Winbond reported a total loss of 11NT$4.6 billion, with a loss per share of 029 yuan, suspended for 10 consecutive years of profit, the board of directors decided not to pay profits last year.
Revenue fell 21% last year
In the fourth quarter of last year, the gross profit margin was 28% due to product mix, and decreased by 4% quarter-on-quarter.
Affected by the decline in prices and production of storage products, last year's operating income was 75 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 206%；Operating gross profit was 223900 million yuan, down 48% year-on-year, gross profit margin 30%, down 16% year-on-year；Operating loss of 16300 million yuan, net loss attributable to owners of the parent company 114.6 billion yuan, a loss per share of 029 yuan, compared with the net profit per share of 3 in the previous year25 yuan, the profit fell significantly, and the profit turned into a loss for 10 consecutive years. To this end, the board of directors decided not to pay dividends and held a shareholders' meeting on May 9.
The storage business grew quarter-on-quarter last year, with revenue of 204 in the second half of last year800 million yuan, an increase of 16 over the first half of the year3%；Gross margin was 18%, an increase of 3% over the first half of the year. The gross profit margin of the storage business was 17% last year, down 30% year-on-year.
The proportion of business decreased to 25% for Netcom, 26% for automobiles & industrial, 25% for consumption, and 24% for computers, reflecting the gradual reduction of production pressure and the gradual heating up of operations.
Winbond's Board of Directors approved the capital expenditure budget, capital expenditure budget 161.6 billion yuan, the specific purpose is to meet the operational needs, including production equipment, research and development equipment, information system equipment, capitalized leasing assets (the transaction object is not related), is expected to be invested from February, the funds ** for its own funds and bank financing.
Market demand is improving
Chen Peiming, general manager of Winbond Electric, a storage plant, said that the market demand for SLC NAND and niche DRAM is gradually improving, indicating that the inventory adjustment has come to an end, and there is a chance to usher in first-class demand in the future.
The previous market demand of the DRAM market was not good, and the first market was also impacted, but the current market demand is gradually improving, among which the niche DRAM market is due to the large manufacturers are making every effort to develop the DDR5 high-end market, so that the demand for niche DRAM continues to heat up, and it is expected that the demand in the first quarter of this year will be better than last year's quarters, and driven by the market demand for the Internet of Things, networking, monitoring and TV, etc., it is expected that there will be a breakthrough in the follow-up.
In the code storage flash market, Chen Peiming said that the market changes in 2023 will only increase slightly from 2022, but the inventory on the manufacturing side is gradually depleting in the second half of last year, and now the inventory level in the terminal market and the manufacturing side is still quite healthy, and the semiconductor market is expected to grow well in 2024.
NOR Flash was relatively conservative in the second half of the year.
Among them, in the SLC NAND market, Chen Peiming expects that as large manufacturers have begun to gradually fade out of related fields, Winbond's SLC NAND has no inventory at present, and it is expected that the supply may be a little tight in the second half of this year, and the supply and demand will be tight in 2025, and Winbond will add some machines in the second half of this year to meet market demand.
The 4G DDR3 market is not healthy, but it is expected to gradually improve, with breakthrough growth in niche DRAM** in the near future, and Winbond's shipments will continue to increase, and Q1 revenue should be better than 2023 quarters.
Winbond's 45nm NOR Flash and 20nm DRAM products have both started to contribute to the performance, and the yield of the 20nm process has exceeded 80%.
In response to the growth in demand, Winbond's Kaohsiung plant will increase its monthly production capacity to 140,000 pieces. Capital expenditure will be 12.7 billion yuan in 2023 and will reach 17.4 billion yuan in 2024, an increase of 37%.