ACM Research - Q1 2023
May 5, 2023
Transcript
Operator (participant)
Thank you for standing by, and welcome to the ACM Research first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there will be a question and answer session. To ask a question during this session, you'll need to press star one one on your telephone. To remove yourself from the queue, simply press star one one again. As a reminder, today's program is being recorded. Now I'd like to introduce your host for today's program, Gary Dvorchak, Managing Director of The Blueshirt Group. Please go ahead.
Gary Dvorchak (Managing Director)
Thanks, Jonathan, good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us on today's call to discuss first quarter 2023 results. We released results before the U.S. market opened today. The release is available on our website as well as from Newswire Services. There's also a supplemental slide deck posted in the investor portion of our website that we will reference during our prepared remarks. On the call with me today are our CEO, Dr. David Wang, our CFO, Mark McKechnie, and Lisa Feng, the CFO of our operating subsidiary, ACM Shanghai. Before we continue, please turn to slide two. Let me remind you that remarks made during this call may include predictions, estimates, or other information that might be considered forward-looking. These forward-looking statements represent ACM's current judgment for the future.
They are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Those risks are described under Risk Factors and elsewhere in ACM's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Please do not place undue reliance on these forward-looking statements, which reflect ACM's opinions only as of the date of this call. ACM is not obliged to update you on any revisions to these forward-looking statements. Certain of the financial results that we provide on this call will be on a non-GAAP basis, which excludes stock-based compensation and an unrealized gain or loss in trading securities. For our GAAP results and reconciliations between GAAP and non-GAAP amounts, you should refer to our earnings release, which is posted on the IR section of our website, and look at slide 12.
Let me now turn the call over to David Wang, who will begin with slide three. David?
David Wang (CEO)
Thanks, Gary. Hello, everyone, and welcome to ACM Research, the first quarter 2023 earnings conference call. Please turn to slide three. For the first quarter, revenue was $74.3 million, up for 76% from same quarter last year. Shipments were $89 million, up for 33% from the same quarter last year. Gross margin was 53.8%, and the non-GAAP operating margin was 14.7%. Our operation in the first quarter were impacted by the several factors, including the COVID policy, the Chinese New Year holiday, supply chain challenges related to U.S. restriction, and some delayed delivery to certain customers. We expect our business to improve in the second quarter with expected acceleration in the third and the fourth quarter. Starting with the product. Please turn to slide four.
We had a good growth from our cleaning tools, an increased contribution from our ECP furnace and other technology with a continuous strong product cycle from ECP products, which were more than one-third of our first quarter sales. Single wafer cleaning, Tahoe and semi-critical cleaning grew 41%, driven by single wafer cleaning tools and strong mature nodes demand in China. ACM has one of the broadest cleaning product portfolio in the industry, covering nearly 90% of all cleaning process steps. We recently introduced several important new cleaning tools, including the Bevel Etch tool and a high temperature SDM single wafer cleaning tool, which is important for our international efforts. In Q1, we received the customer qualification of our single wafer wet Bevel Etch tool. ECP and furnace and other technology grew 117%.
Growth in this category was driven primarily by ECP product cycle with some contribution from furnace. Our higher temperature anneal and LPCVD furnaces, including silicon nitride and poly, have expanded to multiple customer and are in qualification. Advanced packaging, excluding ECP service and spare parts, grew from our small base last year and represent about 15% of the sales. This category, including a range of packaging tools, including coater, developer, scrubber, PR stripper and wet etcher and service spare parts. ACM is only company that offers both a full set of wet tools and advanced plating tools. We believe advanced packaging will become more important as the industry looks for packaging innovation such as 2.5D and 3D interposer and fan-out to drive higher performance.
Our product line is very well-suited for the mature nodes and power devices investment we see in the near term for China. We see continued investment in 28nm, 45nm and above nanometer in front-end fab capacity as China is committed to close the gap between its consumption and production of semiconductors. We also see the ramp up of EV production in China as a driving of China-based investment in both power devices and other 28nm and 45nm devices. In this mature node expansion environment, we expect a solid growth from our cleaning tools, especially our Auto Bench, which is well-suited for those applications. Finish up on products. I feel great about both our PECVD and Track platforms.
Similar to our cleaning plant plating and furnace product line, our PECVD and the Track platform have a proprietary technology that we believe we're making them winner with a major customer, both in China and outside China. We are in active discussion with our key customers. They are accepting to our new approach and the technologies, cost, and wafer throughput. Although we do not expect revenue in 2023, we plan to deliver several innovation tools to key customers this year. ACM has built a scale business in cleaning, and we have strong product cycle from ECP, furnace, and other technologies. With the Track and the PECVD, we are moving from proof of concept during the last year to accept to active evaluation with the key customers. At this point, we now believe our differential technology can go head to head with any of the major players.
Moving on to customer, please turn to slide five. I'm pleased with our position with the China-based customer and the progress we are making with the potential new customers in other markets. In China, we believe ACM tools are now used by nearly all the semiconductor manufacturers. Our sales and service teams are working to expand the deployment of each of our major product line across our growing customer base. We continue to gain traction from second and third-tier semiconductor manufacturers, including power, analog, CMOS, image sensor, compound semiconductors, MEMS, and other devices. In the U.S., the evaluation of a key potential customer is progressing well, and we remain optimistic that this could lead to production orders. In Europe, we announced an order for our 1st evaluation tool from top tier customer in the first quarter.
The tool is planned for delivery in the early Q4 this year. We are beginning to build a local service team to support the effort. To support our growth initiatives, we continue to add a facility in China and other region. Please turn to slide six. I will start with update on China. Construction of our Ningbo production and R&D center is on track for initial production in the second half of this year. We took ownership our new headquarter for ACM Shanghai in Zhangjiang this quarter. We plan to move in later this year. This is an important addition for us that we are believe will provide stability for employee, help us attract new talent, and allow us to invest in world-class R&D center to speed up the development of our tools.
Next, in Korea, we have a strong base of more than 70 R&D engineers and more than 50,000 sq ft of leased R&D, administrative, and production facility. ACM Research Korea co-develop our furnace, Track, and PECVD products together with our Shanghai R&D team. As I have noted in previous calls, we have increased our commitment to Korea. We believe a strong commitment to Korea will improve our relationship. We are also adding resource in the U.S. to support ongoing evaluation and additional sales activities. In the first quarter, we leased a facility in Oregon to add to our service support and demonstration capability for R&D and custom activities in the region. As noted on the call last quarter, for 2023, we expect to spend about $100 million CapEx.
This including continued investment in our Ningbo facility, remodeling for our new headquarter for ACM Shanghai, and our investment in Korea and the U.S. Following this important investment, we believe our major spending projects will be complete for next several years. I will now provide our outlook for the full year 2023. Please turn to slide nine. We reaffirm our 2023 revenue outlook to be in the range of $515. First tool on the evaluation in the field. Let me turn the call over to our CFO Mark, who will reveal details for our first quarter results. Mark, please.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Thank you, David. Good day, everyone. Please turn to slide 10. Unless I note otherwise, I refer to non-GAAP financial measures, which exclude stock-based compensation, unrealized loss on trading securities. Reconciliation of these non-GAAP measures to comparable GAAP measures is included in our earnings release. Recall that our operations last year in the first quarter of 2022 were impacted by the Shanghai COVID restrictions. As David noted, our operations in the first quarter of 2023 were impacted by China's relaxed COVID policy, the Chinese New Year holiday, supply chain challenges related to the U.S. restrictions, and some delayed deliveries to certain customers. I will now provide financial highlights for the first quarter. Revenue was $74.3 million, versus $42.2 million in the first quarter of last year. Total shipments were $89 million, up 33%.
Revenue for single wafer cleaning tools and semi-critical cleaning was $36.6 million, up 41% from $26 million in the first quarter of last year. Revenue for ECP furnace and other technologies was $26.6 million, up 117% from $12.2 million in the first quarter of last year. Revenue for advanced packaging, excluding ECP services and spares, was $11 million, up 183% from $3.9 million. Gross margin is 54%, up from 46.9% in the prior year period. This exceeded our normal expected range of 40%-45%. The high gross margin was primarily due to a favorable product mix, with a particularly strong mix of our higher margin products and a lighter mix of our lower margin products for the quarter.
We expect gross margin to continue to vary from period to period due to the variety of factors such as sales volume, product mix, and currency impacts. Operating expenses were $29.2 million versus $27.7 million in the year ago period. The increase was due primarily to higher sales and marketing and G&A costs, partly offset by lower R&D costs. Operating income was $10.9 million, representing 14.7% operating margin versus an operating loss of $7.9 million in the year ago period. We recorded a realized gain of $4 million from the sale of a portion of ACM Shanghai shares of SMIC for the quarter. Recall that the realized gains are included in non-GAAP earnings.
Net income tax expense was $2.9 million compared to income tax benefit of $4 million in the year-ago period. As a result of the change in Section 174 of the U.S. Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, that became effective in January 1, 2022, our effective tax rate has increased primarily due to the new requirement to capitalize and amortize previously deductible R&D expenses. Net income attributable to ACM Research is $9.9 million versus a net loss of $0.6 million in the year-ago period. Net income per diluted share was $0.15 compared to net loss per diluted share of $0.01 in Q1 of 2022. I will now review selected balance sheet items.
Cash, cash equivalents, restricted cash, and time deposits were $381.7 million at the end of the first quarter versus $420.9 million at the end of the last quarter. Total inventory was $473.3 million at the end of the first quarter, up from $393.2 million at the end of last quarter. This includes finished goods inventory of $195.7 million, work in process of $74.4 million, and raw material, $203.2 million. Capital expenditures for the first quarter were about $15 million, which includes spending on our Lingang facilities, normal maintenance spending, and as David mentioned, the purchase of land in South Korea. That concludes our prepared remarks. Let's open the call for any questions that you may have. Operator, please go ahead.
Operator (participant)
Certainly. As a reminder, if you have a question at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. One moment for our first question. Our first question comes from the line of Quinn Bolton from Needham & Company. Your question please.
Quinn Bolton (Senior Analyst)
Hey, guys. Congratulations on the nice results and continued strong outlook. I guess first maybe David and Mark, can you just give us your sense of, you know, spending in the China market, both on sort of the mature nodes, but also including, you know, power semiconductors, silicon carbide. Are you seeing continued strength in those nodes? How sustainable do you think that spending is?
David Wang (CEO)
Okay. Well, actually looking at real electric vehicle growth market in China, you know, pretty, very promising, right? A lot of Chinese people like driving electrical car because, you know, much less gas spending. We see the market gonna grow, and also they're using much more silicon base of their power devices versus silicon carbide, right? We see that probably 12-inch wafer fab and also they're demanding for the IGBT or power devices is accelerating. We see the market will be, you know, steady growth. Also see the multiple fab, multiple customer also aiming for this, you know, very high potential market. You also see that as also our future growth and for both cleaning tool and copper plating tool and the furnace, including PECVD, and the future even, you know, Track.
We see that they're, you know, one of the major driving for the mature nodes. Obviously, 28 and 45nm, also other MEMS devices we see the growth potential by the future few years.
Quinn Bolton (Senior Analyst)
Thanks for that color, David. Mark, I, you know, I know you have been putting a lot of working capital into inventory over the past couple of years.
Balance is now up to, you know, almost $500 million. I guess, you know, is there a point where you start to throttle back on inventory? I guess I was, you know, particularly surprised by the increase in finished goods. You know, your shipments weren't up, you know, that meaningfully. Wondering if you could just give us, you know, your kind of latest thoughts on, you know, as you approach $500 million of inventory on the balance sheet, you know, does that balance start to level out for a period of time?
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Yeah. Hey, thanks, Quinn, on that. You know, for the quarter, Q1 shipments were down, right? The, there were a number of reasons for that we talked about, right? The, the relaxation of the COVID restrictions, you know, where a lot of employees and our customers, you know, caught the illness in December and January. You had Chinese New Year, you know, the adjustments to the U.S. restrictions as well, and some delays. You know, that led to a lower shipment number. Our overall inventory uptick, as you know, it's raw materials, work in process and finished goods inventory. You know, we expect our shipments to rebound, pretty nicely in Q2, and beyond.
you know, that's one driver for the inventory. I think you also know that, the finished goods inventory, you know, most of that includes the evaluation tools that are at our customers. We had an increase quarter-on-quarter from that. We also did have an increased quarter-on-quarter of finished goods inventory that was not shipped to the customer, for those reasons. To answer your question, we do anticipate the, you know, the inventory, it's at an elevated level this quarter. you know, we'd anticipate, you know, that being kind of a high watermark and should be coming down as we move forward.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Great. Thank you, Mark.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Suji Desilva from Roth Capital. Your question please.
Suji Desilva (Senior Equity Analyst)
Hi, David. Hi, Mark. The gross margin in the quarter was above trend. I'm curious, can you remind us which of the segments are above trend that are driving that? I know non-single wafer clean is doubling year-over-year. Is that a pace that can continue, and what are the gross margin implications there?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah, I think, Suji, this is a gross margin, it really depends on, you know, product combination, right? It really depends on how much a portion of the high margin product versus low margin product. I still think our margin still will be, you know, 40%-45%. The reason for that is we're still driving our product. For, you know, all the, like a cleaning staff, you know, advanced single wafer versus also the older bench. For the ECP, we have also front end and back end also too. Let's put it this way, I think we're still probably within our range is still 40%-45%. Maybe until later our PECVD and the Track may become more mature, especially we have a spending to the international market, right? That might be changing.
For the near future, I think 40%-45% is a pretty much good range for our product portfolio and now.
Suji Desilva (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay. All right. Thanks, David. You reiterated the full year expectation. Did the customer delays that you saw in 1Q, are those normalizing recovering as expected right now? I mean, do you expect any lingering impact in the 2023 numbers around COVID or U.S. geopolitical challenges in China?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. There's a certain delay, right? I think they both have some delay from their advanced nodes and also some even delay for their mature nodes too. However, I think those are delayed shipment, we think it still will be probably happen, you know, either, you know, something happens till end of this year, maybe something will happen maybe next year. Also I wanna say that is we see also other new customer coming, right? Looking the whole this year, we see our shipment is still record high. You know, it's real promising. However, those are revenue will come from most new customer, right? That's the reason we still maintain our revenue as we projected.
You know, we'll probably by second quarter later we'll have a more clear picture and then we'll start to, you know, possible changing based on the new, our readout for next six months or beyond.
Suji Desilva (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay. That's very helpful, David. Thank you, guys.
David Wang (CEO)
Thanks, Suji.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Charlie Chan from Morgan Stanley. Your question please.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Hi, David. Hi, Mark. Good evening or good morning. My first question is still about your first quarter revenue. I'm wondering what is kind of unexpected factor, right? Because we all know there's a Chinese New Year, there's COVID policy. I'm just wondering, you know, what kind of the unexpected events. Because I feel like, you know, in terms of the full year target, your quarterly run rate should be like $90-$100 million. It seems like, you know, it is kind of like a minor shortfall. Can you give us a more explanation on that?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. Let me say something maybe Mark add more. Actually, Charlie, our first quarter always lower, right? Obviously there China's New Year, and this year more especially there's a COVID relaxing, which impact even our operation and also our supply chain too. I look at the first quarter, it's the way things are still, you know, pretty good quarter while compared with the year ago, right? I mean, year ago even worse, I know that. I look in the second quarter, obviously will be strong, and we see the third and fourth quarter even stronger and strong, right? That's why we still say, "Hey, first quarter results, it's natural and normal, and we see more of our growth in the, you know, next, you know, three quarter.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Yeah. Charlie, the only thing what I'd add is, if you looked at last year, maybe the first half of the year was about. Typically first half of the year is at 35%-40%, then the second half of the year the remainder. This year, you know, the first half, you know, would be in the 35%, 30%, you know, that sort of similar range, with the back half the rest.
You know, we talked a few quarters ago, when the restrictions on the advanced nodes, you know, first hit and, you know, we are continuing to see, a pause, right, as the overall supply chain and our customers adapt to comply with the rules. That's impacting the first half as well.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Yeah.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Yeah. that sort of pause of the shipping to
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Yeah.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Sometimes, that is something that, you know, we didn't fully capture. Is that a fair interpretation?
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
No, I think we captured that. I mean, that was. You know, we had talked about that, you know, towards the end of last year, you know, that was.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
that was anticipated. Yeah.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay.
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. I would just say there's been some delay on their shipment, right? For certain customer-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
which that probably also-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
You know, give us minor impact from also their revenue in the Q1 too. Those are shipment maybe we think, you know, will be maybe resume, right, in the Q4 or Q3 timeline.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
We don't know yet. Just depends on-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
-the market only, right? that's-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay.
David Wang (CEO)
where some, I call the not fully clear at this moment.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay. Okay. Yeah. I mean, you know, sorry for, you know, asking all those details because I feel like companies is running well, but share price didn't perform. I thought this should because of the first quarter revenue shortfall. That's that's all clear now. The second question actually relates to the first one. If you put a little bit a mid to long-term perspective, right? I mean, the opportunity for China now more depends on, you know, power semi, analog, EV market as you just shared.
I'm wondering, just in terms of the cleaning tool in terms of percentage of CapEx, can you give us some comparison between the mature nodes versus the leading edge, right? For example, if I assume cleaning is at 10% of the mature nodes and 5% of leading edge, is that the right way to think about the opportunity?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. I would say that is still we see the 28nm and the 45nm, somewhat is still major mature nodes driving, right? We'll definitely see-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay.
David Wang (CEO)
the also people's energy for their power device, which is almost like 60nm, 80nm, right, devices.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Right.
David Wang (CEO)
power devices.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
I wanna say in the future, like say next year, one year, two year, we see a lot of our fab building to production the, you know, this power devices. You know, so we see that's still two major driving, 28nm and the 45nm and also, you know.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
the power devices. Looking at real tool, I should say 28 and nano is 80% is a cleaning tool, but 45 above and also including the power device, probably 80% is Auto Bench, right? It's the reverse. Our product portfolio is both cover both application.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
I should say, you know, obviously I see a lot of our demand for Auto Bench as people moving 45-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
Also their power devices, right? Analog devices.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
We see that the market continue to grow, which is the Auto Bench, by the way, we are just bringing the market two, three years ago. We see that as-
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
another driving force for our revenue growth.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay. Thanks. My last one is about your supply chain and also Lingang facility, right? You just mentioned that the long-term growth margin may have upside given, you know, the PECVD and Track contribution. How about Lingang? I remember in your previous earning call, you said Lingang can help you to improve the growth margin. Is that still the case?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. I think there are obviously, you know, even in PECVD, they have a high margin product also, you know, kind of a low margin product, right? Including Track too. We're probably balanced, you know.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
Our customer and also our product portfolio. This moment, I still say maintain 40%-45% is our range. I said unless until we are really have a high margin and a high quality product be proving in the market, which can be, you know, beyond 45%. At this moment I want to stay and maintain our gross margin 40%-45%. Right. That's the, right, you know, near future, our gross margin.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
How about Lingang? Lingang, bigger scale. Yeah.
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. Lingang, I think that we're definitely, we'll probably start production, you know, in the end of this year. They will add more of automation for our assembly, for our production. As long run, we see Lingang will definitely add more value, right, you know, improve our gross margin. Initial, you know, one year, two year, you know, I don't know really, you know, it's really have the real make this fab running smoothly and around the full scale.
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
You know, as a long run, definitely improve, right? Short run, you know, you add some more of a cost maybe. I don't think not much, you know, point difference, right?
Charlie Chan (Senior Equity Analyst)
I see. I see. Okay. Thanks, David and Mark. That's all I have for now. Thank you.
David Wang (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Christian Schwab from Craig-Hallum. Your question, please.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Great. Thanks for taking my questions and congratulations on the continued extremely strong revenue growth outlook versus WFE. I'm wondering, number one, your thoughts. There's rumors in the marketplace that, you know, CXMT is going to do a large IPO, who's historically been, you know, a customer of yours, that could bring in many billions of dollars. If that does occur, you know, should we think of that as something very positive for you over time?
David Wang (CEO)
We see their continued growth, obviously they're also one of our major customer. We have a product cleaning, you know, and all kinds of, you know, I call it cleaning tool, and being evaluated also in production for CXMT, plus our also copper plating, including future we're bringing even in our furnace, even PECVD down the road. We see the CXMT one of the major driving force for future revenue.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Okay. Fantastic. you know, as far as the total available market, you know, that you guys have talked about, you know, getting to a $1 billion worth of business, just in mainland China, and then the rest of the world with upside. I mean, we've got our first evaluation tool in Europe that you've talked about, and a local service team that's going in. You know, you've just announced, you know, that you have a local service team, you know, in Oregon, you know, obviously next to Intel, very large U.S. manufacturer. At what point, you know, what would you have to see, you know, to start including the rest of the world, which is, you know, 10x the size of China, for, you know, long-term, you know, revenue objective?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. I think there, this moment I still say we're still major sales also from China, right? It's clear right now. However, we do see our differential product, you know, obviously cleaning even plus our plating. Even in the future, we believe our furnace and also PECVD will get into the outside China, right? Actually working with a customer in Korea actively for the multi-product and for the rest of the world, including, you know, Taiwan, U.S., and also the Europe. This moment primarily is cleaning. We see also some people interest, our customers interest our copper plating too.
As the time moving on, and as I said, our penetrate more in the global market, and we'll see more of a opportunity for people buying not only our, you know, megasonic cleaning, but by also rest of the cleaning tool and plus the copper plating tool, right? I know the market grow outside mainland China still in a process in a way, but we think eventually we, with our differential product, we should break through other major customer in the outside China. At long run, I still ACM targeting a half revenue come from mainland China, half revenue come from outside mainland China, right? That's our strategic goal to grow ACM to be the major player in this, you know, world market.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Fabulous. Thank you for that clarity. I think it was last conference call, you know, there seems to be, you know, Applied Materials is talking about, you know, everybody's seeing strength in China, right? Applied Materials, you guys, Lam, anybody who's got a presence there, is seeing tremendous strength. I think, you know, the consumption and production closing of the gap, I think, you know, you mentioned, I think it was last quarter that, you know, in the mature node/power, et cetera, you know, that it would probably take, you know, at least three years.
To potentially close the gap. Did I remember that correctly?
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. Obviously, we see that mature.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Hey, operator. I think we lost David's audio. Did everyone.
David Wang (CEO)
Oh, sorry. I guess, I was halfway. Sorry. Maybe. Can you hear me now?
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Yep. Yeah, we can hear you now, David.
David Wang (CEO)
Sorry.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Maybe start over, David, for Christian's question was about the gap of Chinese semiconductor production versus consumption. Yeah.
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. Okay. I see that there obvious demand for their, you know, mature nodes, you know, 28nm-45nm. It's, you know, there's still gap between their consumption rate versus, you know, fabricated in China, right? That gap will gradually, you know, equal reduce as the more fab build out. More important, I see that also this electric vehicle driving more demand, new demand come out for the China market. We see that another new driving force for their, you know, 28nm, 45nm, and also the power devices. So that's the probably two driving force. One is the new demand, another one will reduce the gap between their, you know, production made in China versus the consumption rate.
Christian Schwab (Senior Research Analyst)
Great. No other questions. Thanks, guys.
David Wang (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Mark Miller from Benchmark. Your question please.
Mark Miller (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thank you for the question. Just was wondering if you could give us an impression or what you're estimating. You had the purchase order for the SAPS tools from Europe. You're setting up support for U.S. customer in Oregon. In terms of your sales projections for this year, what percent do you think will come from outside of China?
David Wang (CEO)
Well, Mark, it's very hard to give you precisely, right? We're working, you know, very closely with a, you know, major customer. We also continue to increase our investment, right, in our sales marketing team and service team in outside mainland China. I think we're still in a market exploration in the, I call, the stage. I think we'll have to be, you know, get a, you know, initial product qualified, then get a repeat order, then get a multiple order, right? You get a maybe other I mean, other product get in too. I still see that take time. Looking out, I think still will be next few year, majority still come from mainland China market. We see the market grow, including Korea, you know, U.S., Taiwan, and Europe.
At this moment, very hard to give you know, percentage versus year, right? Really depends on how we progressively or successfully our team make the sales and then service effort in outside mainland China.
Mark Miller (Senior Equity Analyst)
Number of semi firms have done very well supplying EV manufacturers in China. I'm just wondering, you mentioned that it's an opportunity for you. I'm just wondering, could you also kinda give me an impression of what % of sales this year are gonna be or related to EV sales?
David Wang (CEO)
I hard to give you a precise number, but I can say we see a few production line is planning in the building process or is expanding process for this real EV market, right? Which is including power devices, analog, and also their 45, 20nm aiming for their automobile. You know, there's a market too. It's a clear trend in the China fab, and they're very anxiously also they try to get in or prepare for growth for the EV market, you know, in China.
Mark Miller (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. As a reminder, if you have a question at this time, please press star one one on your telephone. One moment for our next question. Our next question comes from the line of Donnie Tang from Nomura. Your question please.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Hi, David and Mark. Can you hear me?
David Wang (CEO)
Yes.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Hey, David, congrats on the strong first quarter results. I, first question is regarding to your product mix in the first quarter. Cleaning tool, the percentage of cleaning tool declined quite significant year-over-year, so which means the non-cleaning tool progress is pretty strong. Previously I think your target is like the wafer cleaning still accounted for a very big portion of this year's sales. The first quarter looks like it has been shrinking a lot. Are you changing your target this year? Should we expect more non-wafer cleaning tools, sales contribution, significantly improve this year? How this will have the impact with the gross margin? Thank you.
David Wang (CEO)
Yeah. Well, actually the first quarter I look in the, you know, detail product mixing, right? Like you said, you know, our cleaning tool is lower than 70%, right, 65%. When I look in real forecast this year, we think that 65% probably is not a whole year number. I still say probably our, you know, cleaning will stay probably 70% range. This year is still major our cleaning. The reason I say that is we see other, you know, our other bench, you know, growing, you know, pretty quickly. Also there's also demand for single wafer cleaning too. I should still say probably 70% is a whole year, our range. Obviously, I can say, you know, furnace is like low and the, you know, I call it, electroplating grow too.
That ratio I think probably 70% is the right proportion, not the 55%.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Okay. Got it. Just a follow-up. For ECP and furnace, et cetera, tools, are the major customers similar to the wafer cleaning tools or, they are maybe different categories?
David Wang (CEO)
pretty much, I should say obviously copper plating is more like we're in both, right? Front and the back end. actually, copper plating we sell so far, you know, 28nm is major, and people still buy 45nm. Even some power devices also buy copper plating too.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Mm-hmm.
David Wang (CEO)
Plus also you can see our, you know, our advanced packaging. All these do the copper plating. We still say copper plating is still continuing to grow.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Mm-hmm
David Wang (CEO)
... you know, for the coming year and, you know, for the coming next year, right? It's a growing market. Also plus we see their furnace has been expanding customer and multiple customer right now. So we'll see that it can be another driving force for our, you know, non-cleaning product category.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Understood. My second question is regarding to the customers, right? For the leading name makers, maker in China, are you still seeing they are expanding the capacity or they are now more like to do some more qualification on the, you know, domestic equipment production line and the incremental capacity expansion maybe need to wait until all the domestic equipment maybe like small production line qualification being passed and to continue the expansion? For the Hynix, recently, there is an industry report mentioned about that Hynix is considering to expand Wuxi Fab to increase some legacy nodes capacity. Are you seeing any signs of Hynix going to expand the capacity in China again?
David Wang (CEO)
We have not seen that sign, right? Obviously, you can see that, you know, DRAM market continue really suffer, right? Pricing, whatever. We have not heard anything about, you know, like you said, you know, Hynix expanding in Wuxi Fab at this moment.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Okay. How about the NAND maker, the leading NAND maker in China?
David Wang (CEO)
Well, because we're obviously we have something delayed, shipment, right? You know, whatever reason, they couldn't do expansion. In terms of when they can restarting the expanding, we really don't know, right? I mean, we don't know what they expand this moment and the, and this month. Obviously, they have the real field order missing puzzle. We don't know yet.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Mm-hmm
David Wang (CEO)
when they can, they can finish that.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Understood. Just a follow-up. For the strong first quarter sales and as well as shipment, who are the major drivers behind the strong sales? Thank you. That's my last question.
David Wang (CEO)
Oh, wow. Okay. It's, you know, it's very hard to give you the precisely, right? Normally we give the customer, a percentage and, I think yearly base, right, Mark? We give them halfway or yearly base.
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Once a year, at the end of the year.
David Wang (CEO)
Once a year.
Yeah.
Yeah, it's hard to give you the quarter this moment. Obviously, as I said, is there, I can see this is still existing customer and also have them, last year, we saw some new customer become, you know, mature and a repeat order, right? Some new customer, we're also facing a strong demand but cannot account the revenue in Q1, right? That's the one thing you should also see that. That's major. There are still, you know, existing customers is a major contribution.
Donnie Tang (Research Analyst)
Understood. Okay. Thank you, David and Mark.
David Wang (CEO)
Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. One moment for our next question. Our next question is a follow-up question from Mark Miller from Benchmark.
Mark Miller (Senior Equity Analyst)
Thank you for the follow-up. I'm just wondering, what was stock-based compensation? Was it around $2 million during the quarter?
Mark McKechnie (CFO)
Mark, it was, it's $2.1 million for the quarter.
Mark Miller (Senior Equity Analyst)
Okay. Thank you.
Operator (participant)
Thank you. This does conclude the question and answer session of today's program. I'd like to hand the program back to David Wang for any further remarks.
David Wang (CEO)
Okay. Thank you, operator, and thank you all for participation on today's call and for your support. Before we close, Gary is going to mention our upcoming investor relations events. Gary, please.
Gary Dvorchak (Managing Director)
Hey. Thanks, David. On May 31st, we'll present at the 20th annual Craig-Hallum Institutional Investor Conference in Minneapolis. Attendance at the conference is invitation only for clients of Craig-Hallum. Please contact them to register and request one-on-one meetings with us. This concludes the call. You may all now disconnect.
Operator (participant)
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for your participation in today's conference. This does conclude the program. You may now disconnect. Good day.