Gross margins continued to decline in the quarter, facing a 40% defense.

In a press conference held on November 08, 2022, Mr. Shouren Wang, President of Uni-President, emphasized that this quarter's gross margin estimate has already taken into account the factor of long term foundry contracts, and that only a portion of the company's wafer production capacity has been contracted, which is within the scope of control. In the future, there will be less room for price drops and opportunities for cost reductions, so gross margin performance should gradually stabilize. Looking ahead to this quarter, UMC estimates revenue to be between NT$18.8bn and NT$20bn, equivalent to a quarterly decrease of 3.9% to a quarterly increase of 2.2%. Gross margin will fall to between 38.5% and 40.5%, facing a battle to defend 40% of the company's revenue.

Looking ahead to the first quarter of next year, revenue performance is expected to rebound if there are no major changes.

Shouren Wang, vice president and general manager, said that the inventory of TVs and cell phones is expected to be demineralized to normal levels in the first quarter of next year, and the actual demand is still to be observed, but there is limited room for IC prices to fall in the future. Wang Shouren pointed out that the first quarter of next year, due to the spring holidays, working days are reduced, the traditional low season, the actual demand to observe three key points, including the industry's inventory depletion, whether inflation is under control, and whether the demand for March rebound. Shouren Wang cited an example, such as TV and mobile phone supply chain inventory after a period of de-stocking, the first quarter of next year can be reduced to the normal level, but the overall still depends on the geopolitical and other factors of the environment, assuming that there are no major changes in the next year, the revenue trend will return to the previous seasonal state.

OLED-related products will continue to grow in the future.

Regarding the product line, Wang Shouren said that he is optimistic about the next year. OLED The product development continues to increase not only in mobile phone penetration, but also in laptop, tablet, TV, and automotive. TDDI There are also opportunities for growth, and others such as VR/AR Display Driver ICHigh-end 4K 120HZ and 8K television broadcasts SOCas well as ASIC All have good room for growth.