News: LEDs
13 August 2021
Seoul Semi’s record revenue in Q2 up 25.6% year-on-year
For second-quarter 2021, South Korea’s Seoul Semiconductor Co Ltd has reported record revenue of KRW336.8bn, up 25.6% year on year.
Double-digit growth continued across all divisions including Display, General Lighting and Automotive, while the Automotive division led growth by doubling its revenue year-on-year.
Operating profit was up 70.3% year on year to KRW23.4bn (operating margin of 6.9% of revenue). Net profit for first-half 2021 reached KRW43.9bn, already exceeding 2020 full-year net profit of KRW29bn, which implies higher dividend income opportunities for investors towards year-end, says the firm.
“We started the quarter against concerns regarding semiconductor shortage within the car industry manufacturing value chain,” says Seoul. “However, we managed to overcome headwinds thanks to structural growth from WICOP [wafer-level integrated chip on PCB], our patented LED chip technology with a robust structure. WICOP is now applied to more than 102 car models globally this year as our automotive division entered the secular growth stage,” the firm adds.
WICOP is designed to be a compact form factor suitable for slim and thin lenses, as it does not require wire bonding or packaging. Also, due to its long product lifetime and high efficiency of heat conductivity, WICOP is being actively applied to TV backlighting LEDs.
For third-quarter 2021, Seoul Semiconductor expects record revenue of KRW340-360bn, up 3-9% year on year (driving year-to-date revenue over KRW1 trillion). “In the second half, mass production for the mini-LED, one of the next-generation display technologies, is expected to begin,” says Seoul. “On top of that, we already raised our capital expenditures in the first half to cope with an upbeat demand forecast for general lighting and automotive LEDs,” it adds.
