Viewpoint Peter Dijkstra

Viewpoint Peter Dijkstra

In this viewpoint our Chief Commercial Officer, Peter Dijkstra, looks back at 2022 and forward at 2023.

2022 was another record year for Trymax Semiconductor Equipment B.V.. 2022 was marked for multiple changes, we moved to a new manufacturing facility, supply chain issues, travel constraints and a new quality system. Despite all these changes and challenges we managed to book more orders and ship more systems.

The impact of COVID-19 is still present, in some countries it disappeared completely while other regions cope with lock downs on a daily base. From a human point of view, colleagues suffer from long covid and the “normal“ 5 days at the office has changed to 2 -3 days in the office and other days working from home. Public transport reduced as more people prefer to drive in their own car. This increase in cars does result in stronger European norms for a clean environment and therefor a strong governmental push for electrical cars.

As a result, we see that the automotive market is growing strongly. While other markets also grow, however at a slower pace. Besides automotive, we also notice that the storage and availability of data has increased dramatically over the past period and the forecast is very ambitious. People are now used to have high speed access to data everywhere.

Trymax did benefit from this changing and increasing demand and we’ve seen a strong increase in IC-Logic (controllers), Discrete (power electronics) and Optoelectronic (mini and Micro-led) devices. Besides the change in markets, we have also gained more recognition in the market and supplied multiple tools to major OSAT’s, foundry services and IDM’s. To be able to cope with the increase in demand for systems, it was the right decision to move to a new facility with 27  manufacturing bays instead of 7 . The inauguration of the building and participation of customers and suppliers is still a very memorable moment.

The supply chain concerns have been highly impacting the way of working. We increased the interaction with suppliers, implemented plan B, plan C, and the level of creativity and out of the box actions was, and still is impressive. Today, chapeau for the Trymax team that is able to satisfy all our customers.

COVID-19 and the enormous pressure on supplying tools is finished, but now another challenge is on the table, the downturn.  Different market studies predict a decrease of 15- 22% and yes, the first signs of customers delaying their shipments is already noticeable. I am convinced that 2023 will be another year in which we have to demonstrate our ability to adapt to situations and demonstrate our quality and deliver targets on time.

Finally, I would like to thank, on behalf of the whole Trymax team, customers and suppliers for the trust and confidence we have received.

Peter Dijkstra
Chief Commercial Officer