Seoul Semiconductor achieved 1.3 trillion won, up 12% despite raw material difficulties

ž   Provisional sales recorded KRW 313 billion in the 4Q, achieving 12.8% growth of annual sales in ‘21 compared to the previous year

ž   Sales growth expected in ‘22 based on the differentiated technologies that were unveiled for the first time at CES 2022

ANSAN, South Korea – Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. (“Seoul”) (KOSDAQ 046890), a global optical semiconductor company, announced on the 7th that it recorded 313 billion won in provisional sales on a consolidated basis for the 4Q 2021. Annual sales in 2021 are expected to reach 1.30 trillion won, which is a 12.8% increase from the previous year.

Seoul Semiconductor met the sales guidance of KRW 310 billion and KRW 330 billion suggested in 3Q through continuous customer diversification and solid performance in the automobile sector. In 4Q 2021, aside from the usual seasonal factors, production decreased due to unstable supply of raw materials and semiconductors, and overall global IT demand for TVs and monitors weakened as LCD panel selling prices rose by 40% level compared to the same period of the previous year. Overcoming these difficulties, Seoul Semiconductor achieved quarterly earnings, up slightly from a year earlier.

Fueled by Seoul Semiconductor’s many future innovative technologies, its annual sales is expected to keep growing in 2022.

On the 5th, Seoul Semiconductor participated in CES 2022, the world's largest IT and home appliance fair, and introduced a large number of future innovative technologies. The technologies presented were LED technologies in the automobile sector that is expected to be a high value-added market, and the introduced technologies were: WICOP mc, a core display technology for autonomous vehicles to communicate with other vehicles, WICOP ADB (Adaptive Driving Beam), and Violeds UV LED sterilization technology for vehicles.

LBL (Low Blue Light) technology, a new technology in the display sector, was also presented for the first time at CES. LBL is a display technology that implements the best image quality and blocks blue light in consideration of the user's eye health. As a Seoul Semiconductor's patented technology, unlike conventional blue light block-filtering, it is differentiated by minimizing only harmful wavelengths (415 to 455 nm) among blue light wavelengths to realize clear image quality without color distortion.

In addition, mini/micro LED, which is scheduled to be mass-produced in 2022, was also introduced. Seoul Semiconductor has been mass-producing mini LEDs since 2021, and in August 2021, it succeeded in developing an LED with a diameter of 1㎛ (micrometer, 1 millionth of a meter) for blue and green lights among the three primary color (RGB) light sources, which were soon applied to premium products of global top tier TV makers. As such, Seoul Semiconductor is becoming a leader in the micro LED market.

As people spend more time indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is a growing interest in indoor high-quality lighting. Seoul Semiconductor's SunLike is a lighting technology optimized for human circadian rhythm by realizing natural light and wavelengths by time. Unlike conventional lighting, the lighting equipped with SunLike technology helps improve students' working memory and learning ability as well as eye health. Sunlike's excellence has already been proven by research teams at Seoul National University in Korea, Basel University in Germany, and Harvard University's medical school, and market reactions and customers are also positive.

Detailed sales, profit and loss in the 4Q of 2021, and sales forecasts in the 1Q of 2022 will be announced in detail in early February.

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About Seoul Semiconductor

Seoul Semiconductor is the world’s second-largest global LED manufacturer, a ranking excluding the captive market, and has more than 14,000 patents. Based on a differentiated product portfolio, Seoul offers a wide range of technologies, and mass produces innovative LED products for indoor and outdoor lighting, automotive, IT products, such as mobile phones, computer displays, and other applications. The company’s world’s first technologies are becoming LED industry standard and leading global market with a package-free LED, WICOP; a high-voltage AC-driven LED, Acrich; a LED with 10X the output of a conventional LED, nPola; a ultraviolet clean technology LED, Violeds; an all direction light emitting technology, filament LED; a natural spectrum LED, SunLike; and more. For more information, please visit www.seoulsemicon.com/en.

Contacts:

Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd.

JinSeop Jung

Tel: +82-70-4391-8555

Email: jjs8732@seoulsemicon.com