SUMCO Despairs On Legacy Rebound, EVs, China, Visibility Etc...

the company seems surprised by the fact that China has developed its own wafer manufacturing capability...

When we recently published our Q324 review of the Silicon Wafer segment, we didn’t spend much time on SUMCO. The reason for that was simple, there was just way to much to write about the SUMCO earnings call & subsequent Q&A session. In other words, it merited a write up all to itself.

For some background, I should note that SUMCO’s chairman, Mayuki Hashimoto, has a tendency to be unusually frank and forthright in both his prepared remarks and his responses during the Q&A session. This is generally a good thing. You may recall that SUMCO was the first of the silicon wafer manufacturers to sound the alarm on the current downturn and we wrote about this here:

On the latest earnings call, Chairman Hashimoto unleashed a barrage of downbeat, negative, depressing commentary on a wide range of challenges being faced by the company as the current downturn lingers stubbornly on. It was quite extraordinary. Let’s dig in….