Thank you. Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Romil. 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 the company's third quarter FY 2021 investor conference call. We would like to thank you all for your interest and continued support in ASM Pacific Technology. 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. When asking questions, please limit to two questions at a time to give chance to others to ask as well, but you can always join the queue again. 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 constraints, 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 emails later, or if you have more questions, then please feel free to email 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 Chief Executive Officer, and Miss Patricia Chou, the Group Chief Financial Officer.
Robin will begin with a brief discussion and key highlights about our latest results, with Patricia giving some color to the financial performance. This will be followed by an update from Robin on the prospects and outlook, and then we will open the floor for Q&A. Without further ado, let me hand the time over to Robin, please.
Thank you, Romil. Good morning, everyone. First, let me wish you all health and safety as we continue to grapple with the effect of the COVID situation across the world. On the whole, we had a very good third quarter with robust results for both the quarter and the nine-month period of 2021. We are executing well, and customers have continued to place their trust in our ability as the world's largest provider of innovative solutions for the manufacture of semiconductors and electronics. I'm especially encouraged by our strong group performance across the first nine months of 2021, which places us in a good position for a very good full year performance, and more importantly, set the stage for continued growth and innovation for years to come. Let me now share some highlights from our third quarter.
Firstly, we demonstrated excellent execution in the face of supply chain challenges. We continue to experience increased customer demand, led by the strategic needs to build more resilient supply chains or to become more self-sufficient. At the same time, the global environment of COVID-induced constraints, industry-wide semiconductor shortages, and both supply chain and logistical bottlenecks make us focus on addressing these crucial challenges. We calibrated our highly flexible global capacity allocation capabilities to tap a significantly higher proportion of external manufacturing capacity to support internal manufacturing. We also maintain strategic inventory levels for key components while making spot purchases for some critical ones. I must, at this juncture, acknowledge and thank the various ASMPT teams for their hard work, commitment, and perseverance to enable us to continue executing well for our customers. Next, our advanced packaging customer base is broadening.
We have a comprehensive range of advanced packaging or AP solutions that support a whole range of customer needs. Over the first nine months of this year, we witnessed a broad customer base making strong capital investment in our AP tools across both SEMI and SMT segments. This includes tier one high-density interconnect substrate manufacturers, advanced logic integrated device manufacturers, outsourced semiconductor assembly and test, and fabless and foundry companies. Broadly, these customers seek to meet increasing demands for high-performance computing applications in our data-centric era. Bearing this in mind, we expect our addressable market for AP tools to expand from $1.6 billion in 2021 to $2.7 billion by 2026, which is a strong compounded annual growth rate of 11%.
Next, we are also experiencing strong demand from the automotive end market. Demand from automotive customers serving both conventional and electric vehicle markets drove significant year-on-year booking growth over the first nine months of 2021. Buoyed by this industry shift, we estimate our addressable market in automotive to expand from $1.9 billion in 2021 to $2.9 billion in 2026, representing a healthy compounded annual growth rate of 9%. Finally, our announcement of the strategic acquisition of AEi on 30 September 2021 represented an agreement between us and Mycronic Group signed to acquire a subsidiary of Automation Engineering, Inc, or AEi. I will share more about this later. Let me now pass the time to our Group CFO, Patricia Chou, to run through the financials.
Thank you, Robin. Good morning, everyone. Let me give some highlights of our financial performance. Our nine-month 2021 financial results achieved a number of records. Record nine-month revenue performance of $2.03 billion, which is a robust year-on-year growth of 51.5%. Record nine-month bookings of $2.69 billion, representing year-on-year growth of 80.3%. Net profits were driven by our overall strong gross margin performance of 40.3% to a record of HKD 2.26 billion, which represents a significant year-on-year improvement of 333.9%. As I've mentioned, we had record bookings, revenue, and net profit for our nine-month performance.
Our bookings momentum also drove a substantial backlog of $1.41 billion, with our book-to-bill ratio at 1.33. Overall, bookings remained elevated, and we enjoyed a sharp year-on-year gross margin improvement to 40.3%, which is an increase of 362 basis points from the first nine months of 2020. Our strong revenue performance was due mainly to these factors. First, customers seeking self-sufficiency and supply chain resilience. Second, long-term secular growth trends still driving a step-up demand for silicon. Third, the global economic recovery driving broad-based end market demand growth. Last but not least, some underinvestment in semiconductor capital equipment in previous years. As mentioned, net profit was a record 334% increase year-on-year to HKD 2.26 billion.
We also had a record nine-month EPS of HKD 5.49. For the quarter, we also hit record revenue that exceeded our guidance. Bookings were still elevated relative to historical Q3 performance, although moderated from Q2's very high base. Year-on-year gross margins were greatly improved, representing an increase of 543 basis points. This was largely due to volume effect, a relatively higher revenue contribution from our SEM segment, a stronger gross margin from the SMT segment, and some positive margin accretive effects from our strategic initiatives. However, these positive margin developments were partially offset by a substantially higher product mix from our mainstream tools, a relatively higher proportion of external manufacturing deployed, and costs related to strengthening semiconductor supply chain resilience.
Net profit was a record, hitting slightly over HKD 1 billion and representing a huge 481% year-on-year increase. Now, let's look briefly at our segment performance for the quarter. The Semiconductor Solutions segment achieved a strong revenue growth with a sharp year-on-year profit improvement to the tune of HKD 799 million, which is a significant 349% year-on-year increase. Bookings were still strong, although moderated off Q2's very high base. Revenue was driven by mainstream wirebonders and die bonders, with advanced placement flip chip tools showing strong year-on-year growth. For the Opto-BU, we also saw good growth year-on-year and Q-on-Q on the whole, with the encouraging contribution from the mini-LED and micro-LED business that covers advanced displays.
The CIS unit has also continued to see consecutive Q-on-Q growth due to our broad customer base that includes leading tier one customers. This has been achieved despite the global semiconductor supply constraints and the COVID-related restrictions that have continued to broadly impact the smartphone manufacturing value chain. Year-on-year gross margin improvement of 359 basis points was due to factors such as greater operating leverage based on higher volumes in 2021, and effects from our ongoing strategic initiatives. However, these positive effects were partially offset by product mix effects and costs from using more external manufacturing and other measures to make our supply chain resilient.
The SMT segment reported a strong revenue performance with a sharp gross margin improvement, with a segment profit of HKD 572 million, representing a strong 233% year-over-year increase. Bookings momentum came from automotive and industrial applications in particular, which continued to register strong momentum. Notably, computing applications also registered strong Q-over-Q growth. Segment revenue performance was driven by strong Q-over-Q growth from its mainstream high-end placement tools. Its advanced packaging tools for SIP experienced a strong year-over-year growth, driven by wearables and connectivity devices. The segment's mainstream printing tools also achieved a strong year-over-year growth.
The segment's sharp 675 BPS year-on-year gross margin improvement was due to a combination of, greater operating leverage arising from increased volume and manufacturing utilization, favorable product mix in automotive and industrial end applications, and effects from our ongoing strategic initiatives. However, these positive effects were partially offset by higher costs associated with keeping our supply chain resilient. With that, let me hand the time back to Robin. Thank you.
Thank you, Patricia. We are a key partner to industry-leading customers who are the semiconductor and electronics manufacturers across the world. Our nine-month revenue breakdown shows that the top five markets that contributed to our revenue were China, which includes Hong Kong, Europe, the Americas, Taiwan, and Korea. Our customers span the breadth of the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing ecosystem, and you can see the various customer groups here. In fact, a majority of the top semiconductor companies in the world by revenue are our customers. Our customers include key customers from OEM, fabless and foundry companies, OSATs, EMS, IDM, LED manufacturers, CIS camera module manufacturers, and high-density substrate manufacturers as well. Let me share a quick summary of our notable awards thus far in 2021.
Earlier this year, we achieved an Intel Supplier Achievement Award for 2020, one of only 36 in the global Intel supply chain to receive an award that year. This was an acknowledgement of our COVID-19 response as an Intel supplier, supporting their needs during the extended pandemic season in 2020. We also achieved our fifth Triple Crown in the VLSI Research Customer Satisfaction Survey for 2021. This prestigious and comprehensive industry survey saw us being nominated by a diverse global customer interview base as among the 10 best large semiconductor equipment suppliers for 2020. The top assembly equipment manufacturer for the fifth year running, and among the best suppliers in the world. This is truly a significant honor for us. Last but not least, we were a winner in Clarivate South and Southeast Asia Innovation Award 2021.
The awards recognize the most influential innovators in South and Southeast Asia. ASMPT was one of the 27 organizations out of the 276 receiving the award, placing us among the top innovators in Singapore for the corporations category. Now, let me present the outlook for our business. We believe that we are well-positioned to benefit from the structural shift in the macroeconomic and industry environment that will drive our growth over time. We see excellent opportunities for us to strengthen our focus on delivering consistent and sustainable long-term profitability to our stakeholders. We continue to invest consistently in technology and innovation, and we are encouraged by some of the awards and recognition we have received, which I've shared earlier, that bears testimony to these efforts.
Bearing all this in mind, given the strong state of our quarterly and nine-month performance, supported by a strong backlog, we expect Q4 revenue to range from $720 million-$770 million. For our full-year revenue outlook, we estimate this in the region of $2.8 billion, taking the midpoint Q4 guidance. This will be a record revenue achievement for us, representing a year-on-year growth of 46% for fiscal year 2021. We believe we have a strong competitive advantage with our unique broad-based product portfolio. The evidence can be seen here in terms of our true cycle revenue growth performance. Basically, our three-year average revenue levels have consistently been increasing, demonstrating this point clearly.
With the various initiatives we have begun putting in place, we are well-positioned for sustainable long-term structural growth. We believe our unique and broad portfolio put us in a good state to achieve this long-term structural growth. First, there are strong industrial tailwinds coming from key elements such as global digital transformation sweeping across entire economies. Together with long-term secular trends such as 5G, automotive electrification, autonomous driving, AI, and advanced display, these will collectively drive significantly higher non-discretionary silicon consumption across the world. We expect our customers to undertake new rounds of capacity and capability investments in semiconductor capital equipment in order to meet these new but sustained waves of non-discretionary silicon consumption.
This growth is in tandem with what we see as an increase in the total number of semiconductor devices to 1.4 trillion units by 2025, a compounded annual growth rate of around 7.2%. I've mentioned our unique broad-based portfolio earlier. We believe this is our strong competitive advantage. Within this portfolio, our mainstream tools and epitaxial packaging tools deliver volume leverage to our financial performance, while our comprehensive range of advanced packaging tools deliver high growth. We are devoting resources into key high-growth areas such as advanced packaging and automotive in order to outpace the growth of the overall semiconductor assembly market. In addition, our AIoT solutions for smart manufacturing are at a nascent stage of development and are expected to augment our longer-term growth stories. Some key elements not in this slide are worth mentioning.
First, in terms of R&D, we continue to sustain our commitment of about 10% of equipment revenue in order to continue deepening our R&D talent pool and fostering innovation. Second, our approach to inorganic growth, both acquisitions and partnership, distinctively complements our strong in-house capabilities. We always seek to invest ahead of curve in order to capture opportunities in growth area, and we have a strong record of successful integration. Third, our implementation of key strategic initiative continues to gather pace. We have alluded to this at various points in this presentation, and we see margin accretive effects continue to filter into our performance as we leverage and deepen our strong organization foundations to create even more significant value for our stakeholders.
Taken as a whole, the confluence of a favorable macroeconomic with strong industrial tailwinds is coming together with our unique broad-based product portfolio, R&D commitment, inorganic growth approach, and strategic initiative. This makes us very confident of supporting consistent and sustainable long-term performance to deliver structural growth and lower cyclicity in revenue and earnings over the longer term. Let me now briefly highlight our latest inorganic growth activity. On 30 September 2021, we signed an agreement with Mycronic Group to acquire the subsidiary, Automation Engineering, Inc, in an all-cash transaction. AEi is recognized as the de facto leader in the automotive camera active alignment market. This acquisition is consistent with our strategy of pursuing sustained, profitable growth with expansion plans in existing and new adjacent markets. The closing of this transaction is subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals.
Just to give you some perspective here, the addressable market is presently at $60 million just for the automotive camera active alignment alone. This will expand to $460 million in a few years' time as the acquisition will enable the pursuit of new adjacent market opportunities in security surveillance, drones, and LiDAR. In conclusion, we will continue to deepen and expand our overall solutions, leadership across mainstream, advanced packaging, and Industry 4.0 domains. Moving forward, we see the combination of a positive longer-term outlook, revenue growth strategies, and strategic initiative solidifying our business fundamentals. Coupled with our unique and broad-based portfolio and customer base, which differentiate us quite distinctly from our competition, our competitors, we will continue to grow larger, more efficient, more innovative, and even more competitive. Let me now pass the time back to moderator for Q&A.
Thank you. Thank you, Robin. 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 only to ASMPT-Q&A, and we will read out the question on your behalf. When asking questions, please try and limit to two questions at a time to give chance to others to ask as well, but you can always join back the queue. To start the Q&A session, can I request Donnie from Nomura to unmute yourself and ask your question?
Thank you, management team, for taking my question. My first question is regarding to the booking outlook. Wondering if you could give us some colors on your booking outlook maybe in the next one to two quarters in terms of different product lines. Also, some colors on your equipment delivery lead time, as well as whether customers have intention to push out some of the equipment procurement in the next one to two quarters. This is the first question. Second question is with regarding to an update, wondering that if the management team could give us an idea of what kind of CapEx preference that your customers would like to spend into 2022.
As we heard some of the other companies mention about that next year, they will focus more on maybe flip chip or advanced packaging rather than conventional packaging. Could be a little bit different in terms of the CapEx mix. Wondering if you could kindly give us some color on customers CapEx or industry trend in 2022 after a very strong 2021 booking. Thank you.
Thank you, Donnie. Your first question is more in terms of giving color on a booking outlook for the next one or two quarters.
Yes. Equipment delivery lead time as well as customer's procurement behavior.
Noted. We will answer your first, sort of two questions initially.
Thank you, Romil. Now, as a holding statement, we, as you know, we don't give Q4 booking guidance. We only give revenue guidance, but of course, we can try to give you some color, right? Now, we believe Q4 bookings will also continue to moderate from Q3. As you guys know, you know, we have very high booking orders for the first nine months of this year, starting from Q1 record and then followed by Q2 moderated, but still a very high number. Even in Q3, you know, we booked also a very high number compared to prior years.
I think, you know, being an equipment supplier, you know, our customers also at their end, you know, they need time also to digest some of these bookings. It's very common. We see Q4 typically is a seasonally low quarter for booking. Now, we believe this year is really an exceptional year for bookings. We believe that the this year pattern is that most of the bookings are front-loaded. You know, are front-loaded. But even though Q4 may come down, you know, from Q3, but we still believe that the Q4 bookings will still be kind of at a high level compared to prior years before 2021.
Now, in terms of maybe a little bit more color, what kind of tools we are expecting in Q4. Basically, I think demand coming from advanced packaging, especially the mid-end tools, you know, deposition tools, automotive, industrial, end-market application. I think this momentum will also continue into Q4, the way we look at it. We also see probably the wire bond bookings will also continue to be a big part of the semi segment bookings. This is probably the color that we can give to you at this point in time. Romil, what's the second question? The lead time.
Yeah. Second question is basically on equipment delivery, lead time. Can you provide some color on it and also some details on the procurement behavior?
Yeah. I think with our high backlog, you know, we closed September quarter with a $1.4 billion backlog. We believe that certain tools will probably take around, say, five to six months, those tools that are still in high demand. Certain tools, as for example, SMT, will probably take a little bit shorter. On average, probably four to five months, you know, before we can clear most of the backlog.
Thank you, Robin. I think the second question is a bit on the CapEx side. Donnie asked on the CapEx, particularly from your customers, is there any CapEx preference? What can you see for 2022 and onwards? He specifically mentioned on the OSATs part that, you know, for the OSATs next year, CapEx is largely focusing on flip chips and advanced packaging. Can you provide your sense on the industry and what you get in terms of the feel from the customers?
Of course, I think that it's a little bit too early at this point, you know, to really give a very insightful view of 2022 to come. However, as I say, we certainly has we can provide some color, you know, for you guys. Now, at a broader level, we also have to refer to independent research houses like the VLSI, for example, you know, to provide some kind of view, you know, for the 2022 market outlook. Now, VLSI so far came out and forecast that the packaging and the assembly equipment market will grow around 4.4% year-on-year for 2022 to around a market size of around $5.7 billion.
Now, take note this is already on the back of a record year in 2021, which they have forecasted so far that for 2021 it will grow around 51% year-on-year. Now we see, as I've mentioned earlier in our opening remark, you know, we see there are really some key macroeconomic tailwinds really supporting the entire industry. First, the long-term secular growth trend, you know, in 5G, AI, advanced display, automotive and IoT, you know, they will continue to drive significantly higher silicon consumption. For us in particular, you know, we have very deep and broad engagement in terms of AP and automotive market, you know, which are expected to grow at a faster pace, you know, than the broader market.
Third, I would say that the number of devices to be consumed by the world will continue to grow and are expected to grow at a very healthy rate of around 7% from now till maybe 2025. As you are aware, equipment suppliers like us, our business is really dependent on the number of chips that are produced and need to be packaged and assembled. On the whole, we believe 2022 at this point in time and beyond, based on all these statistics provided by independent houses, still look healthy, you know, for the whole semiconductor industry. I think we being the biggest player, you know, in the back end and also in the SMT side, we will definitely benefit, you know, from this trend.
Now as to your question whether is it more of the mainstream tools and also whether it's AP, we continue to see AP gaining strength in the years to come. That's why, you know, we are quite unique. You know, we are participating in both the mainstream as well as the advanced packaging arena. Whichever, you know, are more dominant in any particular year, we will not lose out, and we will, you know, stand to benefit, you know, from the particular trend. Thank you.
Thank you, Robin. Next, can I request Gokul from JP Morgan to please unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Yeah. Hi. Morning. Thanks for taking my questions. My first question is on the mini LED tools within your Opto-BU. Our current understanding is that one of ASM's competitor is the current market leader, but you are catching up. Could the management talk a little bit about the competitive position for ASM in the mini LED tools market and any timelines on where we expect to become the market leader? That is my first question. Second question. Congrats on this AEi automotive AA tool acquisition. Could we talk a little bit more about how much market share they have in the market currently? You characterize the AA market for automotive to grow quite nicely into 2025.
Could you give us a little bit of comparison just to compare with the smartphone AA market, HKD 460 million for automotive and adjacencies. How does it compare to the addressable market for smartphone AA? Thank you.
Thank you. Your first question is more on the mini LED under our Opto business. You would want to know that how is the competitive landscape and how are we sort of growing and catching up to the market leader in this segment. Just a bit more color on the competitive landscape. I will request Robin to answer this.
Thank you, Romil. Now, our strategy has always been serving a very broad-based customer in terms of the segment that we are targeting. Likewise, even for mini and micro LED, we believe you know, we have a very broad-based customers. We have mentioned before actually in the mini and micro LED space, we have been engaging the key customers across countries like China, Taiwan, Korea, Japan, for a very long time, you know? It's just that, you know, the market you know has not really taken off in a very big way yet, but we expect that to come very soon, in fact. For our mini micro...
For in fact, for more of the mini LED tool, we do still receive very encouraging booking as well as billing trends compared to the prior. We are very optimistic that in time to come, you know, this will be a meaningful contributor to the Opto BU semiconductor segment. Because of our tools performance, we believe, you know, we probably have one of the best in-class tools to serve the mini and the micro LED market. Yes, I think this is an exciting market that we are participating and has already started to show very encouraging pickup in terms of demand and the momentum will continue. What's the second question, please?
Thanks, Robin. The second question is on the AEi acquisition.
The question is more in terms of understanding how much is the market share and how is it growing, and also the comparison of that with the smartphone AA market.
No, as I said, we are pleased to be able to sign an agreement, you know, to acquire this technology and a market leader in terms of active automotive active alignment market player, AEi. They have been doing this for a long time, more than 10 years already, you know? They have clearly built up a very clear market leadership position, especially in the U.S. and the EU market segment. In fact, when people talk about active alignment tool for automotive, I think the first thing they call out will be actually AEi. For that reason, you know, we pursue this particular acquisition. In terms of the competition, we believe they are clearly a leader out there.
There are competitors coming from America and also maybe also from China, you know, at this point in time, and also ourselves before we acquire them. You also mentioned the addressable market. Let me just maybe do a slight correction. When we talk about the expansion of the addressable market from 60 million to 460 million in 2025, the 460 million are not all automotive, okay? We are going to address. Besides the automotive market, we're also going to address the camera surveillance market, the drones and the LiDAR market. Don't have that misconception that is strictly only for the automotive market.
For the automotive market, it would not be HKD 460 million. It would be less than that.
Thank you, Robin. Next, can I request Kyna to unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Sure. Thanks for taking my questions, and congratulations for the strong results. I would like to ask about the long-term structural growth that Robin, you have highlighted on page 16 and 17. Because you have actually adjusted addressable market for several segment. Look at the page 16, we see that you have, I mean, ASM Pacific has like gone full circle cycle. What's your expectation for this cycle that we have already experienced two years, I mean, including to the 2021? Should we expect that should be stay high level or like should be like still have another cycle coming after this one?
I mean, after three years, we should expect like some kind of like growth momentum driven by your advanced, the high-end advanced market, including mini LED as well. This is the first question. I wanted to get your insight on the positions of ASM Pacific in the cycle that underlies your business. The second question is about the update on the hybrid bonding, because we see that Besi also reported the day before, and then we see that they talking about the growth in the orders in the third quarter that is actually driven by increased booking for hybrid bonding.
I just wanted to check if that is the same stuff and or what's the status that ASM Pacific is working on the hybrid bonders. Thanks.
Thank you. Thank you, Kyna. Your first question is more in terms of the long-term structural growth. You want to know a bit more color on the addressable market and based on that, what is our expectation of the cycles in the coming years? Under that cycle, what is the expectation of the growth momentum and those details? Maybe I will request Robin to answer this.
Yeah. Thanks, Kyna, for the question. Let me put it that way. We have given you some color as to how we see, you know, the two segments that we are deeply engaged in, AP and the automotive market. Of course, it's our, based on management estimate how this addressable market will pan out, you know, in the next four to five years, right? It's very exciting indeed, you know? For AP, it's gonna grow around 9%. For automotive, probably around 11% in the next five years. They're sizable market size. The way we look at it in the next longer term, 5-10 years, we also take reference from what the other semiconductor companies are doing.
I think the recent times, you know, there have been a lot of news in the market that the front-end companies are really expanding their capacity. Now, this is indeed a sign of faith and a sign of confidence in the semiconductor industry in the longer term. Now, this bodes well for, you know, our business also in the semi side as well as in the SMT side. Because there's definitely some correlation, you know, between the front-end, the back-end and of course the SMT. Because ultimately, you know, when more chips are produced in the world, more people like you and me want to consume more and more chips. Semicon content, I think the back end and the SMT will also stand to benefit.
From that perspective, we are optimistic that in the next five to 10 years, you know, if we execute our strategies well, you know, we will continue to benefit from this circular trend that is providing a very strong tailwind, you know, to the whole industry. Now, we see advanced packaging will be a key area, because as the front end continues to shrink, you know, the die size and go into more and more advanced nodes, it's inevitable, you know, that more and more devices or packages will need advanced packaging tool because the bonding pitch will be very, you know, getting smaller and smaller. The traditional mainstream tools, you know, will not be able to perform the function, you know?
However, as we have said many times, you know, the mainstream tool will continue to have its, you know, to have its play in the whole industry. Because simply looking at this year because of this huge ramp, you know. What is really driving a majority of the ramp this year as far as semiconductor is concerned is really the traditional tools. You know, the traditional wire bond and die bond. No matter what, as long as this kind of tools, the mainstream tools continue to be very cost-effective in relation to advanced packaging tools, these tools will still have its place in the whole industry. So we see, as the industry continue to grow, I think both the mainstream and the advanced packaging will probably grow.
The AP side, the advanced packaging tool will probably grow at a higher rate. That's precisely the reason why, you know, we are participating in both this market, mainstream and the AP, and this really put us in a very unique position to benefit from this trend.
Thank you, Robin. The next question is more of an update on the hybrid bonding side. Kyna noted that Besi reported Q3 growth orders, which was primarily because of the hybrid bonding side. She wants to know what is the status of our hybrid bonding solutions. I'll request Robin to answer.
Thank you, Romil. I think we're progressing well. As I said, we believe we have found the right partner, you know, to go into the hybrid bonding space, which is EVG. So the partnership is going well. We also have been progressing very well in terms of engaging key customers in this particular area. We're on track. As I said, we're on track to deliver a tool, you know. And also we believe, as we said before, we believe that for hybrid bonding, the high volume manufacturing stage will probably start around 2023 or even 2024.
Meanwhile, the way we see it is that TCB, you know, will still be a dominant tool, you know, before hybrid bonding actually takes off in a big way because the whole industry is always very cost-conscious. If TCB, which has been around, say, for the last eight or nine years, you know, if the TCB tool can perform the job in terms of assembly, customer typically will pick a better cost performance tool than the expensive tool to do the packaging or the assembly. From that perspective, we've been a very strong player in the TCB market. I think before the hybrid bonding takes off in a big way, I think TCB will also continue to benefit from it.
Thank you, Robin. Next, can I request Arthur to unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Yes. Hi, Robin, Patricia. Thanks for taking my question. Congrats, a strong result again. And also I find your presentation is getting informative. I have two questions. Number one is on the SMT quarter three margin was 21% and up 6% QOQ rounded. Given the weakening of smartphone demand, can we assume this margin sustainable?
Arthur.
Yes.
Let me repeat the question then I will request Patricia to answer it. Arthur wants to know more on the SMT's Q3 margin. Given that weakening smartphone demand, will this margin be sustainable? Maybe Patricia can give some more color on this.
Sure. Hi, Arthur. Thanks so much for the question. I believe you know the reasons why SMT's Q3 gross margin jump up significantly very well. It basically reflects the higher operating leverage with the revenue increase, the favorable product mix, particularly in automotive and the industrial end applications. There's some margin accretive effect derived from the strategic initiatives. In fact, the product mix in the SMT side played a big role in this gross margin.
In Q4 and then later on if we can continue getting a higher product mix in SMT side in the automotive and industrial end applications which will bring us a higher margin. I believe that can answer your question.
Thank you. Maybe Arthur, I just supplement a little bit. For SMT, you know, our customer base or end market application now is pretty wide. We—t here's no a sector that really dominate, you know, our SMT tools. Of course, we serve the smartphone, we serve the automotive, we serve the industrial. But what we see going forward at this point in time, at least because of the softer smartphone value chain at this point in time.
We see the momentum for automotive and industrial are pretty strong. I think that bodes well for our SMT business, because as you guys are aware, if you're following us for a long time, you know, our SMT is very dominant in these two particular areas, which is automotive and industrial.
Thank you. Perfect. Second question is on the page 16. I think this is a very good slide. It looks like a three years cycle in the past. Both trough and peak are getting higher and higher. If we think the HKD 2.8 billion would be a you know a new average plateau revenue, how many years do you think you can reach that plateau revenue?
Well, Arthur, you pose me a very difficult question. I hope I have the crystal ball in front of me. I mean, what we can hope for, as I say, you know, you're looking at the longer trend, you know, the supply of more wafers coming on stream. As I said, this will benefit, you know, not just the wafer side, but also the back end at the SMT side. Of course, we as a company providing equipment, you know, to the world in terms of the semiconductor space, we definitely hope that this three-year cycle will continue to be uplifted as per the historical trend, but it's really hard to tell. Of course, Arthur, you know this.
Although it will come up and down, but hopefully average, you know, we can continue to grow in years to come.
Thank you. Lastly, to Patricia, we will miss you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you, Arthur.
No more question.
Thank you, Arthur.
Thanks.
Thanks, Arthur. Can we now request, Leping to unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Okay. Can you hear me?
Yes. Yes, we can.
Hello? Oh, yeah. I have two questions. First, if you, Robin, look at your customers' orders by regions, do you see any difference? I think you mentioned that the self-sufficiency and the supply chain resilience is one important driver for very strong result this year. Where is the development or where is your customers to achieve this self-sufficiency? This is the first question. The second question, I think very important for operations, that when we enter in a down cycle of the business, how you manage the risks, operational risks? I think, I guess some customer will cancel the order, or you may have some excess inventory of component or capacity. What's the action you have taken to prepare for this down cycle?
Thank you.
All right. Thank you. Let me highlight the first question. I think you want to know a bit more color on the customer orders by region and whether there's any difference and can we give more details. Also highlight you know as an important driver self-sufficiency especially in these times and whether this is seen in terms of the different regions. Maybe let me request Robin to answer this question.
Thank you, Rom. If you refer to this year I would say this is a very high cycle. In a very high cycle we will see almost all regions you know will perform better you know than the year before which is probably at a low cycle kind of period.
Now, China, of course, being the biggest market for us, we continue to see China very strong, not just for the traditional tools, I would say, because of a broad-based customers, as always. I've been always mentioning our broad-based portfolio, broad-based customers. Pardon me for really repeating all this all the time, but it's important probably to get this message across to the investment community. Precisely because we are so broad-based, we participate a lot in the various regions. Now for China, besides mainstream tool, we're beginning to see China is a major region for us, also for advanced packaging tools as well as automotive tools, you know. Very interesting. China is very strong in both the mainstream as well as the advanced packaging side.
Now, in terms of other region, if you look at our top five, you know, we have China, we have Europe, we have Taiwan, Korea, and America. Now, China, of course, will form the bulk of the, you know, the semi tools. For America, Europe, typically these are contributed by our SMT side because our SMT side for SMT, you know, typically a substantial portion of the manufacturing is still done outside China in areas like Europe and America, and that's where our strength is also in those regions. You see those contributions in those two regions are coming from our SMT side. For Korea and Taiwan this year mainly because, also because advanced packaging, I would say. Very strong region for advanced packaging tools.
Now, in terms of self-sufficiency, we can't really tell because customers don't really tell us very much in what they're doing. We can only observe that areas outside China becoming a more active, you know. That's one observation we can share.
Thank you, Robin. Let me highlight the second question. For the second question, you would want to know on how do we handle and prepare for the down cycle, especially in terms of, how the down cycle is managed in terms of reducing operational risk and, how do we go around it?
Yeah. Let me try to answer you from this angle to see whether, you know, it serves your purpose. Now, if you look at our manufacturing area, you know, we are big in China. We have also quite a substantial operation in Malaysia, you know. Other than that, we have basically assembly centers in Singapore, in Munich and in Weymouth in the U.K. Now, we have been controlling our costs, manufacturing costs, fixed costs, extremely well over the last, say, three to four years or four to five years. When you look at output that we delivered this year is a record high for the semi side. We managed to use the same, almost the same.
In fact, for fixed costs, our fixed costs have actually been kind of very stable or even come down a little bit compared to 2017 and 2018 as far as manufacturing is concerned. Of course we have to supplement this with outsourced workers as well as external manufacturing. Our model has been very clear, you know, for some years now. We will continue to supplement our internal manufacturing with external manufacturing so as to maintain a stable kind of fixed costs, manufacturing fixed costs going forward. I think this will help us to manage the volatility in our, in terms of our growth spending going forward.
Because the more outsourcing we use, we're a little bit more flexible in terms of how we want to deploy them in a low cycle, in a high cycle. In a low cycle, we can scale down our outsourcing workers for external manufacturing while keeping the internal. Then when we hit a high cycle, we can boost that up. We're a little bit more flexible from that perspective, having both our internal manufacturing and external manufacturing operating together efficiently. I think your question is also how do we manage a downturn if it were to come. We already been managing it very carefully even during the up cycle, as probably you recall.
As far as orders are concerned from customers, we would try to get help from customers to place more deposits during this up cycle. So deposits will certainly help us, not only from the working capital angle, but it's also a sign of commitment, you know, that the customers are committed, you know, to take delivery when the time comes. So we have always been managing this already, so we don't wait for a down cycle to happen before we start to manage the risk from all this. Thank you.
Thank you, Robin.
Thanks.
Next, can I-
Thanks, Leping.
Thanks. Can I request, Nicholas from UBS to unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Yes. Thank you. Good morning. First question is regarding the situation for IC supply constraints. Last week we had comments from your peers in front-end manufacturing, ASML and Lam Research, but actually they have been impacted in the ability to assemble tools by IC shortages, and that's the first time both of them have actually mentioned that. Is that something you're actually facing as well? If so, how are you managing this? I have a follow-up. Thank you.
Let me repeat the question. Your question is, you would want more details and color from us on the situation of the IC supply constraints, noting that, you know, how is the ability to assemble tools and more details around that. Let me request Robin to answer that.
Thanks, Romil. Indeed, as I said, one of the highlights in our opening remark and also our announcement is that we are still facing, you know, very challenging supply chain condition, you know, which has impacted somewhat and also will continue to impact our manufacturing going forward. Now, basically, electronic components with certain chips in there, with certain kind of chips in there, are still facing very, very tight supply chain condition. Thankfully, you know, we have a very able procurement team, you know, who work tirelessly, you know, day and night, you know, 24/7, to help us secure these crucial components. You know, without their effort, you know, we will not be able to deliver such a good performance despite the supply chain constraint, you know?
We have various ways to handle it. For example, you know, good relationship with suppliers. You know, some of these suppliers are in fact our customers, so sometimes we have to seek help from our customers to deliver, you know, chips to us in order for us to make the equipment and deliver it back to them, you know. It's a kind of circular kind of relationship. They help us, we help them. Because of this good relationship, you know, we are able to secure some very critical components. Of course, there are still some components that are really short and there are a few ways we do it so far.
You know, we have to go out to the market to buy from the spot market. Of course that will, you know, mean that we have to pay much higher prices to secure those components. We also started to look into certain key components, if we continue to face shortages like this, what can we do from the R&D standpoint, you know? We probably have to resort to redesigning some of our modules, for example, to use other more easily available components. These challenges have been facing and confronting us for the last nine months or so. It's challenging, but I think at this point in time, we are coping the best we could, you know. We believe this situation will not subside anytime soon.
It will probably continue into 2022.
That's very useful. Thank you. A very quick follow-up. When you talked about China, now becoming important for advanced packaging for you as well, is that coming from the OSAT side or from the foundry side or both? Thank you.
In general, I think we serve a broad base, so I would say a broad-based customer from the China side.
All right. Thank you very much.
Thank you, Nicholas. Can I now request, Laura to unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my question. Just a very quick one on the advanced packaging. Can you share with us your current revenue contribution from the advanced packaging, and what's the growth for this year or maybe next year? Also, I'm wondering that among various customers, our current advanced packaging is more from the IDM foundry or OSAT? Thank you.
Thank you, Laura. Let me repeat the question. You would want to know more on the advanced packaging side and what is the current revenue contribution. Then you would also want to know a bit on the growth for this year and next year on the AP side, and where is the demand and growth coming from? Is it more from the IDM foundry or OSAT?
Yes. Thank you.
Thanks, Romil. Let me put it that way. For advanced packaging, we have given you some indication in our first half conference call that we had delivered $1 billion, you know, for over a 36-month period. This is not a small number. We believe because of those reasons cited earlier by me at the various Q&A juncture, you know, we believe that this space will continue to grow and we've been, we probably have the most comprehensive, I would say, product portfolio, you know, coming from the mid-end tools to the semi tools and to the SMT tools to both. All these are contributing to advanced packaging space.
I think we are in a good position, you know, to enjoy this uptrend in many years to come. Now, as I mentioned before, we would not like to give too much information on a quarterly basis because some such information are not very meaningful from our point of view. Because advanced packaging is still a niche market, although it's growing, but it's still quite a niche market, you know. The players at this point in time are still relatively small compared to the mainstream side. The business is a little bit more volatile, you know, compared to the mainstream side. We prefer to give advanced packaging color on the longer term basis.
On this note, we certainly can give a little bit more by the time we gather together for Q4 reporting sometime in February next year. However, I can certainly give you some color on how we are performing. Over a nine-month basis, without any numbers of course, we see very encouraging trend for AP tools, both on the booking side as well as on the billing side. You know? Let's say double digit, you know, kind of growth pattern we see on the advanced packaging side. Now, whether they are coming from OSAT, IDM and foundry, I would say all this, you know, we are serving a broad spectrum of advanced packaging customers, as well in terms of customer base. Rob.
Thanks, Robin. Laura, do you have another question?
Yes. Can I assume that we now have more shipment or more progress on TCB since we already are the early movement of players in this space, and we are seeing that hybrid bonding to come later?
Yes. I think the short answer to you is yes. As I said earlier, we are a very dominant player in the TCB space. We probably are one of the first mover, I would say, eight, seven, eight years ago. Very dominant position, very anchored position in certain key customer base. We see TCB will be a tool used by some of these key customers for a long time to come. As I alluded earlier, you look at wire bond. Wire bond has been in existence for 60 years. Look at the growth in wire bond this year, you know, when it is a high RAM year. Wire bond still plays a very dominant, it still have a very dominant position in the assembly world.
With the advent of hybrid bonding, we are of the view that it will not for sure eradicate the importance of TCB. In fact, TCB will exist very nicely with hybrid bonding in years to come. From that perspective, we are playing both areas, so we are really well-positioned in such a trend in years to come.
Thank you, Laura.
Okay. Thank you very much. Yeah, that's helpful.
Thank you, Laura. Next, can I request Frank to unmute yourself and ask your questions?
Sure. Thank you, guys. Just wanted to ask. Oh, sorry, can you guys hear me? Okay.
Yes.
Just wanted to ask a bit about the booking trend. I think if we see the semi book-to-bill ratio, it seems to have peaked in the first quarter, and it's been kind of declining ever since then. We continue to see, I guess, the overall semi industry is tight, and particularly some of the mature foundry guys have started to renew their CapEx spend. Just trying to understand, I guess, a bit in terms of why, I guess, there's been kind of a divergence in the trend as far as booking continues to trend lower, while the overall CapEx for some of your on the foundry side has continued to rise. I just wanna see if you guys have any particular thoughts you could share on that.
Yeah, Frank, thanks. I will say just as I said before, because the first nine months bookings are really strong and, to be honest, we don't expect customers to continue that kind of momentum because whatever capacity that they have settled in is an industry phenomena that they will take time to digest those capacity. Typically customers will not order new equipment, okay, if their utilizations are below, say, 80% or 85%. I mean, this is just a general guide. You can imagine with so much capacity already installed in the beginning of this year, customer need time to digest them. It's in fact normal and healthy for this pattern.
Whatever it is, Frank, you look at the, I mean, some kind of color that I have given you for Q4, the bookings at this point in time, we don't see that really dropping off the cliff at this point in time. You know, we still continue to see that, bookings although will come down for those reasons I mentioned earlier, but we still think. Of course, this is not guidance. As I always say, we don't give guidance for bookings. It's really difficult, you know. We still see that, bookings in quarters to come in the next few quarter will continue to be a reasonable level.
Okay. Thank you. I guess the second question I have is, you know, we have seen, I think some of the talks about the geopolitical issues and how there's subsidies being granted to foundry players, or potentially foundry players in the U.S. or Europe. I think even some of their mature foundry players, such as GlobalFoundries, have, you know, talked about expanding in U.S. and potentially getting subsidies. I'm just trying to understand, you know, overall, on the back-end side, is there any potential of getting some benefit from this as well as people look to expand in overseas markets?
I don't have a lot of information to share with you on this, but certainly we are aware there are subsidies in the U.S. However, at the end of the day, it's really whether doing a manufacturing in those location makes sense. You know, it's not just subsidy alone. I think the overall business dynamics has to make sense. Subsidy is just one aspect of it. Yeah.
Okay. Thank you.
Thank you, Frank. If you guys have more questions or maybe one last round of questions, please feel free to use the Raise Hand function. In the meantime, let me read one question from the chat. This question is from James, from Overlook. Utilization rate appears to be high. What capacity expansion plans do you have, and how will these impact operational leverage?
Yes. Thank you for the question. Now, as we have mentioned a few times since probably the beginning of this year, when we look at the beginning of this year, when we look at the signals, we started to increase some internal capacity in order to cope with the demand. But at this point, we would like more and more going forward to be supplemented with external manufacturing because it makes more sense, you know, to do that from a cost management perspective and also in terms of managing the cycle of the semiconductor industry. When we do more outsourcing, we're definitely much more flexible in the way we manage our cost structure.
I think this is the model that we have practiced for some years already, and it has been proven to be a good model. We will continue to employ this dual internal manufacturing model supplemented by external manufacturing resources. Thank you.
Thank you, Robin. Is there any more questions? We will wait another minute. If you have more questions, please use the Raise Hand function. David from HSBC, can you please unmute yourself and ask your question?
Hi. This is David from HSBC.
David, do you have another question?
No. That's all. Thanks.
Thank you. Are there any more questions? Please use the Raise Hand function if you have any more questions. If there are no more questions, then we would officially end this call. We would like to thank all of you for attending today's investor conference call, and we hope to see you during the next quarter's call. Take care and stay safe. Thank you, everyone.
Thank you.
Thank you.