AXT, Inc. (NASDAQ:AXTI) Q4 2022 Earnings Call Transcript

Morris Young: Yes. I think data center is not helping, but most significantly is the consumer. And the consumer…

Richard Shannon: Okay. All right, great.

Morris Young: …part didn’t take a big inventory correction until recently, and…

Richard Shannon: Yes. We understand their cycle, so that certainly doesn’t necessarily surprising, so that’s fair enough then. Gary, I guess kind of a multipart question here, kind of taking — the topic of inventory, the topic of CapEx and thinking about cash flows this year, you made a prepared remark about trying to burn $10 million to $15 million of inventory this year, which is good to see here given the (ph) here recently. Wonder if you comment also on what your CapEx expectations are for the year especially relative to last year. And since a lot of the build here in CapEx has been indium phosphide, and you’ve got a fairly significant hole here, however temporary it may be here, it seems like you don’t have as much urgency to build at least right away. So, I want to get your sense of — to what degree your CapEx needs to be as high as last year? Let’s just kind of cut it off there.

Gary Fischer: Okay. Well, the short answer is it won’t be as high as last year. In addition to clamping down on inventory, we’re going to put the brakes on CapEx as well. So, I would say, $3 million to $5 million. And we can modify that if things bounce back. We have investments we’d like to make. But Morris has already got his shotgun out and if anyone talks about a lot of CapEx, they’re going to be in trouble. So…

Morris Young: Well, even if business were to pick up, I mean, the spend that we did for last year was because the customer demand is way outstripping our ability to deliver. That’s why we were building very aggressively and even towards second half of the year. So, some of those builds are still hanging out there. So, even if the business were to recover, I think — we do expect it to recover and it will continue to grow, we can handle it. No problem at all.

Gary Fischer: Yes.

Morris Young: And it’s only where — if we are seeing other or two which I hope other consumer product will come in to use indium phosphide, then we’re going to start building again. So, I think the — I hope you understand that it’s a lag, right? I mean, we’re forecasting it’s going to grow. So, we’re going to build the capacity because we don’t want to (ph) or not be able to deliver to our customers. But then, when it’s a cut off, then obviously we put a break on, but there’s some remnant value hanging out there. But I don’t think it’s at risk. Because I think indium phosphide for the near future probably will absorb all those extra capacity we plan to build. Yes.

Richard Shannon: Fair enough. And that’s a…

Morris Young: Yes.

Richard Shannon: Sorry, Morris, didn’t mean to cut you off there. Please, finish.

Morris Young: Oh, no. I finished. I said, it’s not we planned, but we built last year.

Richard Shannon: Okay, fair enough. Last question for me, kind of dovetailing off of one of those remarks in there, Morris, regarding just general sensing applications. I think in an earlier question asked about your large customer and I think if I got you correctly, said you don’t expect any new programs in this current calendar year. How about kind of more broadly thinking other customers and applications regarding sensing, and to what degree are they in early-stage versus late-stage development such as they could impact this year, or perhaps in following years? Maybe just kind of give us the big picture long-term there.