Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Amkor Technology Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Diego, and I will be your conference facilitator today. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's remarks, we will conduct a question and answer session. As a reminder, this conference is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Jennifer Jue, Head of Investor Relations. Ms. Jue, please go ahead.
Thank you, operator. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining us for Amkor's Second Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Joining me today are Giel Rutten, our Chief Executive Officer, and Megan Faust, our Chief Financial Officer. Our earnings press release was filed with the SEC this afternoon and is available on the investor relations page of our website, along with the presentation slides that accompany today's call. During this presentation, we will use non-GAAP financial measures, and you can find the reconciliation to the US GAAP equivalent on our website.
We will make forward-looking statements about our expectations for Amkor's future performance based on the environment as we currently see it. Of course, actual results could differ. Please refer to our press release and other SEC filings for information on risk factors, uncertainties, and exceptions that could cause actual results to differ materially from these expectations. Please note that the financial results discussed today are preliminary, and final data will be included in our Form 10-Q. Now I would like to turn the call over to Giel.
Thanks, Jennifer. Good afternoon, everyone, and thank you for joining the call today. Amkor delivered record second quarter revenue of $1.5 billion and EPS of $0.51. Demand for advanced packaging remained strong and drove our revenue in the automotive and industrial market to 16% year-on-year growth and a new record. Revenue increased 14% year-on-year in the first half, and advanced packaging grew 18% despite the COVID-19 lockdown in our Shanghai factories. While the industry is facing macroeconomic headwinds and market forecasts have weakened in some areas, we continue to see robust demand for our services, notably for advanced packaging.
Amkor's strategic focus and leadership position in advanced packaging enable us to leverage the growth catalyst in 5G premium smartphones, automotive electronics, high-performance computing, and IoT. Now let me review the dynamics in our end markets. In the first half of this year, our communication business grew 10% compared to the first half of last year. Although overall forecasts for smartphone units have weakened to a mid-single digit year-on-year decline, 5G unit volume is expected to grow and reach an estimated 50% penetration this year, up from around 35% in 2021.
Semiconductor content for premium tier 5G phones continues to increase. With our leading position in this market, we expect further growth through this transition to 5G. The density and size advantages of our proven package-on-package technology for high-end processors and modems and the SiP technology for integration of RF, sensors, and display components positions us well to capture this growth. Solid performance in the automotive and industrial markets drove first half growth of 16% versus last year. Although material constraints throughout the automotive supply chain persist, we observe improvement in lead times and anticipate a more balanced supply chain by the end of this year.
We expect the automotive semiconductor market to outgrow the overall industry. Average semiconductor content per car is expected to increase 50% by 2025, from around $500 in 2020 up to $750 per car in 2025. Market forecasts shows mid-teens CAGRs over the next several years, driven by adoption of ADAS, electrification, infotainment, and telematics. These new and expanding features require the use of advanced packaging to obtain the required performance, quality, and reliability needed in the automotive industry.
As the leading automotive OSAT with a global manufacturing footprint and advanced packaging solutions throughout the vehicle, we are well-positioned to profit from this market growth. Amkor's 40-plus year track record as a trusted partner for leading automotive customers has built a solid foundation to enable technology innovations and to support the reliable automotive supply chain. Continued strong momentum in the computing market drove revenue for the first half up by 27% compared to the first half of 2021. This robust growth was driven by data centers, infrastructure, and PCs.
In data centers, the introduction of AI is driving investments in high-performance computing utilizing advanced packaging technology. We see similar technology requirements in wired and wireless infrastructure markets, notably in support of 5G infrastructure. Although the PC market is softening, the trend to ARM-based PC architectures opens new business opportunities for Amkor. Besides the technology shift in the PC markets, we observe a continued trend towards an outsourced semiconductor supply chain. With the big data producing companies taking an active role in developing key semiconductors for hyperscale data centers.
These companies tend to utilize a fully outsourced supply chain and are partnering with foundries and OSATs like Amkor to accelerate innovation. With our broad advanced packaging portfolio and established relationships with lead customers and foundries, we are well-positioned to capitalize on opportunities in these growing computing applications, and we continue to invest in advanced technology and manufacturing scale for this market. Our consumer business increased 8% in the first half, supported by strength in traditional consumer products and a broad portfolio in IoT wearables.
Our Advanced SiP assembly and test platform offers a complete turnkey solution for the IoT wearable market by enabling high levels of integration in a single SiP module with small form factor. IoT wearables continue to be an important driver for growth. Although we expect that this emerging product category is more prone to quarterly variability due to supply constraints and varying product life cycles. With an advancing digital economy and increased proliferation of connected wearable devices, Amkor has the technology, scale, and expertise to support this trend.
We continue to invest in our test business to broaden the scope, scale, and capability of our test services. With increasing complexity and cost of our assembled products, multi-stage testing becomes an important part of our test portfolio. Amkor offers customers a broad range of test solutions, from wafer probe and final test to system-level test, to ensure quality and reliability of the final product. Our ability to support full turnkey services from wafer fab to final product shipment, reduces cycle time and customer resources to manage each individual service. Our global manufacturing organization continued to demonstrate Amkor's commitment to operational excellence in support of our customers.
Our QualityFIRST program is widely deployed in the organization, and close collaboration with our supply chain partners further improved supplier reliability. In the supply chain, we observe improvements in lead times of substrates, lead frames, and components, and we expect a more balanced supply chain towards the end of the year. The mandated COVID-19 lockdown of our Shanghai factory required the utmost flexibility of the team to return to normal output levels in the second quarter. Our team was focused on supporting our people and keeping them safe, while closely cooperating with local government and customers to minimize the impact.
Now let me turn to our third quarter revenue outlook. Although market forecasts have weakened in some areas, we are expecting a strong third quarter with revenue of $1.93 billion at the midpoint of our guidance. This would represent a sequential increase of 28% and a year-on-year increase of 15%. We expect solid demand across all end markets, especially driven by new product ramps in support of 5G premium tier phone models and the continued strength in computing, automotive, and consumer markets. Megan will now provide more detailed financial information.
Thank you, Giel, and good afternoon, everyone. Amkor delivered strong financial results with record second quarter revenue of $1.5 billion and solid bottom line EPS of $0.51. Factory utilization, excluding Shanghai, remained high, with revenue exceeding historical seasonal levels. First half revenue increased 14% versus first half 2021, a strong start to the year. All of our end markets are also showing robust first half growth, with most growing double digits compared to the prior year. Our technology leadership position and focused execution drove first half revenue for advanced products up 18%, representing approximately 70% of our business.
Our Shanghai factory returned to normal output levels late in the second half of the quarter. Regulatory approval to resume production was received later than expected, and therefore, the revenue impact for the second quarter was more than we estimated in May. We worked closely with our customers to mitigate the impact. In addition, upside demand, notably for Advanced SiP, supporting the communications and consumer end markets, resulted in Q2 revenue within 1% of our midpoint. Gross margin for the second quarter was 16.6%, primarily due to underutilization of our Shanghai factory and related incremental costs.
Operating expenses for the quarter were less than expected at $106 million, benefiting from lower labor costs, favorable foreign currency movements and timing of new product introductions. Operating income margin for the quarter was 9.5%. Net income for the quarter was $125 million, resulting in EPS of $0.51. First half EPS of $1.20 is 20% higher than first half of last year. Q2 EBITDA was $302 million, and EBITDA margin was 20%. Our balance sheet is solid. We ended the quarter with $1.1 billion of cash and short-term investments and total liquidity of $1.8 billion.
Our total debt as of the end of the second quarter is $1.1 billion, and our debt-to-EBITDA ratio is 0.8 x. Moving on to our third quarter outlook. We see continued solid demand into the third quarter, specifically in the communications market, due to the launch of premium-tier smartphones. We are expecting Q3 revenue between $1.88 billion and $1.98 billion. This represents a 28% sequential increase and a 15% year-over-year increase at the midpoint of guidance.
Gross margin is expected to be between 19%-21%, demonstrating the leverage in the financial model and an ability to execute a quick return to strong profitability. We expect Q3 operating expenses of around $110 million. We expect our full-year effective tax rate to be around 15%. Q3 net income is expected to be between $200 million and $250 million, resulting in EPS of $0.82-$1.02. Our forecast for capital expenditures for the year remains at $950 million to support broad-based long-term demand and the expansion of our global factory footprint to Vietnam.
Full-year 2022 is tracking to be another record year, with double-digit growth expected for revenue, operating income, and EPS. All end markets are expected to set new annual records. We are monitoring macroeconomic and industry dynamics and the potential impact on near-term demand in the overall semi industry. We do not see a change in the secular trends and growth catalysts for advanced packaging, and we remain confident in our long-term outlook. Amkor holds a leading position in advanced packaging, and we expect that strategic focus to continue to drive long-term growth. With that, we will now open the call up for your questions. Operator?
Thank you. At this time, we will conduct our question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question, please press star one on your telephone keypad. A confirmation tone will indicate that your line is in the question queue. You may press the star key followed by the number two if you would like to remove your question from the queue. For participants using speaker equipment, it may be necessary to pick up your handset before pressing the star keys. One moment, please, while we pull for questions. Our first question comes from Randy Abrams with Credit Suisse. Please state your question.
Hey, Giel. Thank you. Good morning and good evening. The first question, I just wanted to ask on the Shanghai operations, which resumed a bit later than expected. If you could talk about how much impact in second quarter, and then for the shifts, do you expect any of all that to shift into third quarter, or some could continue into fourth? Discuss the timing, how that impacted the flow of revenue.
Hi, Randy. Good morning, good afternoon. Let me start answering that question. You know, for the Shanghai operation, Megan already indicated that the impact was slightly higher than we expected, and in our guidance, we indicated a number. We don't want to go further in specifics here, you know, when it comes to the recovery of that business. Part of that will be recovered in the third quarter. Part of it we recovered by utilizing our global manufacturing footprint. You know, we have a strong partnership with our customers that we support out of the factory in Shanghai. We have long-term agreements in place, so we expect that the majority of that business will be recovered later in the year.
Okay, great. Yeah, so it sounds like it's mostly third, but some of it could continue into fourth quarter. Okay.
Correct.
You have the foundries and some of the back-end companies are indicating some risk of a correction into fourth quarter, first half. It sounds like your markets are pretty robust, but are you anticipating or factoring in or expecting some slowdown, or do you see the strength continuing to your end? Maybe initial view, if you think first quarter gets back to kind of the normal seasonal trend, just factoring some of the macro.
Well, Randy, you know, guiding into the first quarter will be very difficult. That's what we normally don't do. Now, with respect to this year, we expect a strong second half of this year. As indicated, you know, third quarter will be strong and also we expect a solid fourth quarter. You know, we see macroeconomic headwinds evolving into the first half of next year.
Although we also see still, let's say, a more balanced supply chain than the key growth drivers in the markets that we're supporting, be it 5G, be it automotive electronics, high performance computing and IoT. In our view, the fundamentals will continue to stay in place. There may be some corrections in some segments, but overall, I believe the foundation for the semiconductor industry and the growth drivers are still very strong also going into next year.
Right. Good. For the, like, you've seen a strong mix toward advanced packaging and highlighted that as a driver. For the mainstream business, how have you seen the wirebond, where I think traditionally you've had more of an auto industrial footprint there, versus some of the assets that are a little more leveraged to consumer and see more correction. How do you see your utilization holding in? Are you seeing any rising level of competition from some of your peers facing a bit more underutilization?
Yes. You know, for our wirebond and leadframe business, we operate our factories at high utilization. That will continue for the major part of the year. Same thing as for our advanced packaging. We have long-term agreements in place with our customers. We have a strong position in the automotive domain. You know, on the wirebond business, we see strength certainly in the automotive wirebond part. Automotive microcontrollers are a strong driver in that growth.
Some pockets of inventory corrections, specifically in Japan, but we expect going into the fourth quarter and even further going into next year, we see strength in that business. Accelerated competition when there is open demand, you know, the segments that we are supporting for the wirebond, the leadframe business, you know, it is not so easy for customers to switch, and we have with our long-term agreements, we believe that we are very well positioned there. It is not, we don't cater to the commodity part of this business, so we don't believe that there is a risk there.
Right. I just had two other questions I wanted to ask. One on the gross margin, m ight be more for Megan. It looked like second quarter materials, like the variable material costs went up a few points, as % of sales. Was that mix impact more SiP or are there other factors, like higher material costs, higher substrate costs?
Hi, Randy. Yeah.
Well, I think Megan can answer that.
Yeah. Randy, with respect to the material content increasing in the second quarter, really two factors. With the Shanghai impact, that factory tended to have a lower material content than our average, so that contributed to a part of it. The other is, as you've mentioned, the increase in advanced SiP for the quarter. The increase is not related to specifically increasing material cost, as we are able to pass that through to our customers.
A follow-up on that. With balanced supply chain, does that include the high-end substrate? Like, there's been talk of multiyear shortage in some of the high-end, but does it look like, with some of the shifts in the PC market, by next year and some of the efforts you're making, you'll be kind of in balance? Or do you see constraints there, continuing on?
Yeah. Specifically in the high-end substrates materials, that's a good point, Randy. In the ABF substrates, we see continued shortages going into next year. That's mostly for the computing market and some segments of the automotive market. Although we see some improvements in the rest of the supply chain for the more lower-end substrate, but ABF substrates will be in short supply. Although, you know, more capacity comes online. We also see that some of the capacity, specifically in the PC market, can be redirected in other segments. With some corrections in the PC market, that would bring some relief in other areas.
Okay. Great. The last question I wanted to ask on CHIPS Act with Congress passing it, maybe the initial scenario, how you're thinking about expansion, you've announced some interest in U.S. capacity and also for the financials, how it could affect both the CapEx from an offset and the tax credits, like if it could benefit the tax rate from some of the investments.
Let me open up the answer here, and then maybe Megan can give a little bit more details on the tax incentives. First of all, as a general statement, Randy, we're very happy that the CHIPS Act was approved. I mean, we see this as an important milestone of supporting a U.S. supply chain. You know, Amkor is uniquely positioned to support that.
Already for a while, I mean, we're looking what is the best scenario to engage in a more expanding U.S. supply chain. We're working on scenarios with different partners and customers, direct customers in the supply chain to see what is the best way to support the local supply chain. We see this as an opportunity. How the financials exactly work out, that is still to be decided. Megan, can you take the tax incentive part?
Yeah, sure. Randy, it's just too early to tell what that tax incentive that's included, how that would impact Amkor specifically. We're monitoring that, and to the extent we have updates, we'll include that in our upcoming guidance.
Thank you. Our next question comes from Tom Diffely with D.A. Davidson. Please state your question.
Yes. Good afternoon. Thank you for taking my questions. First question's revolving around capital spending. Sounds like you're on plan here for $950 million this year. I'm curious what the linearity is of adding the capacity through this year, and when you see the impact of this on the balance sheet.
Okay. Let me start kicking this off. Yeah, I think our CapEx plan, Tom, by the way, good afternoon, is still targeted at $950 million for the year. You have to keep in mind that $100 million of that $950 million is geared to our new Vietnam facility. You know, we see a strong ramp in the second half of the year, so a large part of that capacity that was allocated to equipment expansion is already coming on board for the ramp in the third quarter and the fourth quarter. You know, that would hit the balance sheet, and I don't know the accounting details here, but Megan can probably add to that, probably in the second half of this year.
Yeah, sure, Tom, I can add to that. I would say Q3 is the peak adding to the balance sheet as far as supporting the Q3 surge. As Giel mentioned, it is gonna be second half-weighted, specifically as it relates to our Vietnam activities. Those are gonna be mainly concentrated in the fourth quarter.
Okay.
Just as a reminder, Tom, Vietnam won't actually, I mean, that won't start depreciating till we complete those activities, which we're expecting to begin high volume late in 2023.
Okay, great. Very helpful. Just in general, is there a rule of thumb where, you know, $1 CapEx gives you $1 per year of revenue or $0.50 per year of revenue, or how do you view capital spending on a holistic basis?
Megan, can you answer that question?
Yeah, Tom. No specific rule of thumb at this point. I think it's tricky, given the different dynamics, specifically with material content changes, to be able to have kind of a guideline for the capital spend.
Okay. Final capital spending question. How fungible is the capacity between the different end markets?
Tom, let me try to answer that question. You know, fungibility for Amkor is very important, and we invested significantly over the last couple of years to ensure that the capacity that we install is fungible. No, not everything is, of course, fungible. If we take test and test equipment, which is a large part of our investment, generally we buy industry-standard platforms, and they are fungible between business with customers.
When it comes to assembly equipment, of course, in the specific technology areas, the capacity is fungible. If we talk about SiP and SiP lines, these equipments are fungible. If you talk about flip chip, these are fungible, and wafer-level packaging is also fungible across markets. There are generally some dedications with respect to technology areas.
Okay. No, very helpful. Then moving over to the end markets, you know, a lot of, you know, the companies out there are seeing some softness in consumer and mobility. You guys are not seeing that. I'm curious, when you look at the strength in the third quarter, do you think that disparity is driven by, you know, share gains on your part, or is it just the complexity of the chips this year around are such that it drives revenue growth even if the units aren't growing that high?
Yeah. Let me start giving some comments on the consumer market. You know, the consumer market for Amkor, our position in the consumer market is very much towards the wearable IoT devices, as well as more the traditional consumer market. We see that specifically the wearable category this year is strong in the second half specifically. That makes us confident to see further growth. The mobility market, I don't exactly know. Can you give me an example of where you see weakness in the mobility market? Is that automotive, Tom?
Yeah. I think it was more driven by the softness in unit growth from advanced handsets more than anything else.
Yes. I think on the mobility market, if you talk about the smartphone market, indeed, I think on a global volume basis, we expect, let's say mid-single digit decline. Now, Amkor is very much positioned towards the higher end premium tier smartphones. There is still strength in that market, specifically, you know, when we talk about the transition into 5G premium tier smartphones.
Although the overall market is declining, we see the 5G unit volume increasing because, you know, last year there was about 35% of the market was 5G. This year is expected to be 50%. So there's an increase in 5G, and the premium tier market continues to stay strong on a global basis. With our position in that premium tier segment of the market, we see continued strength.
Okay, great. No, good to hear. Final question on automotive front. Can you talk a little bit about the biggest driver near term? Is it just the, you know, increasing chips in, you know, normal cars, or is it the EV market that's growing, driving all the growth near term? And then which of those segments do you think is the bigger long-term driver?
Yes, that's a good point. I mean, we see driver for growth specifically this year. There's the automotive car unit volume this year, there's a single-digit increase, so that drives growth. On top of that, we see the, let's say, the penetration of features like driver assistance features like ADAS, telematics, digital displays proliferating deeper into that, into that market. The semiconductor content per car is significantly increasing, and we're expecting that to continue. This goes for both EVs as well as combustion engine cars.
On the EV side, there is an incremental semiconductor content that's increasing, and that relates to the electrical control of the transmission. There's a lot of, for example, power electronics there, power modules that increase transition from silicon into silicon carbide into silicon nitride. We also see that as a good driver for Amkor. You know, we hold a very strong position in the silicon carbide assembly and test market. We believe that on the EV side, there are incremental growth drivers on top of the electrification of that I mentioned before, that are across the board for the automotive market.
Okay, great.
Does it answer your question, Tom?
Yeah. No, absolutely. Thank you both for your time today.
Thank you. Just a reminder to ask a question, press star one. Our next question comes from Charles Shi with Needham & Company. Please state your question.
Hi. Good afternoon, Giel, Megan. Thank you for allowing me to ask a question. Giel, I wanna go back to your comment about automotive semiconductor content per car. You talked about 50% growth of content, I believe you said 2026 or 2027 from 2020. Wanna try to ask you to help us how to reconcile your comment with what STMicroelectronics said back in May.
They basically said, in 2022, they are seeing automotive semiconductor TAM expanded 50%, but compared to 2019 level. The auto production, as you also know, 2022 is not so different from 2019. Obviously, their number seems to be a lot more aggressive than yours. How do I reconcile the two views here? Maybe both of you are right, but, would like to hear your thought. Thank you.
Yeah, good point, Charles. Good afternoon. I mean, I cannot comment on behalf of ST. I mean, we use different sources to reference here. You know, we talk about average semiconductor content per car goes from $500 in 2020 to $750 in 2025. Again, I cannot comment to the ST part. It may relate to a certain transition from combustion engine cars into EVs. We see some acceleration there, certainly in the European market, where the, let's say, participation of EV in the overall automotive market is increasing. There, you know, definitely on the power component side, it is, you know, that contributes significantly to the semiconductor content. That may be one of the elements, but, yeah, further, I cannot comment on that, Charles.
Thank you. Maybe a second question, maybe this is also my final question. What do you see in terms of the pricing environment today? I think your peer in Taiwan sort of commented that at least for the mainstream packaging side, pricing has been stable so far this year, quarter-over-quarter. Obviously there's inflation and you gotta pass down some of the input costs. What's the pricing outlook as you see going into Q3 and Q4? Thank you.
Yeah, pricing, that's an important point. I mean, first of all, your comment on inflation. So far this year, we work closely with our customer base to include inflation in our prices. To increase prices where needed, to make sure that our increasing cost is covered. Secondly, with respect to the second half of the year, we don't see an increased pricing environment or a deteriorating pricing environment. We have several long-term agreements in place with customers, and customers don't want to renegotiate these agreements. So far I see a stable pricing environment in the businesses that we support.
Thank you.
Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, I'm showing no further questions. I would like to turn the call back over to Giel for closing remarks.
Thank you. Before closing the call, I would like to recap our key messages. Amkor delivered solid first half results with overall revenue up 14% year-on-year and advanced packaging revenue up 18% year-on-year. We expect third quarter revenue of $1.93 billion, reflecting another quarter of strong year-on-year growth of around 15%. Demand for our technology and services remains robust, driven by our leadership position in advanced packaging supporting 5G, automotive, high performance computing and IoT.
Although we observe macroeconomic headwinds and some weaker market forecasts in some segments, we believe the long-term growth drivers for the semiconductor industry remain in place, and we are confident our strategic focus and leadership position in key semiconductor markets will continue to drive future growth. I would like to close with a special thank you for our Shanghai factory team. On the difficult conditions, they worked diligently through the mandated factory lockdown and enabled a successful return to normal output levels by the end of the second quarter. Thank you for joining the call today.
Thank you. This concludes today's conference. All parties may disconnect.