On the 26th, Unimicron held its Q2 2023 earnings conference, chaired by senior vice president Zhong Mingfeng. He mentioned that the revenue for Q3 showed only a slight increase compared to Q2 and remained relatively stable, with Q4 still needing further observation. The trend of the PCB supply and demand is expected to become clearer only in 2024. It is worth noting that Unimicron has always adjusted its capital expenditure budget based on market conditions and customer demand dynamics. Today, it announced that the capital expenditure for 2023 is approximately NT$30 billion, with about 70–80% of it allocated for PCB investment.
In fact, Unimicron's original capital expenditure budget for 2022 was approximately NT$44.286 billion. However, due to the weaker market conditions from Q3 2022, the full-year budget was reduced by 12.05% to approximately NT$38.949 billion by December 2022. The capital expenditure budget for 2023 was further reduced from NT$42.287 billion to NT$35.42 billion, with a decrease of about 16.24%. Now, with yet another reduction, it seems that the slowdown in demand for PCBs has intensified the uncertainty in the short-term PCB supply and demand trend.
Zhong expects that in Q3, the ABF substrate utilization rate will be around 65–70%. The HDI substrate will see an increase in utilization rate to 80–90% due to the strong demand for new mobile phones and AI servers. The PCB utilization rate will also rise to 80–85% driven by seasonal stock-up demands, leading to a gradual recovery in various consumer electronics sectors.
In Q2 2023, Unimicron's revenue was NT$25.235 billion, and after-tax net profit reached NT$2.389 billion, which decreased by 0.35 percentage points on a quarterly basis and 17.59% on a yearly basis. The cumulative revenue for the first half of 2023 was NT$51.801 billion, with a gross profit margin of 20.39%, a decrease of about 14.87% compared to 2022, and an after-tax net income of NT$6.662 billion, a decrease of 52.66% compared to the previous year.
From the product line perspective, in the first half of 2023, PCB revenue accounted for 66%, a decrease of 22% from the previous year. Within this, ABF substrates accounted for 81%, and BT substrates accounted for approximately 19%. HDI revenue accounted for 18%, a decrease of 29%, while traditional PCB revenue accounted for 13%, a decrease of 7%. Soft board revenue accounted for 2%, a decrease of 35%.
In terms of end applications in the first half of the year, consumer electronics products accounted for approximately 15%, a decrease of 11% from the previous year. Network communication products accounted for around 27%, a decrease of 4%. Automotive products accounted for about 6%, a decrease of 27%. PC and NB products had an overall share of 52%, a decrease of 30% from the previous year.
