Samsung Electro-Mechanics Co., Ltd. (A009150) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

[Interpreted] Good morning. Good afternoon. Thank you very much for joining our conference call. We will now start the 2021 Third Quarter Earnings Conference Call of Samsung Electro-Mechanics. We will start the conference call with a presentation by the company followed by a Q&A session. [Operator Instructions] Now we will hear the presentation from Samsung Electro-Mechanics.

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. This is Taiyoung Kim, Head of IR and Planning Team at SEMCO. Thank you for joining our third quarter earnings conference call. On today's call, I'm joined by EVP, Bongyong Kang of the Business Support Team; SVP, [ Hyun Tae Kim ], Head of Sales Team, Strategic Marketing Center; [ Teutak Park ], Head of Support Team, Component Division; Jung Won Lee, Head of Support Team, Module Division; and Bom Park, Head of Support Team, Substrate Division. We will start with a presentation on our third quarter company level and divisional business results, followed by market trends and outlook by product before taking your questions. First, our third quarter results. In Q3, our revenue was KRW2,688.7 billion, which is about a 9% increase quarter-on-quarter and an approximately 21% increase year-over-year, mainly attributed to the growth of the Component and Substrate divisions, which offset the decrease in Module Division revenue. The details regarding revenue increase and decrease factors by division will be explained later on during the divisional results. Q3 operating profit was KRW457.8 billion, which is a 35% increase Q-o-Q and 49% increase Y-o-Y. Our op margin was 17%. Pretax profit in Q3 was KRW476 billion, which is a 50% increase Q-o-Q, driven by increase in operating profit, as well as non-operating profit with improved FX-related conditions. Net profit after corporate income tax was KRW349.5 billion. In terms of financials, as of end of September 2021, total assets was KRW10,089.2 billion, which is a 3% increase from the end of second quarter. For major financial indicators, liability to equity was 47%, debt to equity was 20%, which is a decrease Q-o-Q. Net debt to equity fell from 3% at the end of Q2 to minus 1% at the end of Q3, as the company continued to pay down its borrowings and now has a positive net cash position. Next are the divisional results and future outlook. First, the Component Division's third quarter revenue was KRW1,320.9 billion, which is a roughly 11% increase Q-o-Q and a 34% increase Y-o-Y. Increase in sales of small-size/high capacitance MLCCs for the major customers' flagship smartphone and increased supply of high-end MLCCs for industrial and automotive applications were the main drivers of our revenue growth. Our profitability also improved with continued gains in manufacturing competitiveness, including greater production capabilities from better manufacturing efficiency and productivity. While the MLCC demand for PC and TVs is expected to decrease due to the slowdown of growth in downstream markets and inventory adjustments, we expect MLCC demand for high-end smartphones and industrial automotive applications to remain solid. We will focus on timely response to demand for high-end MLCCs or IT applications such as small-size/high capacitance MLCCs and increased supply for industrial automotive applications. Next is the Module Division. Module Division's Q3 revenue was KRW787.4 billion, which is a 3% decrease Q-o-Q and a 1% decrease Y-o-Y. Revenue from the strategic customer increased, thanks to the increased supply of high-performance slim camera modules for the foldable smartphones. However, the slowdown in the Chinese smartphone market demand resulted in decrease in camera module supply to major customers, leading to a drop in Chinese revenue and a slight Q-o-Q decrease in total division revenue. We were able to offset weak Chinese sales with increased revenue from the full-scale mass production of the high-performance camera modules for the overseas customers' new flagship smartphone, featuring folded Zoom and high-pixel OIS. The camera module market is expected to see increased adoption of such high-spec camera modules as a way of differentiating the smartphone. Accordingly, we will focus on offering differentiated camera modules that leverage our internal production capabilities of key components such as lens and actuators and continue to lead customers and markets by increasing our supply of next-generation high-performance camera modules to key customers. Last is the Substrate Division. Q3 revenue was KRW580.4 billion, which is a 24% increase Q-o-Q and a 28% increase Y-o-Y. Package substrate growth was mainly driven by increase in BGAs for the high-end APs and 5G antennas for the overseas customer. Our supply of high-end flip-chip BGAs for laptop thin CPUs also continued to grow, and the entire package substrate capacity has been running at full utilization, delivering healthy revenue growth. PCB revenue also increased as we started supply of the RFPCB for the OLED used in the new flagship model, which contributed to the Q-o-Q revenue increase of our Substrate Division. With all products delivering strong performance, the Substrate Division profitability has improved Q-o-Q. The greater contribution from the high-end package substrate has improved our product mix and the increased sales of the RFPCBs for OLEDs has also helped increase our margins. Going forward, substrate market demand is expected to remain strong, especially in the high-end package substrates tied to applications such as AP, 5G antenna and network. We will focus on actively capturing market demand by further expanding our package substrate capacity and remain the market leader with the next-generation technologies such as micro patterning, high multilayer and component embedding. That ends my presentation on our third quarter results. And now the Head of Sales Team, SVP, [ Hyun Tae Kim ] will go over the market trends and outlook for each product group.

[Interpreted] Good afternoon. This is [ Hyun Tae Kim ], Head of Sales Team in the Strategic Marketing Center at SEMCO. I would like to share the update and outlook for the MLCC camera module and substrate markets respectively. First, for the MLCC, in Q3, the growth momentum in MLCC demand continued, driven by increased MLCC volume demand from applications such as PCs, TVs, network equipment, servers and EV. For smartphones, MLCC demand was flat quarter-on-quarter as the MLCC inventory adjustments of Chinese smartphone makers offset the demand growth from the U.S. customers' new smartphone launch. As of end of September, MLCC market inventory levels were higher than end of second quarter, mainly due to downstream production delays caused by chip supply issues. However, the MLCC market inventory is likely to fall again once the supply issues of other components are worked out. Looking towards Q4, overall MLCC demand is expected to decrease versus third quarter, given the expected slowdown in the PC and TV demand and the inventory adjustment of commodity products mainly targeting the Chinese market. However, the demand in high-end MLCC segment is expected to remain strong, including demand for high-reliability MLCCs for industrial applications, such as network equipment and servers, as well as small-size/high capacitance products for smartphones. For automotive MLCC demand, while chip supply may limit the recovery in overall vehicle production volumes, the increased share of EVs which has more MLCC content is expected to keep automotive MLCC demand solid. In terms of the supply and demand balance, while demand in fourth quarter may become somewhat softer in the overall market, supply of high-end MLCCs that have high-technology barriers, such as high-reliability MLCCs for industrial and automotive applications in small-size/high capacitance products for IT applications is expected to remain tight. To capture this opportunity, we will focus on the high-end segment by increasing our supply responsiveness with strategic operation of our product mix and strengthening our customer relationships to increase design-ins. We will continue to closely monitor factors that may affect the markets such as the economic recovery trends supported by higher vaccination rates, chip supply situation, global shipping availability to proactively respond to changes in MLCC market demand. Next about camera modules. The smartphone OEMs appear to have somewhat slowed down their pace of camera upgrades in response to increased BOM costs tied to 5G support and increased share of 5G smartphones. But at the same time, we also see greater demand for 108 meg and other high-pixel camera modules and large aperture multi-piece lenses tied to the adoption of larger image sensors. The trend towards higher specification such as adoption of OIS actuators for better stabilization and high-power optical Zoom is also continuing. While supply to the strategic customer increased in Q3 with the launch of the foldable models, demand from the Chinese customers decreased quarter-over-quarter due to downstream production disruptions due to chip supply issues and inventory adjustments. Looking towards Q4, we will focus on doing the groundwork for future sales by actively developing business on the strategic customers' new model which is scheduled for launch in Q1 of next year. The number of high-performance camera module projects is expected to increase next year in 2022, and we are well positioned to capture these opportunities for growth of our camera module business next year. For substrate. In Q3, the BGA demand was solid, especially in the high-end package applications, such as AP, 5G antenna and memory chips. However, supply remained tight due to the long lead time needed to add new capacity, which was aggravated by the short supply of certain production equipment. Supply was also short for flip-chip BGAs as overall substrate demand grew, but the demand for high multilayer large bodyboards for servers and network applications occupied more production capacity further reducing available supply volumes. Under such circumstances, SEMCO continued to report revenue growth across all products in the Substrate Division. In Q4, BGA demand growth is expected to continue, especially around antenna substrates tied to the continued penetration of 5G smartphones and the high-end substrates for APs and new SOCs for the new smartphones lined up for next year. So the tight supply condition is likely to continue next year. For flip-chip BGAs, while vendors are announcing CapEx plans for mid-to-long-term capacity increases, given that the demand for high multilayer substrates for servers and data centers and automotive demand are expected to also grow, the tight supply situation is likely to continue for flip-chip BGAs. We will focus on shifting our product mix towards the high-end products, such as micro-pattern BGAs for smartphone APs and SOCs and thin flip-chip BGAs for high-performance CPUs and respond flexibly to changes in market demand. We will continue to strengthen our technology leadership in key areas such as high multilayer, micropatterning and embedded components to capture market needs for new products and higher specifications. Looking towards the mid- to long term, we will focus on increasing our flip-chip BGA presence in other areas such as servers and data centers to enhance the competitiveness of our Substrate business and deliver greater customer satisfaction. Thank you.

[Foreign Language] Now Q&A session will begin. [Operator Instructions] [Foreign Language] The first question will be provided by Ji-San Kim from Kiwoom Securities.

[Foreign Language] I have 2 questions. The first question is about the substrate. You may have heard of the recent media report about SEMCO having a large scale investment plan in its flip-chip BGA capacity, can the company confirm whether these reports were correct? And related with that, can you share the capacity expansion plans for your flip-chip BGA capacity? Second question is about the Chinese production of MLCCs, there is some concern that the recent power shortage in China may be affecting your MLCC production in China, has it been affected, what is the current operational status, and can you share with us some of the measures that you have regarding the power shortage?

[Foreign Language] To answer your question about the flip-chip BGA capacity, as you know, there is a supply -- the tight supply is continuing for flip-chip BGAs, given that the demand is continuing to expand as there is demand from products such as AI, cloud, network and high-spec specification PC and server products, whereas the demand for large body, high multilayer BGAs is eating up more capacity. The company has been continuing to closely monitor the market demand and supply situation in order to respond in a timely manner to the mid-to-long-term market demand and customer needs. And as you know, since last year, we have been preparing our necessary capacities, mainly by making add-on investments and improving our product mix. But given the fact that the demand especially for the high-spec and high-end products is expect -- is likely to continue to increase, the current -- the company currently is studying a step by step capacity expansion of its flip-chip BGA capacity. But regarding the media report that you mentioned, the company cannot comment on that report at this point in time, but we'll share the information once details are decided. [Foreign Language] Regarding the MLCC production in China, as you mentioned, there was the power restriction in China, and we did have a very temporary effect early on, but we were able to normalize our MLCC operation almost immediately. And so currently, our production is operating at normal plan and we are on track with our original production plans. In order to minimize any risks due to this power restriction we have been, for example, prepared the generators and UPS systems and also to minimize any supply chain related issues, we are constantly monitoring our raw material suppliers and -- and diversifying our sources, even though currently, our raw material suppliers are also operating at normal pace.

[Foreign Language] The following question will be presented by Chulhee Cho from Korea Investment Securities.

[Foreign Language] I have 2 questions regarding the MLCC. Can you share with us the third quarter MLCC shipment utilization inventory and ASP actual and share with us the guidance for fourth quarter on each of these data points? Second question is about the outlook for MLCC prices. When we started the year, there was some market concern about a decrease in MLCC prices, but overall, business environment this year for MLCC was quite different and unusual and that has helped keep MLCC ASPs and prices strong, what is the company's outlook for MLCC prices next year?

[Foreign Language] To answer your first question about the MLCC data points, during third quarter, our MLCC shipment was similar to what we saw in the second quarter, but we did see a significant increase in demand for the industrial and automotive applications. And our overall utilization in third quarter was running at practically full utilization levels. Our inventory in third quarter did increase slightly but still remains within healthy levels. Our third quarter ASP increased versus second quarter, mainly attributed to the continued improvement of our product mix, faster contribution from high capacitance MLCCs increased. Looking towards next quarter, fourth quarter, while we do expect our shipments in Q4 to temporarily decrease as especially the IT downstream companies go through inventory adjustments. This would also lead likely to an increase of our inventory levels, but aside from the IT downstream markets, we do expect the demand from -- for high capacitance network and automotive MLCCs to remain strong in the fourth quarter. And so we expect our fourth quarter blended ASP to increase on a quarter-on-quarter basis. [Foreign Language] You've also asked for the MLCC price outlook for next year, we have started to sense next year's demand and which we look at that by major applications, even though there may be some temporary effects from inventory adjustments in the start of next year, we think that on a full year basis, 2022, MLCC demand will increase, especially around high-end segments, for example, with the greater penetration of 5G and electric vehicles. In response to that outlook, we are going to focus on continuously increasing the share of high-end new products in our MLCC supply by increasing the supply of the high capacitance, high-temperature products that are used for 5G smartphone and base station network equipment applications and also increasing the supply of automotive MLCCs for ADAS and EVs. And by increasing the share within our supply of these high-end new products, our target next year is to deliver blended ASPs that are higher than what we saw this year.

[Foreign Language] The following question will be presented by Taewoo Lee from UBS.

My first question is on MLCC margins. First, can you share the impact from the overall raw materials and logistics cost increase, which we see across the board? And two, when we put that together with your earlier comments on pricing, how do you see the MLCC margins going from here in the coming few quarters? And then my second question is on camera modules. Considering the positive demand trends for the latest foldable products amid still continued concerns on chip shortages for the customers, could you help share the outlook for the business going into fourth quarter?

[Foreign Language] To answer your first question about the margin trend for the MLCCs, as you mentioned recently, raw material and commodity prices have been increasing, including some rare-earth elements and nickel and that has had some impact on our profitability. But because these individual commodities or raw materials don't account for a large portion within our overall MLCC material cost, it does remain within a level that we can sufficiently absorb by improving our internal efficiency. Shipping prices and shipping costs and freight costs have also been increasing, but within the overall MLCC cost structure, shipping and logistics account for not a large share and so the impact to our business is also minimal. But regardless of that, we continue to work on improving our cost and productivity to minimize any future impact. [Foreign Language] You've also asked about the camera module outlook for fourth quarter. As you know, fourth quarter, there is seasonality, and we do expect that the demand for camera modules during Q4 would decrease versus the third quarter. But then also fourth quarter is expected to be the quarter when we start supply of the high-specification multi-camera module that is expected to be used on the new flagship smartphone to be launched in Q1 of next year. And so our focus during the fourth quarter will be to thoroughly prepare for that project and supply, so that we would be able to minimize the seasonal impact that usually happens during Q4. There is some concern in the market about the chip supply and the impact that would have on our camera module business, but as you know, the major camera -- the major mobile OEMs have already adjusted their smartphone launch schedules to account for the supply -- chip supply issues, and therefore, we do not expect to have any major impact on our camera module business.

[Foreign Language] The following question will be presented by Woon Ho Kim from IBK Investment Securities.

[Foreign Language] I have 2 questions. The first question may be a follow-up to what we've just been discussing. I think there is concern in the market that the IT industry overall is now going to go through a peaking-up phase. And so can the company share with us its outlook for fourth quarter business results versus third quarter, as well as the direction that it has for next year in terms of business performance, even though it may be a bit too early? Second question is about your plans of folding the RFPCB business. If the RFPCB business is folded, what would be the impact that would have on your overall substrate business results?

[Foreign Language] I would like to answer your first question. This is EVP, Bongyong Kang. This year, if you look back, the company was able to record continued improvement quarter-on-quarter of its business performance. Thanks to many positive factors, such as the strong downstream demand from smartphones and PCs, improved product mix on our end and also the maintaining high utilization of our capacity. Also, while our profits were increasing, we continue to improve our cash flow by maintaining high efficiency of our CapEx and also continuing to pay back our borrowings. And so at the end of third quarter, the company now has a positive net cash position. Now looking towards the fourth quarter, we do expect our revenue in Q4 to decrease versus Q3 as the downstream goes down through -- goes through year-end inventory adjustments, but on a year-on-year basis, we expect our revenue to continue growth in the fourth quarter. [Foreign Language] Now looking towards next year, there are many risks that we do need to take into account in addition to the usual risks, such as COVID-19, Chinese U.S. trade tensions and the chip supply issues, there's also the possibility of U.S. going through tapering or increasing its interest rates and the further increases in oil and commodity prices, as well as the power supply issues in China. And so given all of this, it's difficult to say that next year business outlook will be very positive. But despite all of that, it is sure that there is definitely growth opportunities, especially for our key products, given the continued growth momentum coming from 5G and automotive that are going through a technology turning point, as well as the continued momentum behind digital transformation, big data and AI-related components demand. [Foreign Language] And so looking forward to next year, we are constantly monitoring changes to our business environment in order to actually increase our production capacity around the segments where there is demand growth by carefully analyzing the market demand expected next year in key -- in each of the sub-segments. Also by continuing to launch differentiated new products, enhancing our productivity by adopting innovative production equipment and also continuing to improve our product mix, our target will be to continue to enhance our overall business capabilities. [Foreign Language] So our target next year is that despite the challenges that are expected, we will continue to focus on improving our business performance throughout next year in order to deliver a higher enterprise value, and at the same time, focus on healthy cash flow management and risk management in order to minimize any possible impact from external factors. [Foreign Language] You've also asked about the RFPCB business, our plans of discontinuing that business and the impact that may have on our overall Substrate Division performance. As you know, the RFPCB market has been contracting for several years and which has increased price competition among the vendors and also due to the lack of any step change technology in RFPCBs, it was very difficult for us to differentiate our products through technology. And so after going through several loss-making years, we have decided to fold that business, and in the future to focus our capabilities on further growing our package substrate business, which is the area where we are expecting high levels of growth. And so once we fold the RFPCB business, that may have a temporary slight decrease in the revenue of our Substrate Division next year. But in the mid- to long term, we are planning to improve the overall margins of that division by further expanding the scale of our package substrate business.

[Foreign Language] The following question will be presented by Goun Whang from KB Securities.

[Foreign Language] My first question is about the MLCC margins, which has been staying at usual -- higher than usual levels. Do you think that the MLCC margins would stay at the elevated levels we're seeing right now even through next year? Second question is about the camera modules for automotive applications. Can the company share its current position or status in the automotive camera module business and also its future outlook?

[Foreign Language] To answer your first question about our MLCC margins, the recent growth in the MLCC margin is driven by 2 major dimensions, one is the overall demand for the downstream end products itself increasing, but also there's the other dimension of the MLCC content per box increasing. While the MLCC market demand itself was growing, we were also focusing on improving our product mix and further enhancing our productivity, resulting in the significant improvement of our margins as you mentioned. Looking towards next year, our focus will remain on further driving our revenue growth with our productivity improvements and also continuing to enhance our product mix to have a greater share of the high-end products, such as the small-size and high-capacitance MLCCs. And also, we -- another focus for next year will be to expand our high-end product lineup for the automotive and industrial applications, such as the high-temperature and high-voltage MLCC. So by focusing on these 3 areas, our target for next year is to deliver higher margins than what we saw this year. [Foreign Language] You've also asked about our camera module business towards automotive applications. This year, we're expecting to see a significant growth in our automotive camera module business as we were able to successfully respond in a timely manner to the increased demand from the major customers. On the application side, there is a greater importance being placed on automotive cameras in order to deliver the correct shape and color detections that are necessary to support the ADAS and the autonomous driving functionality. Also, so there is definitely a demand growth in order to provide a stable autonomous driving performance on the vehicle. And also, we're seeing -- we are expecting to see increased demand for high-specification multi-functional camera modules even for automobiles in order to deliver various driver convenience functionality. Given the fact that we already have a very sophisticated level of technology on lenses, actuators, as well as small packaging technology that we have accumulated through our IT camera module business, we will focus on horizontal expansion of our technology in order to increase our product differentiation and increase our supply to the major customers.

[Foreign Language] The following question will be presented by [ Yomi Tae ] from Mirae Asset Securities.

[Foreign Language] I have 2 questions. The first question is about your automotive MLCC business. Within the MLCC market, the automotive segment is particularly going through a tight supply situation. In that context, can you compare yourself with your major competitors in terms of where you stand in automotive MLCC development and also your lineup versus the competitors for automotive MLCCs? Also, can you give us some of the details of the automotive MLCC revenue and profitability you're seeing currently and guidance for these points going forward? Second question is about the camera modules. I think compared to last year, the mobile OEMs have sort of slowed down their upgrading pace of camera modules. And so in that context, can you share with us the company's outlook on how mobile OEMs will go forward in terms of camera module upgrades?

[Foreign Language] As you know, automotive MLCC plays a very important part with our -- within our overall mid-to-long-term business strategy. It is one of our key growth drivers in the mid-to-long-term. If we assess our current automotive MLCC product lineup, currently, our coverage is relatively small in the high-temperature, high-voltage MLCC segment, but we are planning to gradually expand our lineup and to focus on expanding our position in the high reliability market for EVs and powertrain applications. In the overall automotive MLCC market, the largest share is the high capacitance MLCC. And in the high capacitance MLCCs, our lineup is similar in terms of coverage with that of competitors. And thanks to that, our automotive MLCC revenue has actually been outgrowing the overall automotive MLCC market. In terms of revenue and profitability, even though it -- our automotive MLCC revenue or profitability is still lower compared to our IT MLCC revenue or profitability, at least versus last year on a year-on-year basis, we are expecting to see significant improvements this year in both automotive MLCC revenue and profitability. And looking towards the future, we -- our focus will be on continuing to expand our lineup and to achieve customer approvals and spec-ins early on. And also to focus on expanding our lineup on the high reliability segment, such as the high capacitance products for ADAS, the high-temperature products of 150 degrees Celsius and above and 200-volt plus high-voltage products. So that we would be able to achieve continued revenue growth above market growth and also further improve our profitability. [Foreign Language] You've also asked about the smartphone camera module technology trends, and we do see a shift in the camera module technology. This seems to be the reflection of how people now use and create and consume social media that used to be in the past usually photographs, but now video is taking up a larger share in, for example, the social media content. And that has also shifted the focus of the camera module technology trends more towards better video picture quality and stabilization rather than the lens or actuator technology, which were -- excuse me -- so the focus has shifted towards better video picture quality and stabilization by adopting lens and actuator technology rather than just simply delivering higher pixel counts. Also, we are continuing to see the enhanced specifications in areas such as folded actuator technology in order to deliver better telescopic functions and also the importance of technologies necessary to deliver a slim and smaller camera module that will not interfere with the implementation of fancy smartphone designs even with a large size image sensor. We have been monitoring the market demand by surveying customers and consumers, as well as relying on third-party research data. And these market surveys also seems to point out that there will be greater demand for better video and telescopic functions and also greater demand for smaller camera sizes that would enable the fancy phone designs going forward. And so our response to that is to develop a differentiating camera module products earlier -- early on in order to meet these consumer needs to pre -- proactively propose these differentiated products to our customers, so that we are able to continue to maintain our competitive advantage in the high-performance, high-end camera module market.

[Foreign Language] The following question will be presented by Giuni Lee from Goldman Sachs.

Congratulations on the strong performance. I have 3 questions, all on substrate, first is on pricing. So it is widely expected that the current tightness impacted substrate market could continue for a while. So would like to ask if we can expect to see any additional pricing hikes in fourth quarter '21 or 2022? Second one is, would it be reasonable to think sometime next year as a timeline for your flip-chip BGA business entering into the server end market? And the third question is for the CFO, if I may. As mentioned earlier in the call, there have been several media coverage that you will expand investment on your flip-chip BGA business, considering the tightness in the market and the potential to expand into new applications, would you be able to provide us some color on this year and next year of CapEx plan? [Foreign Language]

[Foreign Language] Regarding the package substrate pricing, as you know, the supply remains tight in all parts of the package substrate market from high end down to low end. Our capacity has been running at full utilization. And we have already made some price adjustments on our package substrate after discussing the situation with our customers. Overall, we think that this upward trend on package substrate prices will be maintained for some time. So going forward, we will respond appropriately by taking into account our mid-to-long-term business prospects, as well as market situation and customer relationships. [Foreign Language] To answer your second question, as we mentioned during our April call, currently, our flip-chip BGA supply is mainly around the PC application, for example, for the laptop thin CPUs, but we have been continuously developing the key technologies necessary for the server applications, such as large body and high multilayer technology. Currently, we have already been invited on to several projects, and so we are working actively with our customers. And we will do our best to enter the server market as early as second half of next year. [Foreign Language] You talked about this year and next year CapEx plan, this year as we mentioned, there was the recovery of downstream market demand, such as smartphones and PCs. Also, there was greater demand for components with new emerging areas such as 5G and EV. And in order to respond to that and capture these opportunities, it appears that this year's CapEx will increase somewhat versus last year, as well as the business plan that we had originally at the start of the year. Regarding next year's CapEx, even though we are still in the process of finalizing our investment plans and business plans for next year, our basic approach would be that we will carefully -- analyze the market demand and have a targeted approach to our investments, so that our investments are focused in the segments where demand growth is expected. So while we will stand by our basic investment principle of executing investments around the high-end, high-growth business areas where we are aligned with the customer demand, we will also continue to maintain principles that will deliver us maximized investment efficiency and healthy cash flow management.

[Foreign Language] And that completes our conference call. If you have any further questions, please forward them to our IR team. Thank you very much. [Portions of this transcript that are marked [Interpreted] were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]