Good morning. Very warm welcome from my side. So I'm impressed we got this hall almost full, so a lot of good participation. So very pleased to have you all here. And I can say proudly, quite a few of you I know already, which I think is not so bad after my first couple of months with the company. So I'm Michael Heckmeier, with Siltronic for six and a half months. And as a new CEO, of course, you start looking to the company, and after a couple of months already, we started to discuss CMD. Shall we make one? When should we make one? And does it make sense to make a CMD in the middle of a trough of a down cycle? And we listened to you guys, yeah, and there was very clear message: Do it.
Do it this year. Show yourself, show your new CFO, show your management team. That's what we're doing today. We really want to make this a very intense, productive, and very deep day for all of you, and we hope it will be really valuable and appreciated. So the first thing I would like to bring to you today, and, and we got the news out already earlier today with the press release, is, for the first time, after, I want to be precise, after the IPO, we embarking on a midterm ambition, which we want to communicate today. This is a kind of a guard rail for us and also for you if you want to model, if you want to follow us, if you want to invest in us. This is summarized in our first chart.
We're embarking on a trajectory of profitable growth for the next five years. So our ambition is a sales growth to a level north of EUR 2.2 billion by 2028, and at the same time, we will drive margins up from levels of 30s% today to the high 30s% by 2028. So this is a very short summary of our ambition, of our mid-term target, which we want to give out today to you. And basically, the whole purpose of this CMD is really to substantiate how we will do this and to make all of you confident that this is a very ambitious, but at the same time, also realistic target. So that's the story for today. So what are the assumptions for this for this growth case? And these are assumptions and not disclaimers.
We don't want to shy away, we don't want to hide away, but of course, you need to put assumptions into place for such a long-term plan. So what we say is the overall wafer growth will be between 4%-5% on a CAGR basis. We say very clearly, the driver for this story will be the 300mm segment, which is not a surprise. Here we pull down a 6% CAGR, and then, we work on the assumption, which is holding true very nicely for the life, also for the last couple of quarters, where we are in a down cycle on a stable ASP basis and on a fixed U.S. dollar-euro exchange rate of 1.10.
So this is our assumption, this is our ambition, and you see very clearly, we're not only growing top line, but we really want to deliver what people call quality growth or profitable growth. This is our very clear ambition and midterm commitment today. So how do we plan, and how do we want to get there? The next chart gives you some first indication, and let me start with our overall positioning in this industry. You know, we are in a space that is pretty consolidated, the wafer space, and we think it will be a strategic benefit and asset going forward. We are the only Western-based manufacturer of wafers in this industry. We have a market share, and that's our starting position of around 14%, and we just think this is a very good starting position for this whole story.
So let me outline some more details on the next one. Where is the wafer industry positioned in the whole value chain? And this is maybe a bit a different view from somebody who did work in different industries and did lead different businesses already. And let me emphasize a few things, which some all know, but I would like to reinforce a few key statements. So number one, of course, there's the electronics market. It's huge, it's massive. It's electronic systems in cars, in manufacturing, in smartphones, computers, everywhere, yeah. So what we doing is really driving and changing the world. I think we rightfully can say that, yeah. So then, the next level is really this space of semiconductors, and this is about $500 billion today, and it's gonna be doubling till the end of the decade, yeah?
That is a very clear and strong driver for us. On the one side, all this will require wafers. On the other side, wafers are enabling the growth of this overall ecosystem. So what does it mean in more detail? Here, I would like to highlight one particular thing here. So we have our space here, about 14, 14 billion space, and when you make the math here between our world and our customers' world, we have a value creation of our customers with our technology of about 40x. Yeah? This is very important, yeah, because on the one side, without wafers, there is no development in semiconductors, so we are the basis, we are the fuel for all of this. On the other side, from a cost perspective, we are a tiny bit of their bill, of their BOM, yeah?
This is a very attractive strategic space. We enable the stuff, we are the small but very beautiful magic ingredient to this, but we are not the major cost block for our customers. So very attractive proposition, and I think we can drive this, drive this further. 99% today is based on silicon. We talk about some other compound materials in a deep dive later today, but the message here is also very clearly, silicon is here to stay. There is no threat, substitution technology, risk for the decade, maybe decades to come. So very clear statement. So we are in the right spot. We are driven by the growth, we will fuel the growth, and the growth is in silicon. So next one, please. So now, how are we set up in this space?
I mentioned already, 14% market share. You see our peers all in Asia. So it's a very interesting situation. You all are aware of geopolitical discussions and tensions and involvements, so we feel this can work out as an asset for us eventually. I want to be also very clear, in the business model today, and in the last decades, nobody cared where the stuff is produced and where it's consumed. I only can say it might change going forward. Whatever comes, we are pretty well-positioned as a non-Asian-based company, and with our global footprint, I will talk about that a little bit later. Highly consolidated space. Typically, this generates what you guys like, transparency on the one side. I think there's a lot of data out about us, competition, market growth, demand, supply, balance, et cetera. And it...
I think it's much easier to predict what will happen in this space than in an area where, you know, hundreds of, or 20, 40 significant players and everybody is doing its own game a little bit. So from that perspective, great position, great starting point, and we are the only Western guy in this play. Next one. So how are we set up? And here, the number three comes up for the first time. So we are, from our manufacturing position, in three continents. And let me start with Singapore. Singapore is our strong and significantly growing manufacturing site, where we heavily investing, you all know that. Where we have already a strong footprint, which will be significantly leveraged and increased going forward. Germany, we have two manufacturing sites, and I come a bit to more details also later.
But let me highlight, particularly in Burghausen, which is the center of R&D and technology for our company, and also the root, our roots from the company, we have a very strong capability hub, yeah? So really, R&D, innovation, technology happens in Burghausen for our global setup, yeah? So when you do, some of you do some math, what is the cost per site or COGS per site or whatever, always have in mind, Burghausen has an additional, very clearly defined task, which is R&D and technology. So we are also positioned in U.S., Portland, Oregon. So from that, perspective, really very broad, resilient setup. And again, let me emphasize, whatever happens on the geopolitical scale, we feel we have a very robust and resilient situation against potential developments in all directions. We are one of three, so I talked about five, competitors here.
You have another number three. We are one of three leading-edge developers and manufacturers. So this is very important because leading edge is the premium of the 300-millimeter space, is driving growth, is driving developments, and for us, it's a very important core segment. On the one side, we fuel it with a lot of R&D and tech efforts. I come to that also later. On the other side, it also provides above average margins and pricing for us, yeah? So it pays back the investment, and in some areas, what is developed in leading edge over the time is trickling down to the so-called, lagging edge, technologies. So it's also an entry ticket to the whole 300 millimeter space to a certain extent. Next one. So the number three comes again here.
In a simple view, you can structure our market in those three segments: memory, logic, and power. And here I would like to emphasize a key fact, yeah. Historically, there was always a little bit the perception, "Hey, you guys in Siltronic, you are a memory player." And I want to say we are not. Memory is a very important segment for us. Yeah, we even have a slight overrepresentation in memory, but roughly speaking, our business is one third in each of these segments. So again, if you combine it with our resilient, very robust footprint, our representation in the market, the summary of these two, I would just say we have a pretty resilient situation for our business in Siltronic. So from roughly this one third, we think there are huge opportunities in power going forward.
So Oliver Köfer will deep dive into the power segment later. So here we put a special emphasis. It's one segment we would really like to emphasize today. And the driving force going forward for both memory and logic is the leading edge, where we also have very strong positioning, all the R&D and tech capability to drive it to the next node with our customers together. So these are the segments. Today, a key message is leading edge and power are critical for us and our focus areas for us going forward. Next one. So where should the growth come from? And I think you all know these global mega trends, yeah? And I have another more general chart, the next one. What are the drivers of this industry?
It's clearly related to the value chain positioning I explained to you early on. So we see the semiconductor growth driven by all this stuff, yeah. Now we could make deep dives for every individual item here for a couple of hours. So I will focus on a few examples of drivers here, and then we will give you some insights into the power and in some other areas in the deep dives. But no matter which kind of mankind development we see, there is a semiconductor inside, and the semiconductor requires a wafer. So we really have a very strong value chain position. All segments will join the game and the growth here with a slight, maybe even overrepresentation in power. So this is very important.
And leading edge is not everywhere, but it's a big substantial driver for these megatrends. So let me highlight a few examples in my next couple of charts. Autonomous driving, and this is a complex chart. I need maybe some time to guide you through this in a bit some detail. On the left-hand side. First of all, I'm a physicist, so what's the y-axis here? It's content, semiconductor content, value-based in U.S. dollars, yeah. Don't try to model silicon area out of this or whatever. It's value-based, but these are the most precise numbers we could get. On the left-hand side, what you see here are different levels of autonomous driving. Level one is almost, you know, a little assistance during driving. It's, I think literally every car has it today.
And then it goes up to what we call level four, five, which are fully or highly automated assistance systems for driving. And you see here, of course, it's not a surprise, the higher the level, the higher the semiconductor content here. That's the first message. We have a 60x difference between the small level one and level four, five here, so it's a significant difference. And you see it will drive both logic and memory, and here logic is particularly pronounced, yeah. So the more complex this driving assistance will be in the future, the more silicon content and value, and the more logic. That's the simple logic here. So now, the other side of the chart, the right-hand chart shows very clearly how will it evolve over time.
You see again, those same levels, one to four, five, and you see the dark and light blue. These are years, 2023 and 2028. So what you see, the growth in this, in level one, we see an almost stable situation. Yeah, level one is here to stay. It will not change a lot, but then the party will start from level two upwards. You see a significant growth in level two, a very pronounced growth in level three, and Level four, five, which looks small here, starts from zero today and will be already around 10% in 2028. So what we want to say with this, yeah, this is a substantial driver, particularly for logic.
Logic, as some of you know, and Christian will talk about this in his deep dive, logic requires so-called epi technology with a higher value technology in the leading edge, particularly, will drive. It's one of the driver for our wafer demand, particularly as a high-tech, high-tech driver. Next one. So the car in general is a very nice situation for us and the development. The first one was just about autonomous driving, so now we talk about e-mobility. And here we see again, two interesting themes, which I would like to highlight, which is also true for another driver. I'm coming to that one later. We see on the left-hand side, the number of e-mobility cars, 23 million units, and the development till 2028. So again, a big number here, 2.8x driving.
Now this is the number driver, more electric cars. On the right-hand side, you see another very nice situation where we clearly analyzed an electric car requires 60%-100% more silicon than a conventional car. So in a way, and this is a, a theme going through a lot of our segments, we have the number-wise development, and on top or in parallel, the content driving from smaller to larger areas in the particular space. So what does it mean? By 2028, 40% of the cars will be electric. You see that growth, and that will require quite a lot of additional wafer area. So we made the math, and we see, and this is a big number, 70,000 square meters of our silicon will be in this space by 2028.
So I hope this is not too competitive information, but you guys will make your math out of it for sure. Next one, please. AI, in everybody's mind and head, and for us, again, a very significant driver of the business. It starts small. I want to be very clear and transparent here. Today, only 11% of servers are AI servers. And... No, 11%, sorry. 11% of silicon demand goes into servers, and out of this 11, 5% are AI servers. So 5% times 11% is small, no doubt, but they growing heavily and substantially in the next 5 years. 30% CAGR is a not untypical number we find in the semi space. And here, again, the number driver goes in hand with a content increase, area increase for us.
We see roughly a difference of 8x silicon consumption between a conventional and a AI server. In this case, now memory is benefiting the most. And again, for all this advanced stuff, leading edge is the keyword here. So our position in leading edge will nicely fit and slot into this, into this growth area. So what does it mean for the overall wafer market? Now, synthesizing, summarizing all this into an overall picture, and the next chart shows clearly. Maybe we move on here. This is a picture I think most of you are pretty familiar with, but I also want to run through this one by one. We see here wafer demand in 300mm equivalents per month. We see three curves.
On the bottom, we see what we call the small diameters, smaller than 150, and you see a declining curve. I don't want to spend a lot of time there. Yeah, this is not the core business for us. It's not strategic, and it is not growing, so nothing to add here. Small and shrinking. Then in the mid part, you see the green line. This is 200 millimeters. Stable, slightly growing, going forward. And here, I would like to highlight our float zone technology, where we are positioned in a segment and part of this, where we can also enjoy some very nice business, some growth rates, and very nice margins going forward. But then, of course, the big driver here, and you all know it, is 300 millimeters. Yeah, there's no doubt. This is driving the industry.
This is where the party happens, and there's a lot of conviction from all the stuff I showed you in previous charts, but from all the experts, from all discussions with you guys, yeah, even though we are in a not so nice year, 2023, there's no doubt that this curve will come back to historic growth rates, and we said very clearly, 6%. The more pronounced question is, when will that happen? We also don't have that crystal ball, but we are convinced there is no doubt midterm, that's the journey to happen, and that's the journey we will join with our technology and market access. So from that perspective, all set, 300mm is critical, and we investing, of course, into the growth segment. We investing into 300mm. We investing in Singapore.
We were a couple of weeks ago in Singapore and got the first wafers out of that new fab, which was a very important and critical milestone for us. Let me give you some flavor, some impression with a little movie, what is happening in Singapore, and then I talk you through what we call Fab Next. Let's get this movie started. This is an amazing project. Also, I was there a couple of times already. Maybe just a little anecdote. When I was there firstly in summertime, there were around 5,000 people on that construction space.
It's amazing, yeah, and there was one particular moment, you know, when I entered one of the floors, which was still half open by then, and I saw a couple of hundred people sleeping on the concrete floor during the lunch break. And then a guy came in with a kind of whistle, and everybody jumped up and started working again. Yeah. It's fascinating, yeah, 5,000 people on the ground. In the meantime, of course, the shell is closed, is about to start production, and it's not really from outside. You wouldn't see a difference between our nice animation and the real picture, but, you know, it was so eye-opening and impressive for me. And now let me talk you through some details.
We are, and this is really an amazing achievement of the team, on track and on budget. This project started in 2021, which was still a, let's say, pandemic year. And they made it happen really and are on track. We focus already pretty soon on get customers qualified. We also said very clearly the ramp speed next year will be and is already adjusted to what we see in terms of market development, so nothing new here. And very strong proof point, you just saw it in the movie. First wafers coming out of that line already, so very good and exciting stuff. It's... This morning, somebody told me, "You make another standard, a fab." This is not standard. Hey, this is high-tech, state-of-the-art, fully automated, super cool stuff.
As you know, it's supported and financed by a very high LTA share by our customers, so we have very clear customer commitments, and they want us to deliver this capacity. So now, I also want to be very clear, and we have a very smart communication department. Yeah, they package the bad or the maybe sobering news a little bit here in between a lot of good stuff, but I want to be very clear and explicit here. Every fab, and this fab in particular, has ramp cost. That should not be a surprise, yeah? And with our reduced ramp next year, we will see substantial ramp cost hitting a relative small amount of wafers next year, yeah. And that's not a surprise.
I just want to emphasize, there will be a cost position next year from this one, and maybe in the years to come, will eventually more and more diluted by more volume coming out of the fab, yeah. But I don't want to hide away here. Really be really transparent. Maybe a bit sobering news here for some of you, but I want to be clear and explicit. That doesn't change our statement and our very clear positioning. Midterm, EBITDA margins will be north of 50% from this fab, so there's no doubt, and that is our very clear target, and we will make it happen. You saw in the movie that link bridge was highlighted. I know some of my customers, they call a fab connected with an old fab by a link bridge, they call it one fab.
We, we wouldn't go that far, but what we want to emphasize here is there are a lot of synergies, yeah? Through IT, site management, some infrastructure, and admin stuff. So don't underestimate that link bridge. I wouldn't say this is brownfield or it's an extension, but it has a strong relation to the already existing footprint in Singapore. So next one. We're not only investing in Singapore, but Freiberg, we also would like to highlight here. And some of you might ask, what or where is Freiberg? Yeah, it's maybe in the middle of nowhere from a geographical perspective. It's not from a semiconductor perspective in the meantime, yeah. All the big guys are looking into EU and looking into Germany, and we will be in a very strong neighborhood from companies you mentioned here, yeah.
So it's called the Silicon Saxony, and already from some of them, we get some first hint, "Hey, if we come to EU one day, we also might need and might want to source locally or regionally." So really feel this is a strong positioning for us and an asset... going forward. We also know this EU stuff is still small compared to the global scale, but it's starting and people are getting there. Already today, there's a lot of semiconductors produced in this area from, in Europe. We have this site already for quite some time, invested quite decently, and we serve already today 300 millimeter and leading edge out of Freiberg. So let's not forget Freiberg. That's maybe just my message here. And we opened also our Product Mix Enhancement.
So this is the Prime Minister of Saxony, Michael Kretschmer. We just opened it also a couple of weeks ago, fully ready to help our product mix going forward. So another pillar for our story, and I come to the next chart, is innovation and technology. And here I want to give you some overview. Next one, what we are doing in R&D and what is the benefit from that? So you know, we're spending quite a bit in R&D, and Claudia will explain a little bit how this will develop going forward. But why are we doing this, yeah? And so we have our hub here in, focused in Burghausen, in Germany. We have around 150 people in R&D, so it's quite a powerful team. We have a decent amount of patents.
Yeah, this industry is not talking about patents a lot, but I think it's worthwhile to mention. And as you know, 5%-6% is our R&D investment. These days, more driven than by the top line development rather than conscious moves or changes on the R&D line, yeah. R&D is not happening alone, so we are really in a network of academia institutes. I would like to highlight here the Imec, which for sure is the institute in the space where we have a collaboration. And why are we doing this, yeah? And I said it very clearly: to be part of the leading edge race, you need to be capable to develop the next generation together with your customer.
So when they go for a next node and feature size, this drives new and specific requirements for our wafers in terms of mechanical and shape properties, in terms of electrical properties. And this needs to be developed. It needs to be measured. So metrology is a key word here, where we are positioned extremely well with a lot of state-of-the-art equipment. So next one is then explaining a little bit, and again, the deep dive here in technology will go in more precision here. What does this mean, leading edge? And basically, it's about shrinking feature sizes. It's about so-called Moore's law. And what you see in gray for those segments, logic and memory, is the feature size or the terms being in production.
The blue one is more a development, and then comes an R&D piece, and then a longer-term plan. We call it roadmap. We are part of this. So just an example in logic. Let me give an example in logic. The 2 nanometer size is now about to go in production at our customers, and we're developing already the 14. And now, it's also interesting for me as a physicist, you move from nanometer to a new unit, angstrom, yeah? So they don't want to go 0.1, 0.0, or whatever. So when they introduce a new unit, I think it's, for me, a very clear indicator this will go on. This is very important. There's no end in sight, and this will drive further development of the space. So we are here.
This is one reason why we do believe and do invest quite a bit in R&D. It's our clear ambition to always be here with our customers, and then when those things go into development and go into MP, we are ready, and we are in there, we are part of it. Next one is kind of a summary of my presentation. So we shared today very clearly our 2028 ambition. You see the top line number, north of EUR 2.2 billion, EBITDA margins in the high 30s%. Let me also highlight, for this ambition, we do not need a fully ramped Fab Next, so there's even further potential from Fab Next beyond 2028. Megatrends very clearly will drive the market. We are part of it.
We are on a sweet spot, generating the value, but not being on top of BOM and cost, parts. Very clearly, Fab Next, our product mix improvement, particularly what I showed you in Freiberg, will improve our position and drive growth, and R&D and innovation are key for us. There's no doubt, this is a tech business. It's a high-tech business. It requires science, high-tech, academia, understanding, collaboration.... That's my summary. So thank you very much. And now, Claudia will go into more the financial side of all this ambition. Thank you very much.
So thank you, Michael. Good morning. A warm welcome also from my side. My name is Claudia Schmitt, and I'm the CFO of Siltronic since July. But as you may know, I've been in finance function at Siltronic for 14 years, so I'm not a new face in this company, just for some of you, but this is going to change today. So I'm really pleased to meet you all here today at our Capital Markets Day. Michael provided you with a strategic view on our ambition until 2028. And I would like to follow on with a few more insights from a financial perspective, and they will explain the drivers for our improvement and the impacts on our P&L and balance sheet.
So let's start with a short look back on our successful track record, because understanding where we come from is helpful to understand our ambition for 2028. During the last decade, we've lifted our sales to a new level. Coming from an average of EUR 900 million in the years 2013-2015, we are now at an average of EUR 1.6 billion in the years 2021 to now. The substantial growth of more than 70% was based on three pillars: volume, average selling price, ASP, and to a lower degree, FX. The first driver here for the improvement has been higher volume. We've supported the market growth by fully utilizing our existing capacities, by improving the equipment efficiency of our existing capacities, and by adding new capacities, mainly in Singapore, in existing shells, so brownfield invest.
Along with that, we had selective investments in our product mix, mainly 300mm epi and 200mm float zone. This has helped us supporting the ASP. You will learn more about those product categories in our deep dives. The main impact in this very positive ASP pillar has been the clear improvement of the pricing environment, and we've taken advantage of that and increased prices back on reinvest level. The third pillar is FX. As you know, the semiconductor industry, including Siltronic, is highly US dollar related. Our current sales US dollar exposure is roughly 75%. So preparing our financial statements in euro, there has been a substantial tailwind from the weakening euro against the US dollar. The improvement in profitability is even more impressive.
The EBITDA margin has more than doubled from figures below 15%, almost a decade ago, to a level of 30%+ in the average of 2021 to now. The higher sales have obviously had a very positive impact, prices and FX anyway, and the capacities and the volumes that we added in existing shells came with low additional fixed cost, so we had a high margin with that. The inflation-related cost increases have had an adverse effect on our margin, and they are evident in all cost categories. Labor charges always trend up, and materials and energies are usually affected by some inflation. But last year, we saw an exceptional cost jump, which hit us with a triple-digit million EUR impact. So for that reason, this adverse cost effect here is quite substantial.
But due to our high commitment to cost reduction, we've been able to offset a huge portion of those cost increases over the last decade. You may know that we have implemented continuous cost reduction programs in all operational areas, and to support those ongoing initiatives, we do some selective investments. A catchy example here is the automation in our production, which has a positive impact on productivity. In addition, we have already increased the share of our production in Singapore in recent years. Here, we benefit from a very competitive cost environment, especially in labor cost. At this point, I would like to highlight that not only our profitability has increased clearly, but also our resilience. You can see this in our results.
Even in times of a substantial sales decline, as we are facing it right now, we are still achieving healthy EBITDA margins, and that is a major step forward... And this brings me to a short wrap-up of our guidance for this year and a first indication for 2024. We confirm that we expect our sales to decline this year by 15%-17% compared to 2022. Our EBITDA margin should reach a solid 28%-30% range. As we already indicated in our Q3 call, we expect that the first half of 2024 will still be burned by excess inventories in the value chain, with probably different dynamics in the segments power, memory, and logic. Regarding the second half of next year, I would like to refer you to the crystal ball picture. It's simply not clear yet.
As Michael mentioned before, our EBITDA margin 2024 will be affected by Fab Next ramp cost, and I will explain that. Those costs are a given when you are ramping a greenfield fab. Fab Next is up and running. You've got an impression during the short video. And for that, you need headcount, you need a lot of energy, and those costs are more or less independent from volume, and those costs will show up in our P&L from 2024. So particularly in the initial ramp period, the low fixed cost dilution will put a pressure on our EBITDA margin. Over time, the burden from those, let's say, overhanging costs will decrease as volume and dilution will increase. On the positive side, overall, we do not expect any further inflation-driven cost increases.
Regarding FX, assuming a stable FX environment, our positive hedging result of this year will not be repeated next year. You will most likely have many more questions about 2024, but please understand that we will only provide more details with our guidance early next year. The short glance into the past was to show that we are able to deliver substantial and profitable growth. I can promise there's room for substantial improvement over the next few years. Coming back to what Michael explained in his part, our future top-line growth will be based on continuously rising wafer demand, driven by megatrends like AI. In light of this, we expect our sales to reach more than EUR 2.2 billion by 2028.
Our volume CAGR assumption for the silicon wafer market, and also for us, is 4%-5% in total, and 6% for 300mm between 2022 and 2028. We will cover this growth with our new capacity in Singapore, which we will ramp in line with the expected market development. Regarding ASP and FX, we assume an overall stable trend in our model. The increase in sales and the enhancement of our regional footprint in Singapore will be the drivers for our EBITDA margin ambition in 2028. We expect it to rise to the high 30s. Additional sales volume from Fab Next. And as in the past, the organic growth in Singapore will cause a relative cost reduction, essentially due to synergies with the existing 300mm business, for example, regarding R&D.
Synergies in our largest production site in Singapore, now combining two 300 millimeter fabs and one 200 millimeter fab. A competitive labor cost environment and the high efficiency, including automation and Fab Next. And once Fab Next is fully ramped, there's further potential beyond 2028. But I do not want to forget our other fabs. Of course, we will continue our cost reduction programs and selective cost efficiency investments. In total, we expect the cost reduction effects to clearly outperform the inflation, which we assume to be back to normal levels. On the next few slides, I will give you some useful information regarding financing cost, depreciation, and tax rate to fill your models below the EBITDA line in the P&L.
You are all aware of the current interest environment, so you can imagine that we are happy with our debt structure and our duration profile reaching to beyond 2030. Our debt financing in place sums up to roughly EUR 1.2 billion, around two-thirds of this with fixed interest rates. Based on this, we expect the peak of annual financing cost being up to EUR 40 million. We will spend a substantial amount of our future cash flows to repay those loans from 2025 onwards. In addition, we will have to refund customer prepayments on a larger scale already from 2024 onwards. Given the current muted business environment, which we have seen this year and which will last into next year, there might be refinancing needed, and if so, we will most probably have to accept higher interest expenses.
At this point, I would like to anticipate your most likely question. Currently, we do not have plans for a capital increase. Next important topic, depreciation. It's no surprise that our high investments will show up in our depreciation. This year, we expect around EUR 200 million, and this will roughly double next year when Fab Next kicks in. With a further ramp of Fab Next and our approach of short depreciation periods, we will exceed EUR 500 million in the years beyond 2025. You know that our corporate tax rate has usually been very low. This year, we see an increase to roughly 15% due to site mix. In the upcoming years, we expect a corporate tax rate of roughly 20%, consisting of effective and deferred taxes. Why?
The Pioneer Status for our existing 300mm fab will expire in March next year in Singapore, and Singapore plans to adjust its tax system from 25 onwards, introducing a minimum taxation in response to OECD Pillar Two. Therefore, a Pioneer Status for our Fab Next is no longer possible. We will get some investment subsidies as partial compensation, the first part of it in Q4 this year. My next major topic will be on our disciplined capital deployment for the next five years. We will use our future cash flows to further develop our business and increase value for our stakeholders. Our top priorities in a nutshell: organic growth, R&D for technology leadership, and a solid capital structure. Number one priority, and I think this is very obvious, is organic growth.
Fortunately, the high investments for shell and facilities of Fab Next are more or less done by the end of this year. So coming from a CapEx level of EUR 1.3 billion in 2023, we will decline to less than half of that next year, including the ramp of Fab Next to 100+ k wafer per month. We will continue to invest in capacities in the following years. CapEx level for this will depend on the ramp speed. A very common question in our investor meetings is about our steady state CapEx, and here's the answer: It will be around EUR 200 million on average per year over the next five years for our existing fabs. And steady state includes the maintenance of business, for example, the replacement of old equipment.
It includes the capability enhancement that are needed to remain a technology leader. In addition, we include ongoing product mix improvements, not major projects like our recent investment in Freiberg. That's separate. Where appropriate, we will do cost efficiency investments. As mentioned before, EUR 200 million is an average number. There may be years with lower CapEx, but then you will have a catch-up effect in later years. As Michael explained, our strong R&D capability is one of our USPs. We will maintain a high level of R&D expenses, but the R&D ratio in percent of sales will decline as a result of our sales growth. We expect a ratio of around 4%-5% per year, compared to 6% in the recent past. One side remark, by far, the most of our R&D expenses show up in our P&L.
Only a minority is capitalized. Siltronic is known for its solid balance sheet and capital structure, and we will stick to this philosophy. After our enormous investment phase, our balance sheet is almost at its peak. Just recently, our equity ratio has dropped slightly below 50%, but we will continue to have a high equity share, being back to beyond 50% by 2028. As already mentioned, our current loans will be paid back from 25 onwards. The midterm target for the net leverage, so the ratio net debt to EBITDA, is less than one. Along with that, we will maintain our conservative approach of ensuring an adequate liquidity reserve. With that, I would like to close the financial part of my presentation and move on to a topic that is becoming ever more important: sustainability.
We've been taking sustainability very seriously at Siltronic for a long time. For us, sustainability is both a corporate responsibility and a competitive advantage. Therefore, sustainability is deeply anchored in our company's values, in our organization, and in our strategy. ESG topics have board-level priority and reporting lines. Our sustainability activities include the requirements of all stakeholders, and we respond fast to any changing requirements. The importance of non-financial KPIs is constantly rising. To underline our ambition, we track non-financial topics just as financial topics, by setting targets and monitoring KPIs. I would like to give you one example: climate protection. Climate protection is key for Siltronic. It's our goal to cut our directly caused emissions, so Scope 1 and 2 emissions, by 42% until 2030 compared to 2021, and to net zero until 2045.
To reinforce this target, we've joined RE100, the global initiative that focuses on renewable energy, just two weeks ago. Our climate target is very ambitious, given that we will grow significantly in Singapore, and it's top-notch in our industry segment. But it's our clear commitment to contribute to limiting global warming to a max, maximum of 1.5 degrees Celsius in accordance with the Paris Climate Agreement. And of course, we do not just deal with ESG topics internally. Siltronic has actively entered into external voluntary commitments. Some examples out of the bucket that you see here, Siltronic has been a member of the Responsible Business Alliance since 2019, and we are supporting the UN Global Compact since 2017. And we comply with the guidelines of CDP, the Carbon Disclosure Project, regarding climate and water. And we monitor our ESG performance very closely.
RBA and Sustainalytics are just two of the ratings that we include in our assessment. To highlight some of our achievements, recently, we have obtained the highest RBA Platinum status for two of our fabs. Our Sustainalytics rating has improved significantly so that we are within the top 10% of all semi companies. By the way, we have an ESG-linked loan, which refers to the Sustainalytics rating. In addition to our internal ESG activities, we are proud that our strategy and products contribute to a sustainable future. There's a perfect fit. We enable technologies that make decarbonization possible. Just think of areas like clean energy or sustainable mobility. We are strong in the underlying power business. New chip generations that increase energy efficiency along the semiconductor value chain down to the end customer are based on leading-edge wafers, where we have a strong focus on.
And very specific, the continuous development of our products allows our customers' processes to become ever more efficient and sustainable. So in each case, advanced silicon wafers are the base. I will keep this very short, as you will have two deep dives into the power and leading-edge use cases and characteristics. But to round off the topic, you see we have very good reasons to maintain our investment and R&D focus for our competitiveness and for our corporate responsibility. I'd like to conclude the board presentations with my key messages before we jump into the deep dive sessions in a few minutes. First of all, we have already increased our profitability and resilience with a clear cost and investment focus, supported by favorable ASPs. Secondly, our ambition for 2028. We will continue the path of profitable growth, which is based on rising wafer demand, on further relative...
And future relative cost reductions. And thirdly, to leverage the huge potentials, we will continue to invest in future organic growth based on a solid capital structure. And last but not least, I would like to underline again our strong commitment to sustainability. So thank you for your attention.