2023. So far we have purchased about half of the maximum amount. This was all about the consolidated financial summary of the first quarter of fiscal year ending in March, 2024.

Now let's move on. Mr. Kawai will give you the presentation regarding business environment and financial estimates. Mr. Kawai, please.

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining us today. Once again, I am Kawai. I will report business environment and financial estimates.

Let me start with the current business environment. The full year focus of WFE market size in 2023 is about $70 billion to $75 billion. In terms of market size, there have been no changes from the previous financial announcement in May. However, there have been slight changes in its breakdown. Specifically in leading-edge logic and foundry there are some signs of delayed investment while Chinese customers are accelerating their investment in mature nod.

Though recovery timing may be shifted slightly depending on the macroeconomic dynamics, WFE market is expected to recover and grow to around $200 billion in total of two years of 2024 and 2025. One of the drivers of this recovery, as shown in the chart, is server whose annual growth rate is 8%. In addition, there are business opportunities in leading-edge CPU, DRAM and NAND, as well as GPU for generative AI and HBM. We have – we can also expect recovery of demand for PCs and smartphones after the adjustment following COVID-19 pandemic.

Continuous steady growth is expected in power semiconductors for EV and diversified semiconductors supporting digital economy, namely in the MAGIC market.

This shows business progress in the first quarter of fiscal 2024. Regarding the financial performance, as Mr. Kawamoto presented, both net sales and profit stayed on track. We also made steady progress in critical development projects and product toward the achievement of the medium-term management plan.

In particular for hard etching, which is one of our strategic processes, we succeeded in innovative technology development targeting 3D NAND Channel Hole application. This is an important technology contributing to our future net sales and profit. And our customers highly value this technology.

And bonders used in the advanced packaging, we received orders for bonders to be installed in high volume manufacturing lines of HBM for generative AI application. New bonder development and evaluation have been also in progress for 3D NAND and advanced logic.

Next, I will present the financial estimates for fiscal 2024. The financial estimates remain unchanged from the previous announcement in May. As reported earlier in calendar 2023 minus 25% to 30% growth from calendar 2022 is expected in WFE market. Our financial performance will be affected by this WFE market trend, but we are planning record high R&D investment of ¥200 billion, in order to be prepared for WFE market growth in 2024 and 2025 and our business recovery by stepping up our R&D activities. This slide shows this PE new equipment sales focused in this fiscal year.

As shown here, we expect to generate ¥580 billion in the first half and ¥690 billion in the second half of this fiscal year. The diagram on the right shows a quarterly breakdown on the sales focus for the first half of this fiscal year. Though there have been some changes in the timing of customers WFE investment, there will be no major change in logic memory composition. This shows our plan for R&D expenses and CapEx. This plan again remains unchanged.

FY2024 both R&D expenses and CapEx are expected to hit record high. As I said earlier, we are planning R&D expenses of ¥200 billion and CapEx of ¥124 billion. Depreciation is expected to be ¥57 billion. Last month, construction of a new development building in Yamanashi was completed as planned. This new building was built for the purpose of developing film deposition systems, gas chemical etching systems, patterning technologies and process integration to address expanding market and fulfill increasingly diversified leading-edge technology needs where we'll continue active R&D and capital investment.

This slide shows the dividend forecast. This also remains unchanged based on the financial estimate of this fiscal year and payout ratio of 50%. The full year dividend per share is expected to be ¥320. This shows total return amount over the past few years. As Mr. Kawamoto described earlier, as of July 31, we purchased 3,069,200 shares worth of about ¥60.9 billion. If we are able to accomplish share repurchase as planned, total return amount in this fiscal year, including dividend payment based on payout ratio of 50% is expected to be ¥270.3 billion, we'll make continuous effort to enhance shareholders value. This concludes my presentation. Thank you very much for your kind attention.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Now, we'll have question-and-answer session until 6:30 Japan time. [Operator Instructions] So the first question from CLSA Securities Japan, Mr. Yoshida. Mr. Yoshida, Please.

[Yu Yoshida, CLSA Securities Japan]

I am Yoshida from CLSA Securities. Can you hear me?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes, we can hear you. Thank you very much.

[Yu Yoshida, CLSA Securities Japan]

For WFE focus, I have a question regarding focus for WFE market 2024 and 2025. You said $200 billion, in the previous meeting 2024 should be the same level of 2022. That's what you said, but if you divide into two years, 2024 and 2025, what happens to 2024? What about the changes in your focus for 2024 if possible from this year to 2024 and from 2024 to 2025? So I'd like you to give us some application drivers to fuel out the growth of the market.

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So let me answer to your question. So recently the macro economy dynamics have been changing. So as I said in my presentation earlier, leading-edge logic foundry business has been in the adjustment. It takes a bit long time for customers. The first startup timing is shifted by six months. That sort of plan is also announced by the customers. When you think about this kind of trend, I think at WFE market in 2025 will be higher.

So maybe plan has been shifted by three months or six months in some customers. So I’m sure you can see the very rapid recovery. However, the recovery is more drastically in 2025 than 2024. The primary driver should be service. As I said in my presentation earlier, in this year 2023, toward the second half of this year to 2027, the number of service will be increased by 8% on the CAGR basis.

This will be the primary driver of the growth of the market and PCs and smart phone demand will be recovering. Inflation is easing and also there are some replacement purchase of the products, which were purchased in COVID-19, so company also invest in the IT and Windows 10 support will come to the end and that will trigger the demand increase and various applications will be emerging for semiconductor innovation.

We can see various emerging applications. So you can see new functions in the smartphone or PCs to be developed in the future and also so-called MAGIC market powered semiconductors related EV and commodity chips taking care of various products. All those devices will see the – will have a very solid growth.

[Yu Yoshida, CLSA Securities Japan]

Thank you very much. Excuse me. For semiconductor applications for example, for 2024, the leading edge logic should be the leader in recovery in 2025 in addition to the expansion of leading logic memory will be also increasing. So how do you view the growth in 2024 and 2025 for logic at memory?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So let me answer to your question on behalf of IR department. For this fiscal year, memory adjustments have a great impact, especially NAND flash adjustments or rather influential. However, from the viewpoint of Tokyo Electron, the memory is expected to recover from 2024 DRAM recover first and followed by NAND.

For the time being, the things are valid dynamics. So we cannot tell when the memory start recovering in 2024. We shouldn’t say anything, which might mislead the market. But for 2025, we do have the great expectations.

[Yu Yoshida, CLSA Securities Japan]

Thank you very much. That’s all from me.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Thank you very much, Mr. Yoshida for your question. Next question is from Mr. Nakamura of Goldman Sachs Japan.

[Shuhei Nakamura, Goldman Sachs Japan]

Can you hear me?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes.

[Shuhei Nakamura, Goldman Sachs Japan]

I am Nakamura. As generative AI is expected high in the stock market, so could you let me know the business opportunities for your company triggered by the generative AI? You talked about the HBM for the DRAM. Could you just show us your prospect for generative AI in terms of a business expansion?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So the leading edge area devices for servers and [indiscernible] and smartphones, that accounts for about 70% so far. When you look at the server, AI server proportion is about 8% at this moment in terms of unit. But 2% annual increase is expected for AI. That’s how I view the future market growth. The materials that I use in my presentation, there is some information there. The over portion 2025 over here, WFE $5 billion portion should be affected, the logic related and GPU and HBM. So there are some business opportunities in those three devices, logic and JMP [ph] and HBM. Did I answer to your question? Did I answer to your question, Mr. Nakamura? Can you hear me? Can you hear us?

[Shuhei Nakamura, Goldman Sachs Japan]

I’m sorry. I was not able to un-mute myself. Thank you very much for your answer. So for your systems, which system will be positively affected by the generative AI?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So customers are now increasing the utilization of the existing systems. So frontline we can observe the demands. So after adjustment of the inventory, the front end demand can be expected to grow. Furthermore, in most recent days, the bonding process is rather significant. So bonders, the inquiries are bonders – inquiries for bonder while we take orders for bonders right now rather than inquiry.

[Shuhei Nakamura, Goldman Sachs Japan]

Thank you very much. That’s very clear.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Bonders, Mr. Nakamura, thank you very much for your question. So next question is from Mr. Shimamoto of Okasan Securities. Mr. Shimamoto, please.

[Takashi Shimamoto, Okasan Securities]

Hello? Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. I have a question regarding China market. The sales proportion to China is increasing and you said also that China customers are rather strong in the mature nodes. So how do you view the continuity of the investment to the mature node, especially in 2024 and 2025?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

The China elements are incorporated into your expected recovery in 2024 and 2025 rather than leading edge nodes, but for IoT, IoT related devices. So volatility is much less in this area, especially the Chinese customers. Proportion is rather significant and continuously the amount is expected to grow little by little, that’s how we view the China market.

[Takashi Shimamoto, Okasan Securities]

Thank you. Thank you very much. I have one follow-up question. You said there are some acceleration in the Chinese customers investment, although this leading edge logic fund, the investment has been declined. So Chinese customers are now shifting to the mature node in the first quarter from the leading edge node. Is that correct?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. So there are various restrictions, regulations. So for customers in China, the sum of the job American tools are now restricted or regulated. So now the diversified semiconductors will be necessary for the digital economy. Therefore the China customers can have a very good strategy for the further growth capitalizing on the market trend. Therefore, a very active investment is going on and you can see increasing number of new customers in China. So this trend will not be temporary. I’m sure this trend will remain unchanged. You can see the continue active investment in China.

[Takashi Shimamoto, Okasan Securities]

Thank you very much for your answer.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Shimamoto, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Yasui of UBS Securities. Mr. Yasui, please.

[Kenji Yasui, UBS Securities]

I am Yasui from UBS Securities. I have one question. So year 2025, generative AI demand, you said ¥5 billion. Thank you very much for the figure. And I have a question regarding this. So I have two specific questions. The first question is, when you say ¥5 billion. By chance actually we did some calculation. We came up with very similar figure ¥5 billion in our company. Nvidia capacity was estimated based on the DRAM HBM. We came up with estimate of ¥5 billion. But how did you live up the estimate of ¥5 billion? Could you let us know about job factors? And also, so we – maybe you say ¥200 billion. So ¥100 billion per year driven by the generative AI, ¥5 billion is too small to achieve ¥100 billion. So maybe in order for generative AI to achieve ¥10 billion or ¥15 billion sort of thing is necessary the lower price or are there any expecting amount [indiscernible] applications.

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So the quantitative analysis is not so easy for us. So number of servers, AI proportion in the market and we also come up with proportion of generative AI in the total AI. So these are the factors we are looking at when we do the estimates. As I said earlier, the annual growth rate of AI server. Right now, maybe AI server proportion is expected to grow by 2% every year. For example, 8% in 2023, 16% in 2027. So that will be doubled from 2023 to 2027. So we are trying to collect information as much as possible and we try to get the communication and based on the factors we came up with the estimates and our competitors.

They also conduct analysis. The AI server proportion increase by 1%. Then WFE is supposed to increase by $1 billion to $1.5 billion. That’s how our competitors view. So that sort of estimates are now in good line with our analysis. Semiconductor evolution will be accelerated through the implementation of generative AI.

So semiconductor demand is expanding because of the generative AI. Or on the other hand, the innovation of semiconductor will prompt the further expansion of generative AI and other applications, leading-edge applications. Therefore, not only in generative AI, but in other areas there should be very high potential in the leading-edge applications. I hope my answer was satisfactory. So this is how we view the future trend of the market.

[Kenji Yasui, UBS Securities]

So you are just focusing AI server. So PC or smartphones incorporate – rather than PC or smartphone incorporate AI, but you are just focusing on AI server when you came up with the focus of 5 billion.

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes, we are focusing on AI server.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Thank you very much Mr. Yasui for your question. Next question is from Mr. Ishino, Tokai Tokyo Research Center. Mr. Ishino, please.

[Masahiko Ishino, Tokai Tokyo Research Center]

Ishino from Tokyo Tokai Research Center. Can you hear me?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes, we can hear you.

[Masahiko Ishino, Tokai Tokyo Research Center]

Thank you. So Nakanomyo and Yasui asked a very similar question that I wanted to ask. When it comes to generative AI, you said AI server accounts for 8% in this fiscal year, according to our estimate, it says only 2%, 8% is rather big proportion of AI. So I have a question. So if there is a demand of 8%, you can see better recovery to Lam Research. You talked about Lam Research. I wonder the 8% is a bit too high according to my understanding. I’d like to get some justification, but now explosive growth of the memory demand. So HBM3 or HBM4 in your company, your processes, what are the most promising equipment of your company, which is prompted by the HBM?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So you said 8% and 2%. There is a big difference between the two focused. So what you are focusing on is AI related servers. So we’re just focusing on all AI servers that’s why we say 8%. But when you just focus on generative AI, the percentage drops to 1%, so difference in our understanding should be whether we are looking at total AI servers or we are just focusing on generative AI only. So that could be the reason for the difference in our estimates. When you just focus on generative AI, yes, 2023, it counts only 1% among all the servers.

[Masahiko Ishino, Tokai Tokyo Research Center]

Okay, if we just focus on generative AI servers, there are only 200,000 units, so the proportion should be 1.4% and HBM is expected to grow farther more. So memory, I think you are very strong in memory area. So as for your products, which are more promising for the HBM application?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So the HBM is part of DRAM. So front end process tools, all of them do have the opportunity for HBM quota developer specifically, or cleaning system, edging system, film deposition system. All of them do have the opportunity triggered by HBM. As of today, the customer’s utilization rate has to do some margin for further increase. Therefore the existing machines may not be able to cover the process of bonding for HBM. So that’s where we receive a lot of inquiry, the bonding for HBM. In the previous memory we did have very strong product portfolio. We should maintain that. But for the new opportunities now bonders are expected to grow farther triggered by HBM.

[Masahiko Ishino, Tokai Tokyo Research Center]

Thank you very much.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Ishino, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Yamamoto from Mizuho Securities.

[Yoshitsugu Yamamoto, Mizuho Securities]

I am Yamamoto. Thank you very much. Page 14, I have a question regarding cryogenic etch. So your competitor, the etch manufacturer, you said, when they use the gas then achieve the temperature of minus 60 degrees centigrade rather than the minus 40 degrees centigrade and also double the etching rate. Is that what you mean? Or even if they change the gas, your competitor is not able to catch up with TEL’s technology because of the patent that you have. Could you – let’s know the story please?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Let me answer to your question. As for the cryogenic etching and low temperature etching in terms of hardware, those two are totally different. The design for cryogenic etching were assembly for that hardware composition all of those things are very difficult, totally different from the low temperature etching. So we need to have delicate design for cryogenic etching. So under the cryogenic conditions, gas flexibility gets very high. Therefore the gas chemistry, which cannot be achieved by the normal gas low temperature etching can be achieved by cryogenic etching. So we need to come, we are not able to achieve the cryogenic etching we – if we have the appropriate design. So the conventional low temperature etching has very limited options. So only by changing the gas, they’re not able to achieve minus 60 degrees. When you say low temperature, normal one that is option to minus 40 degrees centigrade.

[Yoshitsugu Yamamoto, Mizuho Securities]

Thank you very much. That’s very clear.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Yamamoto, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Hirakawa of BofA Securities. Mr. Hirakawa, please.

[Mikio Hirakawa, BofA Securities]

I have a question again for generative AI 2025 the $5 billion, that’s what set what you set for the generative AI and you are now receiving orders for bonders. So what is the proportion of bonding or bonders out of $5 billion? And could you also let me – let’s know the condition of your competitors in this area?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Rather than in 2025 up to until the middle of next year, when you look at that near term future for bonders to visit ¥1 billion business is expected, that’s the current condition of our business.

[Mikio Hirakawa, BofA Securities]

Thank you very much. In the area, your company Tokyo Electron is in the dominant position, is that correct understanding?

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Yes, we expect we can achieve very high market share.

[Mikio Hirakawa, BofA Securities]

Thank you very much.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Hirakawa, thank you very much for your question. The next question is from Mr. Yoshioka of Nomura Securities. Mr. Yoshioka, please.

[Atsushi Yoshioka, Nomura Securities]

I am Yoshioka from Nomura Securities. Thank you. Thank you very much. I have a question regarding most recent this quarter’s plan of take your electron. So at the end of last fiscal year, the first half and second half, you said you are going to increase the sales in the first half of this year for both the bottom out. But in reality when I look at your plan the third quarter, sorry, second quarter sales will be higher than the first quarter. So that means the first quarter should be a kind of bottom according to your plan presented today. My question is about for the second half of this fiscal year, for logic and DRAM, the sales are expected to grow very strongly, especially for DRAM. That’s your focus. So, I want to understand the confidence level.

For example, rather than based on the order backlog. Do you have the higher probability to achieve that level of the sales for the second half of this year? Or are there any potential risks to achieve the plant sales of the second half of this year?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

As of today, we may – there have been no changes in our announcement to the market. Therefore, this is most likely for high probability and that’s the reason why we didn’t change our focus. When you look at the details, as I said in the beginning, there have been some changes in breakdown. So some of the leading edge technology, because of the dynamics of the macro economy, they may have some delay in recovery by one quarter for logic/foundry customers. When I look at their announcement that sort of delay is expected.

However, on the other hand, as someone asked earlier, the mature node devices that we do have the inquiries from China, mainly from Chinese customers and that inquiries are increasing. And for that, we can have the highly likely good business in that area. Probability is rather high and we are now see very tangible business for the mature node for the customers in China. So as for the current plan, I think the confidence level is very high. So that’s what we haven’t [ph] announced this time. Mr. Yoshioka, are you happy?

[Atsushi Yoshioka, Nomura Securities]

I’m sorry. Thank you very much. That was very clear. Thank you very much for your answer.

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So there have been some changes in breakdown or contents, but the confidence level is rather high.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Yoshioka, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Nakanomyo of Jefferies Japan Limited.

[Masahiro Nakanomyo, Jefferies Japan Limited]

I am Nakanomyo from Jefferies, Japan. Thank you very much. So my question is rather close to Mr. [indiscernible] question for HBM for bonder business. If it’s possible, could you let us know advantage of your product compared with your competitions? Probably your competitions do have some alliance strategy. Your competitors do have some alliance strategy, but could you just let us know your advantage as for the bonding technology?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So our competitor actually there is one competitor in Europe. We are very confident of having good performance in terms of accuracy or bonding. I think that’s where our customers like and appreciate. For bonding, not only bonding accuracy, throughput productivity should be one of the factors. We should – we have been enhancing and these are the area that our customer appreciate. So your major customers are investing in HBM and your share is rather high in those customers working on HBM. The market itself is not so big yet. But in the future, the HBM market expected to grow more and more. So we want to increase ourselves in this area.

For bonder, CMOS image sensor, we did have experience in that application and also we do have a good relationship with the major leading memory customers and they are evaluating our products. So for leading customers in HBM, they really appreciate the high accuracy of bonding and that’s the reason why we take – we are receiving orders from those leading customers.

[Masahiro Nakanomyo, Jefferies Japan Limited]

My last question for bond, by taking orders for bonders, you can get the orders for the surrounding processes, is that what you expect for the future?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So I don't know there is any direct impact or not, but we not only bonding technology, but I think there might new changes after bonding process etching might be necessary or seconding should be also necessary. And we do have the broad product portfolio, so if customers come up with a new needs or demand, I think we can provide the appropriate solution to those emerging customer needs. So we can make a comprehensive proposal and there is a great business opportunities over there.

[Masahiro Nakanomyo, Jefferies Japan Limited]

Thank you very much. I talked about alliance earlier, so your competitor etching manufacturer does not have bonder technology, so they have some alliance with the European competitor of yours, but compared with that you can take care of those two things by yourself. Is that correct?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes. We can provide the multiple technologies. Last year in SEMICON Japan and this year in SEMICON WEST in San Francisco, we introduced our technology so that it's a kind of fusion between the front end and back end. In the case of Tokyo Electron, we can make a proposal for the fusion between the front end and back end, so serve the available market. We'd like to show our value to our customers by through the fusion of front end and backend technologies.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Nakanomyo, can very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Hanaya, SMBC Nikko Securities. Mr. Hanaya, please?

[Takeru Hanaya, SMBC Nikko Securities]

I am Hanaya. Can you hear me?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Yes.

[Takeru Hanaya, SMBC Nikko Securities]

Thank you very much. So cryogenic etching, you said 400 layers is a target of this technology. So chronologically maybe that technology will become emerging two to three years from now. Is my understanding correct?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Right. In general, your understanding is correct. In that sense for the future, 400 layers should be the future target and even before 400 layers, little by little I hope our customers will adapt this technology even before 400 layer era. That's the area we also expect, but in general what you said is correct.

[Takeru Hanaya, SMBC Nikko Securities]

Thank you very much. I have one follow up question. The American applied material not only the tool but also develop the gases, that's what I understand. In your company in this, as for the [indiscernible] of design and development, do you also develop not only process to but also gas so that they can incorporate the area? Do you have such kind of concept for design?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So we are not gas supplier. However, we do have a very strong alliance with gas vendors for cryogenic edging. For example, gas itself we just selected the gas with very low carbon footprint. Therefore we can provide the hardware and we also developed the processes, but we have a strong collaboration with gas supplier, so that we can select the most favorable or optimal gasses. Thank you very much. We answered, that's all for me.

[Operator]

Mr. Hanaya, thank you very much for your question. Next question is from Mr. Sugiura of Daiwa Securities. Mr. Sugiura, please.

[Toru Sugiura, Daiwa Securities]

I am Sugiura of Daiwa Securities. Thank you very much. I have a question regarding gross margin. In the first quarter, 41%, a little bit higher than 41%. Your plan for the first half of this year is 42.2%. So you have a plan to increase gross profit rate margin in the second half of this year. So for the second half of this year, sales will be increasing that have the positive impact of gross margin, but the pricing product mix, what sort of factors do you expect to drive up the gross margin for the second half of this year?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

Let me answer to your question. In the first quarter, as you pointed out, 41.4% of the gross profit margin was reported. But product – profitability has been improving and our net sales is not so big, therefore the gross profit margin of 41% looks rather weak. However, as we move through the second quarter.

You can see some contribution of this profit. Ultimately as I – we hope we can achieve the figure that you mentioned earlier. Thank you very much.

[Toru Sugiura, Daiwa Securities]

I have one other question. The second quarter, so this sales should be around ¥400 billion. So sales will be increased from the first to second quarter, but there is not drastic increase however, they – expect a higher gross profit margin. So are there any pricing, technology or reduction of the raw material cost? Are there any other factors such as product mix?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

So slightly product mix will be changed that's one thing. In the second half of this year; those positive factors will be increasing. Therefore you can see higher improvement of the gross profit margin along with the gradual increase of the gross net sales. Yes, we expect the increase of the net sales. Accordingly, we can see the increase of the gross profit margin as well. Thank you very much.

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Sugiura, thank you very much for your question. The next question is from Mr. DongJin Han of Point72. Mr. DongJin Han, please.

[DongJin Han, Point72]

Mr. DongJin Han of Point72. I have additional question regarding the cryogenic etch. Probably for one tier, 128 layer should be a kind of limitation and you might be able to address the multi tiers, but or with your cryogenic etch, you may be able to achieve more than 128 layers for single tier. And there are some articles talking about the adoption of the major NAND players.

And I believe your company might start setting [ph] this technology this year or early next year. However, NAND market itself is rather sluggish. So the market achieve certain volume only in three, four or five year’s time. But in short time, I think we can see some changes in the market share. So could you give us your view regarding market share change in the near term?

[Toshiki Kawai, President and Chief Executive Officer]

I think we can have high expectation for this technology and number of tiers should be reduced. While the number of layers is increasing which is really important when we can reduce the number of tiers that will become very big value. We can demonstrate the performance up to until 10 micron for channel whole application. The big market is expected. For example 2023, ¥0.5 billion is the level. By 2027, ¥2 billion should be the size of the market according to expectation year 2023, maybe the number of layers should be 200 layers, but by 2027, the number of layer will be increasing to 400. So TAM will be increased by four times. I mean, those circumstances – this development is really good to contribute the market share enhancement of our company.

[DongJin Han, Point72]

Thank you very much

[Koichi Yatsuda, Vice President-Investor Relations]

Mr. Han, thank you very much for your question. We'd like to conclude today's conference. Lastly, we'd like to continuously improve our IR activities based on your precious feedbacks. So we'd like appreciate your kind cooperation in filling up the questionnaire before you accept the WebEx. Thank you very much for taking time to join this conference, despite your – very busy schedule today. Thank you very much.