Good morning and good evening, ladies and gentlemen, no matter where you are. Welcome to WIN Semi's results webcast conference for the first quarter of 2022. My name is Joe Tsen, the Spokesman and Associate Vice President of Finance in WIN Semi. Joining me on today's call is Steve Chen, the General Manager of Corporate Administration. Today's call is organized into three sections. First of all, Steve will comment on the company's results and provide brief guidance for the second quarter of 2022. Secondly, I will go through the financials in detail. After that, we will open the floor for Q&A. Please freely submit your question in the input box on the webcast window throughout the conference. Before we begin, I would like to draw your attention to the safe harbor notice on page 1 of the presentation slides.
Please note that this presentation contains forward-looking statements. These statements are based on our current expectations. Actual results may differ materially from our expectations, and the company undertakes no obligation to update these forward-looking statements going forward. Now, let me hand over the call to Mr. Steve Chen, General Manager of WIN Semi.
Thank you, Joe, and welcome everyone. After a record high revenue in the fourth quarter of last year, we experienced a traditional slow season and inventory adjustment in the smartphone industry in the first quarter of 2022. Our revenue was TWD 5.6 billion in the quarter, a decline of 22% quarter-over-quarter and 7% year-over-year. Although the product mix did not change from the previous quarter, our gross margin and operating margin declined to 30.6% and 16.4% Respectively, as our capacity utilization rate declined from 100% in the previous quarter to 70% this quarter. EPS for the first quarter was TWD 2.08. Looking at the product mix in the first quarter.
For 3D sensing, after the peak season of the new product preparation in the third quarter and fourth quarter of last year, the demand for 3D sensing entered the low season as expected. This product segment had the highest quarter-over-quarter decline. Cellular PA, which had high exposure in China smartphone and Wi-Fi PA were both negatively impacted by high inventory level at the end of customer. The revenues declined from the previous high level. Lastly, the higher margin infrastructure and the satellite related shipment did not decline as much as smartphone related applications. While the industry has recently faced some headwinds, which result in low demand and visibility in the near term, our view on the mid to long-term growth of momentum of the industry remain unchanged.
Especially, we expect the increasing potential of 5G in smartphone and the development of the 5G infrastructure, including low earth orbit satellites and evolution of the Wi-Fi 6, 6E to the Wi-Fi 7 and another increasing contribution for the optical devices and optical sensing business will continue to drive long-term demand. As a result, our plan for the new Lujhu fab in the South Taiwan Science Park in Kaohsiung to enter mass production in a 2- to 3-year frame remains unchanged. While the near-term capacity expansion through debottlenecking will be dynamically adjusted to meet the industry change. Looking ahead to the second quarter of 2022. Due to the continued inventory adjustment in Chinese smartphone, our revenue is expected to decline by high single- digits from the previous quarter, and the gross margin will be between the high 20s and low 30s%.
I will turn the call back over to Joe. Thank you.
Okay. It's my pleasure to present our financial results for the first quarter of 2022. Please refer to the presentation slide starting from page 4. Before that, remember to read page 2 of the safe harbor notice. On page 4, we talk about revenue and the margin. The Q1 2022 after been through the Q4 record high revenue last year. The Q1 we entering the traditional low season and also experiencing the smartphone market inventory correction. Therefore, the Q1 revenue was 5.6 billion TWD. The QOQ was down 22% and the YOY down 7%.
The things that the product mix looks similar compared to last quarter, but the capacity utilization rate declining from 100% in last Q4 to the 70% in the Q1 2022. Q1's gross margin was declining by 9.9 percentage point and becomes the 30.6% of the gross margin. The operating margin declined by 11.5 percentage point to 16.4%. Please flip to the next page, in page five, talk about earnings. The Q1 net profit was TWD 786 million. A QOQ down about 53% and YOY down about 28%.
The EPS in this quarter coming at TWD 2.08, compared to TWD 4.19 in the Q4 of 2021. We talk about product mix in page 6. You probably found out the Q1's product mix looks very similar to the Q4, except others, which means the optical business. The optical business was dropping from 16%-14%. But as Steve have mentioned it on his management comment that we've been through a new product launch period in last Q3 and the Q4. As expected, Q1 become the low season for this sector.
also as a management comment, we've been experiencing smartphone market inventory correction, especially in China. That's why the cellular and also the Wi-Fi business been suffered. At the same time, the infrastructure also dropping, but still maintain about between 20 and 25% range, which is, it's better than the cellular business. Please flip to next page. On page 7, we talk about Q2's guidance. In Q2, due to the continued inventory adjustment in China smartphone market. We expect that Q2 revenue to decline high single digit QOQ.
Therefore, we also expect that Q2's gross margin will be between the level of high twenties and the low thirties. That's Q2's guidance. We can quickly go through the financial statements starting from income statement in page 9. The Q1 2022 net revenue was TWD 5,597 million. QOQ was down 22% and YOY down 7%. The gross profit was TWD 1,714 million NT dollar. The QOQ was down 41% and YOY was down 15%.
The gross margin became 30.6% under the circumstances of the utilization rate around 70% in this quarter and compared to last quarter, last quarter was 40.5% and the utilization is 100%. Compared to a year ago, in Q1 2021, the gross margin was 33.5% and under the utilization rate of 80%. The operating expense became TWD 798 million. The OPEX ratio was at 14%, which is in line with a year ago.
Operating income was TWD 916 million, QOQ down 54% and YOY down 23%. The operating margin was 16.4%. The non-op item was a positive TWD 75 million and we can discuss it later on page 10. Income before income tax was TWD 991 million, and income tax expense was TWD 205 million. Therefore, the net income become TWD 786 million. QOQ was down 53% and YOY was down 28%. The net margin become 14% and the EPS was TWD 2.08.
The return on equity, the ROE become 10% in this quarter. Depreciation expense, it's about TWD 1,058 million. CapEx in this quarter was TWD 1,320 million. This is Q1. In next page, in page 10, the non-op item, the total was, it's again, I'm sorry, 75 million TWD. There are two items that probably were highlighted, and discussed it. The first one is, we have a foreign exchange gain for TWD 339 million. Another one was a loss, the item was gain on financial assets and liability at fair value through profit or loss.
That was a loss at TWD 279 million. The major one in this item was the ECB valuation loss for TWD 346 million. That's because the convertible bond is evaluated based on our WIN Semi stock price from the end of Q1 compared to end of Q4 last year. That was based on the accounting principle. There's a valuation loss of TWD 346 million. That's the item for this one.
Okay, we can talk about the balance sheet in page 11. The total assets was TWD 74 billion and 73 million. The current liability was TWD 11 billion and 36 million.
That's the current liability. The total liability was TWD 39.177 billion. The reason why I mentioned this, the current liability, that's because in the March board meeting has approved the dividend payout of TWD 8 per share. Therefore, there is the dividend, the amount of the dividend payable, it include in the current liability, which is removed from the total equity. Total equity become TWD 34.896 billion, and the book value per share also going down to TWD 77.22 from TWD 82.41 last quarter.
T he current ratio going down to 210% from last quarter of 367%. also at the same time, the debt ratio going up by 3%, become 53%. Okay? That's our balance sheet for Q1. Okay. That's my report. Thank you. I will turn the call back to our CEO. now, we can begin the Q&A. please, submit your question in the input box on the webcast window. Thank you.
Okay. I think first, I will answer the question to explain some picture about the Q2 applications status. as you know that we guide Q2 will decline high single digits in revenue.
I think it's mainly because of the cellular PA. Because besides the cellular PA, what we see right now is much more stable demand, no major infrastructure, optical or Wi-Fi. Most of the decline or the revenue decline for Q2, I think is because of the cellular PA. The reason and the other question is everybody know that right now the China smartphone inventory is still high. So definitely our cellular PA, which has around 30%-40% was coming from the China design house customer contribution, face a very big inventory issue right now. Did we see that would be ease in Q3 or not?
I think right now it's still clear about that because recently China faced the other new COVID situation, and some of the big city was be blocked for more than several weeks. It definitely will impact the demand in the future. I think right now we are very cautious to watch those demand situation and inventory situation. Yeah. I think we will update the status to all the investors quarter by quarter. Until right now, we don't see the situation is already eased or have settled down yet. Thank you. Okay. Yes, sir.
The other new question want to know about, do we have some pricing pressure, no matter in our supply chain or from the customer? Okay. Yeah, I definitely right now because of the COVID, because of the war, because of the logistics issue, I think right now, a lot of material facing a very big change, no matter the production or the shipment. Yeah, right now, a lot of material we face the pricing pressure right now. Yeah. Definitely now we are rising up some material costs. Yeah. Because of the economic scale of WIN Semi, until right now, I think we still can deal that and minimize the impact of that.
Talking about the ASP pressure, because as you know, WIN Semi didn't negotiate price with our customer quarter by quarter, so in most cases that's annual basis pricing negotiation. We don't really find the pressure just because of this demand situation. Yeah. Year-over-year, yeah, definitely, we based on the demand and the customer allocation situation to discuss about the price. Thank you.
Okay. There is an investor concerned about the low visibility on the demand in the near term, and how about the capacity expansion, do we gonna change or any kind of adjustment? Well, I think that first of all, our view for the mid-term to long-term growth momentum of the industry, we remain unchanged. The major long-term expansion in the southern Taiwan Science Park in Kaohsiung, the new Lujhu fab, we broke ground in the middle of last year, and it is still under construction right now. This is for the long-term demand.
The mass production schedule in the next 2, maybe 2-3 years will remain unchanged because that's for the long-term demand. As you guys know, we are running out of space for our Taoyuan fab. On the other hand, for the near term, the capacity expansion through the bottlenecking, we will do some kind of adjust dynamically to meet industry change.
Which means the original plan to open up additional 10% of the capacity. We will make some adjustment based on what happened for the second half. The adjustment will be dynamic based on the industry change. The original CapEx we provide in last time was 12 billion TWD for the whole year. Because we haven't made any kind of adjustment for this figure.
Because we're still watching how the industry happening. Maybe we will so far this number still remain unchanged because majority still for the long term Southern Taiwan Science Park construction. Any kind of change for this budget, we will update it in the following next couple quarters earnings call. The depreciation expense probably remain on the range of between 10%-20% additional to last year's depreciation expense. That's for the CapEx plan. Thank you.
Okay. Last question, would like to discuss with us about the utilization rate. I think according to our guidance that the Q2 revenue could decline high single digits. That implies that the utilization rate compared to Q1 is supposed to also decline. Does that equal the percentage of the revenue decline or will be a little bigger than that? I think right now we still need wait for more data because I think the utilization rate is not only the revenue factor, but also our wafer input for some next quarter's demand.
I think right now we don't have really clear visibility about our UT numbers, but the trend is clear that would be have some decline compared to Q1. Yeah. For the long term UT rate, yeah, because as you know that we have maybe around like more than 2 quarter, our utilization rate is higher than 90, even 100%. You know, it's not very healthy situation for the fab. That's the reason why we plan in last year to increasing around, like, 2000 wafer capacity in our Fab C first floor to ease the utilization rate situation. Yeah.
Because it's only a very small capacity increasing, so compared to the total capacity, I think it's lower than just a few single digits increase. I don't think that would be a big factor to affect impact the depreciation expense, because every year we still have some old equipment will end of the depreciation. At the end of this year, yeah, definitely, although we were increasing around 2K capacity, but I don't think the depreciation would because of this 2K the depreciation cost will be much different. Thank you. Is the other question want to know about the CapEx this year. I think this year's CapEx because our new Lujhu fab is our new.
It's under construction. I think this year, the most of the CapEx is because of that. As you know, in most of the construction case, the payment was not a one deal transaction. It actually, we pay to the vendor just according to stage. I don't think those per billion construction and the CapEx we don't need to have any new funding plan. We can just leverage our existing cash position and our existing bank agreement to deal with that. Thank you. Okay. It's a new question from is related to the 5G base station demand.
As we just mentioned, no matter Q1 and Q2, actually our infrastructure is still perform more better than other applications. What we see, the demand for the infrastructure is still more sustainable compared to other applications. Thank you.
Well, since there's no further question, and we will wait another two minutes. If there is no other question, then we're gonna finish the call. Thank you. Okay. Now the time is 4:15, and still no further question, then we thank you for your participation in WIN Semi's conference, and there will be a webcast replay within hours. Please visit www.winfoundry.com under the Investor Relations section. You may now disconnect the call. Thanks and goodbye.