Hi all,
A pretty solid conf call I think. Order intake is solid with decent mix (Mini LED ca. 40% of Orders; Telecoms and GAN (incl RF) contributing the rest). The majority of the "lost" gross margin should be recovered in Q2 as installations in China can be done.
Comments regarding end markets is strong I think with all end-markets except for VCSEL ramping. Comments around a good order pipeline make another decent Order intake in Q2 likely in my point of view. In SIC there have been some delays from customers which Aixtron management actually liked as they had a lot of customer requests and the delays allowed them to smooth the production/testing of the tools. Good growth in Mini LED for Smartphones and large Walls (e.g. fine pitch); growing demand for power electronics, both SIC and GAN (incl GAN RF), and telecom infrasatructure buildout will likely be accelerated over time by Corona.
VCSEL so far remains the only area of weekness, I think in past calls they said, potentially the market will come back in H2-20.
I was surprised that they actually already had demand for GAN RF, given it was my impression in past conf calls that this application (largely power charging in smartphones and 5G in Smartphones) was still a couple of years away. The demand is mostly from Chinese customers but Western players will follow quickly. GAN is still at an early stage of the ramp up.
OLED. Order very unlikely in Q2, maybe in Q3. Very clear confirmation from the CEO that a decision WILL BE MADE in 2020. On the positive side they said, that they agreed with the customer that some of the development topics have now been completed and are final. To me this indicates that they are stepping in the right direction.
I cant help it but think that the remainder of the year will be quite strong.. Q3/Q4 had solid order intake which should help Q2 sales; the delayed installations which will happen in Q2 will add to the gross margin; good order pipeline mean orders should again be solid in Q2. Given that the Order Backlog is the highest since Q4-18 (at least, I didnt check further), this indicates that future capacity utilisation should be healthy!
We will see, but I think the story remains on the right track, we just need to remain patient!