Okay. Welcome everyone to Delta's Investor Conference today. As usual, we will refer to you the fourth quarter of last year and accumulated financial numbers of 2021. Today, before we report the financial numbers, our CEO would like to share like a couple of slides related to the development of our energy storage business with you, since many people are highly interested in the development of smart grid and renewable energy market. As you can see, I'm wearing a face mask because currently I am still in the period of self-management. That's why I'm joining this call and hosting this call virtually, I mean, remotely from my office. It seems like pandemic in Taiwan now is being controlled.
Hopefully, maybe we have, I mean, the chance to see every guys in person in the next time of this analyst meeting. Right now we will have our CEO to share our energy storage system business with you.
As we know that there is an increasing awareness of replacing the traditional energies with renewable energies. This trend of using low-carbon energy will actually drives the industry transformation of both electric power and motor. Currently, the deployment of energy storage system is accelerating at home and abroad. The accumulated capacity of energy storage in Taiwan may reach more than 1 GW and 3 GWh in 2025. 6 GW and 60 GWh in 2030.
The year for the 1 GW is the wattage, the power wattage of our power conditioning system. For the latter, the 3 GWh is the capacity of battery in the system. Globally, the deployment of energy storage is also accelerating while the expected market size of $440 billion in 2030. As mentioned, when there is higher proportion of renewable energy in the grid, the more volatile is because the output of renewable is out of control, such as the wind power and solar power. We need the energy storage system helping the grid, helping to stabilize, stabilization of the grid.
Here it shows how the energy storage system can help to realize the success of smart grid on both the power supply side and the user side. On the power supply side, the energy storage system can help to stabilize the uncontrollable and unsteady renewable energy in the renewable power plant. It can also be emergency backup and help to regulate the frequency in traditional power plants, as well as the process of transmission and distribution. On the user side, the energy storage system can also help to the enterprises to save costs with the peak shaving and demand contract optimization.
According to the policy goal of Taiwan itself, renewable energy is expected to account for 20% of total electric capacity in 2025. In order to minimize the impact of a higher proportion of renewable energies on the grid, Taiwan Power Company has recently launched its Energy Trading Platform. At present, the total private all the qualified capacity for transaction is 90.1 MW, where 10 MW service was provided by Delta Energy Storage System Solutions. Delta contributes about 5 MW and AIDC accounts for another 5 MW of this 10 MW. We use this as demonstration sites in our Delta's future plans. With 5 MW power conditioning system and 3.9 MWh battery system.
This automatic frequency control system can actually play an important role in the stabilization of the grid. With this real-time ramping capability, you can manage the system frequency stability and avoid power outages. We also have successful cases in Taiwan, Japan, and other Western countries. Here shows our product offerings of our energy storage solution. We have this energy management system as well as the power conditioning system and the battery energy storage system and EV charging solution. With all of them that we provide is energy storage system and energy infrastructure solution for our clients.
For the next energy storage application would be the EV charging station. The next stage is to transform the EV charger station to a type of microgrid by integrating renewable energies, energy storage and EV charger, as well as the energy management system. We already have some successful cases in Taiwan, Japan and Europe.
In the future, when there are more and more electric vehicles on the road, the more EVs on the road, the more volatile the grid could be. That's why we will need the energy storage system. It will stabilize the power grid. In the future, the electric vehicles not only getting the power or energy from the grid, it can also sending back the energy to the grid. It can be bi-directional. It will be the future trend.
Okay, now we are going to review the financial numbers of Q4.
Thank you for joining our virtual analyst meeting today. For your reference, please note all the financial numbers are reported based on IFRS, and the consolidated numbers have been audited by CPA. Thanks to the gradual improvements of components quality and a little extra contribution from the consolidation of our acquisition in America, Q4 revenue was TWD 83.8 billion, up 7% year-over-year and 5% quarter-over-quarter, which was slightly down seasonally than our guide in the previous meeting. Due to a combination of tough cost environment and a high base from last year, gross profit was down 1% quarter-over-quarter and 8% year-over-year.
Gross margin in Q4 fell to 26.7% from 28.3% in Q3 and 31.1% in Q4. In Q4, the R&D expense remained flat quarter-on-quarter and up 1% year-on-year, while the SG&A expense was up 4% QoQ and 4% YoY. The OPEX in Q4 was up 3% year-on-year and 2% quarter-on-quarter. The ratio-wise, the R&D expense as a percentage of sales dropped to 8.2% in Q4 versus 8.6% in Q3 and 8.7% in Q4 2020. Meanwhile, SG&A as percentage of sales also slightly contracted to 9.8% in Q4 versus 9.9% in Q3 and 10.0% in Q3.
The Q4 OPEX fell to 18.0% versus 18.5% in Q4 and 18.7% in Q4 2019. Due to the disadvantaged GP margin, OP margin in Q4 was 8.7% versus 9.8% in Q3 and 12.4% in Q4 2019. In Q4 with the gradual ease of global supply chain imbalances, we saw sequential increase for all segments. The growth that we started to consolidate revenue of our Delta Networks in December for our building automation businesses. We had a little faster growth for Automation than the other two segments. Year-on-year, we also saw improvements for all segments. Again, with Automation growing much faster than the other segments, partially related to the extra contribution from the M&A as well.
First of all, due to the severe costs in the segment year-over-year profit contractions for all segments and sequential decline quarter-over-quarter. Infrastructure saw further deterioration of the cost environment in Q4. Thanks to the faster organic growth of building automation and the contribution from acquisition in America. We saw a profit expansion for Automation Q4. Here we also provide a revenue breakdown of each segment for your reference. In Q4, the operating profit was around TWD 1.1 billion. In Q4, we had TWD 8.4 billion profit before tax, and we also had TWD 12.9 billion for our EBITDA. Q4 tax expense was about TWD 1.7 billion, representing the 9.5% effective tax rate.
Net profit after tax in Q4 was about NT$6.3 billion. The EPS in Q4 was NT$2.41. Now we will have a look at the full year 2021. 2021 revenue was NT$314.7 billion, up 11% from a year ago. With the substantial cost inflation this year, GP margin in 2021 fell to 28.7% from 30.9% a year ago, with 3% increase in CapEx. Thanks to the better scale and moderate expansion of R&D and SG&A, R&D expense as a percentage of sales dropped to 8.6% from 9.0% a year ago, while SG&A as percentage of sales also fell to 10.1% from 11.7% in 2020. OPEX ratio in 2021 was up to 18.7% from 19.7% a year ago.
Due to the [inaudible], the operating margin in 2021 contracted to 10.0% from 11.1% a year ago. Year-on-year, we also found a strong growth for power and automation, along with a modest growth for infrastructure. Area-wise, we also found a strong improvement for our electronics and infrastructure. Tough business environment and cost management. In total, in 2021, we had about NT$4.8 billion of operating profit. In total, we have NT$35.6 billion pre-tax incomes. EBITDA in 2021 was NT$53.1 billion, up 5% year-on-year. EPS was around 7.1 billion NT dollars, representing a 20% effective rate. The net profit after tax was NT$46.8 billion, up 5% from NT$31.5 billion a year ago. The EPS in 2021 was 16.532. The proposed semi-annual dividend for this year will be HKD 0.55.
The first question is the outlook for the first quarter, 2022. What are the demand growth drivers? What is the progress with your cost sharing with the clients?
The demand was healthy in the first quarter according to our forecast. For the target for this year, the whole year, we still target the double-digit growth for 2022. For our power electronics, actually, our PC powers, the notebook powers as well as the server powers, I think they shall still continue to grow. For our EV solution business, as there are more and more traditional car makers, they are also transitioning themselves into EV car makers. We also have many design wins at hand.
We believe that we shall still see the rapid growth of our EV solution business. For our Automation segment, I think the labor shortage still drives the secular growth of Industrial Automation business. There are more and more manufacturers. They are eager to improve their energy efficiencies within their factories because of the requirement of regulations. That is also another driver for the Industrial Automation businesses. For the other part within our Automation segment, which is our Building Automation business, that part has definitely been negatively impacted by the pandemic.
Because during the pandemic, it was actually harder for us to send our engineers or technicians to the sites to helping the customers to deliver the projects. For our infrastructure, we believe that our data center business as well as our energy storage system business should continue to grow. As mentioned, as explained or presented by our CEO just a couple ago. In the future, when there is more and more EVs on the road as well as a higher proportion of renewable energies on the grid, the more volatile the grid will be. The energy storage system business is as important as the power, I mean, the renewable energy generation.
The second question is, will we continue to see the GP margin expansion driven by the improvement of product mix after the prices of materials and components stabilize?
Actually, 2021, the last year, was actually pretty tough for us. Although we saw pretty nice growth, pretty nice top line growth, but the cost environment was really tough. Many components, as well as, I mean, the prices of many components and materials continue to grow. Because we continue to negotiate the pricing with our customers. In the near term, at least for the first half of this year, I think that we are still seeing some cost pressure. I mean, the good thing is, with the better top line growth and lower expenses ratio, that is actually also helping the bottom line improvement. Hopefully the second half of this year, we can see some improvement of the margins.
The third question is, can you give us some idea about the component shortage in 2022? Where will we see the improvement? And do you have any visibility of your orders?
The component supply seems to be gradually improving and easing. Since the net bottom line is not on our side, it's difficult for us to make a specific estimate.
Can you share with us your competitive advantages of your EV components such as motors, inverters, onboard chargers and so on and so forth.
We actually, I mean, Delta, we have been investing into the technology and product development of the EV solution business for more than 10 years. We have accumulated a lot of experience. I think the most important part, I mean, in the auto industry is not about the cost or other any other thing, but the safety is the top priority. No matter how low the price, I mean, other competitors may offer, but if you don't, you can't guarantee the safety, or you can't provide the safety enough of the partners. I think that we actually have a good competitive advantage in both, like the cost and design, quality, delivery and so on.
The next question is, can you give us some idea on the demand of China automation?
I think we just mentioned this earlier. Overall, the demand is still rising. Mainly driven by the secular labor shortage. We have no doubt about the secular trend of the industrial automation growth. Also, on the other hand, the Chinese government also has this policy goal to reach a net zero in the next couple of decades. The manufacturers and factories, they also have to improve their energy efficiency and reduce their energy consumption. That is also another driver for the secular growth of industrial automation.
Can you share the competitive landscape of industrial automation as well as its trend of utilization rate?
The nature of this market is just very fragmented. Of course, there are many competitors. We are seeing more and more like the smaller players in the market. We believe that especially for the higher-end products and solutions, we are still in a good position in terms of the competitive advantages.
The next question is, can you share the plans for the DET, Delta Thailand's capacity and product mix?
I think we continue to expand our capacity in Thailand and India. We have expanded this capacity this two years ago without the transaction like China. We are still building up new factories in India. In the future, when the factory is completed, we will have more capacity in India.
The next question is, what are your medium-term target and long-term target for the expense ratio?
I think that even though the pandemic is gradually away from us, I think that at least in the near term, we shall see the stable expense ratio in the near term.
What is your outlook and expectation for the EV charger business?
I think there is no doubt for the outlook for this EV charger and EV solution business, because there are so many car makers. They are building up their capacity for the EV cars. I think that we are really confident about. I mean the long-term market growth of this market.
Can you just provide your strategies and plans for products and your target markets and your customers clientele in your energy storage system area?
I think that we have been working hard in the field of energy storage system for a long time. In the future, in terms of the target, in terms of the long-term goal, we expect ourself to be able to provide solutions microgrids, because we believe that will be the future trend. This is, I think, the whole market. I mean the energy storage system. The market is still in the early stage, but we believe that there are many opportunities for Delta in this market.
The next question is, Delta Thailand have mentioned that they expect, like 10%-20% year-over-year sales growth and one percentage point GP margin. Do you see the similar trend here in Delta?
Actually, for us, because we are not able to disclose or give you such guidance according to the Taiwanese regulations, so we couldn't be able to provide such financial forecasts. In general, we believe that because of the overall capacity pressures, so in the first half of this year that we will still see some margin pressures. I'm sorry, the cost pressures in the first half of this year.
You actually mentioned in the last year that you thought you may reach break-even point for your EV operating business within two years. Is there any change on this target?
I think one of the biggest swing parts is the component shortage, the significant component shortage in last year. It is not only on our side, but also on the customer side. For us, it's not about like whether we can deliver the products or achieve this break even point or not. Because, I mean, during the shortage, the significant shortage of components and materials, our clients were not able to produce their products. There was no way for them to pull in our components last year. That was the difficulties, I mean, in Q4 for our businesses during the component shortage of last year. For long term, we still expect the business to grow like somewhere around 40%-50%. In that case, we may, I mean, hopefully we can reach the break even point in the future.
The next question is, can you provide us the CapEx plan for 2022?
For this year, because we are still building up many new factories, and also we are, I mean, there are many automation projects still ongoing within our factories. I think that for this year, we may up like 10%-20%.
The next question is, can you provide your view on the overall macro environment in 2022?
I think that is very hard for me to giving such guidance because there are so many uncertainties which are out of our control, such as still the war between, I mean, the two countries.
The next question is, what the GP margin of Delta Thailand has improved, I mean, in the future, but you are the other way around Q4.
Actually we have, I mean, different product mix, I mean, compared to Delta Thailand. In terms of product offerings, we are much more diversified. Actually, the margins, so we have because we have different product mix, so it's really hard to compare. Also because, I mean, in Q3, they had a relatively lower comparison base, so that is why.
Okay. Are you seeing more and more customers are using the third generation of semiconductors such as silicon carbide and gallium nitride?
Okay. Currently, I think the first priority, as I said, for the customers, especially the car makers, is the safety. I think that still most of these customers, they prefer using the mature products and technologies or materials. Because I mean, the third generation of semiconductors is a new, I mean, a material for new technologies. We will see.
Okay. Do you have any plans to increase your Chinese EV customers? I mean, the Chinese EV car makers.
At present, we are still mainly working with the Western or Japanese car makers. Because there are not enough resources to serve so many, I mean, customers in China. In the future, of course, we are not really. We certainly do not rule out the possibilities of working with Chinese customers. Currently, we still are working with the joint ventures of those Western car makers in China.
It was mentioned before that the company's JV market target is more than 30%. Is there any change in this target?
I think for the long term, our strategy still remains unchanged. We continue to invest into the R&D for the long term of the company. Because of the overall cost environment, I mean, at present, so, we are seeing this cost pressure. In the long run, we still have this, I mean, strategy. We still keep this strategy unchanged, which is to continue to invest into the R&D and improve our economics. I mean.
The next question is, do you see how much impact on Delta when there is an increase in electricity expenses in China?
I think that actually this part has little impact on us because we are, I mean, more energy efficient. But compared to the electricity expense, we believe that in the future, the carbon tax may put some pressure to some energy-heavy industries, so we have already been preparing for that these many years. We should be fine.
The next question is, can you tell me in particular, which businesses is likely to be particularly difficult this year and may decline?
Oh, well, this is hard to answer because I think that doing business is never easy at all for any business. For now, I don't see any business I mean is going to decline. We believe those businesses are still going to continue to grow.
What is the sales attribution in terms of percentage of your historical system of your total sales?
Well, I think that the [inaudible] we [inaudible]. This market is still in the early stage. It's doing the five initial stages. But we [inaudible] only consists one tiny part of the total sales. As far as I know that many companies, especially the tech companies, they are competing for the top talent.
What is your particular strategy to compete to win the talents from other competitors?
I think I can answer this question because, yes, we actually are going to national university to give the students a speech. I think that I mean, when it comes to retaining the development, especially for the young generation, I think many people still need to believe that what they are doing in the company is actually meaningful and making contribution to the society. Of course, that we need to, and we have to, offer them, I mean, competitive packages for them to raise their families and to maintain their life quality.
Besides that, we believe that for many people that you give the feeling like what you are doing, what we are doing together is actually very important to the society and to the world. For example, many of our colleagues they sometimes just go home and share with their kids, like, "Okay, do you know that what I'm doing in the company is actually helping the Earth to save energy and reduce carbon emissions." They believe that what they are doing is actually having a positive impact on the society and on the environment is very important when we are trying to attract talent, especially for those talents with ambitions and with some beliefs. We are not only competing against, I mean, with other against other competitors just with the packages different number of packages. We also attract the talents with our corporate mission as well.
The next question is the war recently between Russia and Ukraine. Is there any change? I mean, is that going to have a change on your global operation or your plans for Europe, global business?
Actually, in the long run, we do have this plan to continue to diversify our production base in many different areas. That we have not concerned about the example. What we can do is continue to diversify the risks.
The next question is about your dividend payout. Because you actually had a higher EPS, I think, for the whole year last year, but why did you decide to still give NT$5.50 per share dividend payout?
Okay. Actually, as you can see, the CapEx in the recent years has been rising because we continue to invest heavily through the capacity expansion as well as the constructions of the factories. Also, on the other hand, we also continue to look for the potential target companies for acquisition. That's the reason why we would like to have more cash at hand for any potential opportunities for acquisition.
The next question is, as far as I know, you was just being hacked, I mean, before this actually deal with that. How did you deal with it? And do you have any plans to prevent such change in the future?
Okay. From this case, we have actually learned a lot. I think that our colleagues and our employees working really hard. They recovered the whole system only within one week. Because in the future, we believe this kind of attacks, I mean, internet attacks as well as the hacking, we will see this more and more in the future. It's better that we prepare and learn experiences from now. We believe we still have a lot to learn, but we also think that it's actually a good experience for us. Of course, hopefully, we are not going to see this anymore. We would definitely, I mean, increase our awareness of the management of the security in the future.
Can you give us the capacity breakdown in different regions?
Okay. China still accounts for more than 65% of total capacity, and Thailand accounts for 20%. In the future, when we have more capacity in India, we hope to maybe have, I mean, 10% capacity in India. Then we actually don't really have much capacity in Taiwan. In the future, we should still have maybe 10% or less than 10% capacity in Taiwan.
The next question is, when you want to deploy your energy storage system into other regions or countries, do you, I mean, encounter any issues regarding the regulations? The difference of regulations?
Of course. I mean, there are many international regulations, and also because, I mean, battery is considered to be dangerous item. Of course, there are many international regulations in global. Because we are still mainly providing services to our customers. As long as you want to win the orders from your customers, you need to pass all the certifications in other international certifications. We should be okay in that part.
Okay. The next question is. I think that we have assured. We believe that the data centers will continue to grow at a very fast pace. I think the whole market will continue to grow.
Yeah, because if you look at the internet traffic. This. I mean, the internet traffic still continues to grow. In the future, data centers may become one type of the utilities, just like water and energy. There is no doubt the long-term growth of the data center market as well as the business.
The final question is, as far as I know that you are expanding your capacity for Cyntec. What was expanded for? For which type of product?
We have been expanding our capacity for Cyntec in the past two years. We have partially, we were expanding the capacity for the global market. But on the other hand, we were also expanding capacity for public cloud customers. Also we are trying the opportunities in the power module as well. That is the reasons why we have been expanding the capacity of Finisar.
Okay. I think we have answered all the questions. Okay. We are also running out of time, so thank you again for your joining again. Hopefully, we can meet each other in person for next time. Take care, everyone. Thank you. Bye-bye.