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January 3, 2022
VIEWPOINT 2022: Valentijn van Velthoven, Commercial Director, Boschman Advanced Packaging Technology
• In terms of business, the answer is a resounding "Yes" evidenced by our all-time-high-record Order Intake, driven by the overall semiconductor shortages, but in our case mainly by the scale-up of next generation Power Modules (SiC) for EV drivetrains. • In terms of supply chain, unfortunately not. While we have been managing our supply chain quite effectively up to recently, we now experience signs of downstream supply issues making availability of parts uncertain. That said, we are optimistic that this is a short-term issue throughout supply and logistic chains worldwide, a ripple that we all we need to work through in close collaboration with suppliers and customers. Do you still have employees working from home? Yes, and this will likely remain the way forward. Early on we made the decision that while certain positions -- such as in our tool shop -- are simply not able to work from home, that other staff works as much as possible from home to lower the overall risk. We are lucky that our HQ in Duiven is a spacious set-up, so we have been able to work with sufficient space and safety distance throughout this period. Has your company been affected by the inventory shortages of semiconductor equipment, process materials or capacity in 2021? Unfortunately, yes. As mentioned above, we have been able to avoid shortages for a long period of time due to our dual-sourcing strategy, safety stock and loyal supply chain, but in the last couple of weeks we are starting to see issues arising. Besides parts not arriving on time, a big challenge is that suppliers are unable to (re)confirm lead-times, indicating that there is a lot of uncertainty throughout the supply chain. Are you able to hire enough qualified employees? I believe this is -- and always will be -- a challenge for anyone in the high-tech industry, regardless of size and location. On one hand we are blessed with a very loyal team at Boschman, and we do find good talent in the region, but on the other hand we have continuously multiple open positions in engineering and our tool shop at any given point in time! What are your expectations for the semiconductor and microelectronics industry in 2022? • We believe demand will remain very strong in 2022, especially in our area of focus: sintering and molding for next gen Power Modules, driven by the overall energy transition. • Our unique business model is based on 2 activities: 1. Package Development (co-developing packages for customers) 2. Equipment Solutions for pressure sintering and transfer molding starting from lab-based to high-volume production. We already have a record high order book for 2022 and continue to see strong demand for both activities, in other words: there are still ample of OEMs, Tier 1s etc working to develop new packages as well as packages starting to scale up to high-volume production. There is a good balance for us between both activities. • As previously reported, Automotive/EV is the driving force behind these new technologies in power semiconductor, but we are starting to see these technologies trickling into other end-use applications as the technologies and capabilities become available in the industry at large. If you think about the complete energy system, from (Renewable) Production to (Smart) Transmission & Distribution to (Efficient) Consumption, this makes sense, the end of the day, the overall system is as good or as efficient as the weakest link, so each aspect of the energy system is going through the same transformation. Have you or will you travel again to customer sites or industry conferences in 2022? Yes, obviously as the situation permits. We are preparing for Productronica/Semicon 2021 in Munich as we speak. We're excited to get out there again and meet customers. While we all embraced the digital alternative successfully with tools such as Microsoft Teams etc, face-to-face contact remains of vital importance to foster relationships, innovation, and collaboration. Valentijn van Velthoven, Commercial Director Boschman Advanced Packaging Technology http://www.boschman.nl |
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