AXT struggles to gain customer confidence
AXT has blamed its low revenue for the recent quarter on its GaAs substrate customers requiring longer than expected qualification periods.
The compound semiconductor substrate manufacturer's revenue for the second fiscal quarter was $6.0 million, a fall of $0.6 million sequentially, and down 37% year-on-year.
GaAs substrates sales were 13 percent lower than the previous quarter, and generated $4.5 million. InP substrates and raw materials contributed $280,000 and $1.3 million, respectively.
Second quarter gross margin was 2.1%, and the loss for this period was $3.3 million.
"My main focus is to restore the reputation and credibility in AXT," remarked Phil Yin, AXT's CEO. He said that the quality issue that the company faced required "focused attention" and that although progress had been made further work was needed.
The company hopes that its new organizational structure, which includes the creation of the positions of chief operating officer and chief technology officer, will help to restore the company's revenue (see related story ).
AXT estimates that it will need to increase revenue to $14 million per quarter, and deliver a gross margin of 15-20%, just to break-even.
