Amtech Systems, Inc.

Good day and welcome to the Amtech Systems First Quarter 2022 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that this event is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Eric McMahon of Sapphire Investor Relations.

Good afternoon and thank you for joining us for Amtech Systems Fiscal First Quarter 2022 Conference Call. With me today on the call are Michael Wang, Chief Executive Officer, Lisa Gibbs, Chief Financial Officer, and Paul Lancaster. AMTAC's Vice President of Sales and Customer Service. After close of market today, AMTAC released its financial results for the fiscal first quarter of 2021. The earnings release is posted on the company's website at www.amtacsystems.com in the investor section. During today's call, management will make forward-looking statements. All such forward-looking statements are based on information available as of this date. and the company assumes no obligation to update any such forward-looking statements. These statements are not a guarantee of future performance and actual results could differ materially from current expectations. Among the important factors which could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements are changes in the technologies used by customers and competitors, change in volatility and the demand for products, the effect of changing worldwide political and economic conditions, including trade sanctions, the effect of overall market conditions, including the equity and credit markets, and the market acceptance risks, ongoing logistics, supply chain, and labor challenges, capital allocation plans, and the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Other risk factors are detailed in the company's Securities and Exchange Commission filings, including its Form 10-K and Forms 10-Q. I will now turn the call over to Michael Wang, Chief Executive Officer.

Thank you, Erica. The strong demand for our products continued in the first quarter with bookings of $31.6 million, up 77% year over year, backlog of $48.5 million, up 250% year over year, and revenue of $27.3 million, up 52% year over year, representing yet another record over the past three years. Ongoing logistical challenges, primarily related to domestic shipments from our China facility, along with rising costs and extended lead times, continue to impact our operations. As an example, in the first quarter, we had a number of shipments going from the port of Shanghai to the Americas, where our team navigated the shipping container shortages and port bottlenecks to get our units out. but the higher shipping costs added almost $1 million to our operating expenses, creating a 320 basis point reduction of operating margins. As another example, some of our customers arrange their own freight only to experience days and weeks of delays arranging pickup at our warehouse. Our logistics and supply chain teams are actively addressing these issues, and we are including shipping surcharges where we can to help mitigate the impact. However, we would expect these trends, as well as constraints in our supply chain, to continue in the coming quarters until conditions normalize. These record bookings and backlog within the semi-market are beginning to provide more visibility into coming quarters as it relates to our top-line performance. To place this in context, in prior buying cycles, our backlog for this segment was typically fulfilled over one to two quarters. With a combination of higher demand and longer lead times from our suppliers, our current backlog is extending into the first fiscal year of 2023. We are seeing indications that customers are accelerating their purchase timeline in order to accommodate the constrained supply chain. Additionally, with the expansion of our manufacturing footprint in Shanghai, we are operating at near capacity given our current supply chain, labor, logistics, and pandemic-related challenges. Once these challenges begin to normalize, we will have the ability to increase throughput to even higher levels. I will now turn the call over to Paul Lancaster, VP of Sales and Customer Service. Paul?