Bob LePage, Marketing Manager, Circuit Technology Center

Mycronic GT's die bonding business (MRSI) had a strong year for orders. Yet, like many industries, it has also been affected by supply chain constraints, which has put tremendous pressure on our procurement teams in the sourcing for parts and materials.

Covid continues to constrain travel; however, we have seen an increase in customer visits to our new US HQ in Massachusetts throughout 2021. We remain vigilant with many of our facility's safety protocols put in place in early 2020 to ensure the health and well-being of all of our staff and customers. Certain employees continue to work from home in a hybrid work arrangement whenever possible.

Mycronic AB has continued to invest heavily in our facilities, products and people in 2021. During the year, we were pleased to announce the opening of our new "Product Demo Center" in Shenzhen, China. Following that opening, Mycronic AB established a new legal entity in China called MRSI Automation (Shenzhen) CO., LTD, also based in Shenzhen, China. This strategic investment by Mycronic AB in China will further broaden our access to the fast growing Chinese market.

The new entity not only strengthens our presence and support in China with many of our key customers, but it also allows us to more effectively support customers in the Rest of Asia, especially Southeast Asia, another hot bed for volume manufacturing of electronic and optical devices.

We were also honored this year to receive two distinguished awards. Firstly, the MRSI-H-TO die bonder was recognized as a 2021 Silver Honoree for the Laser Focus World Innovators Award in the Manufacturing Equipment for Photonic Components category. Secondly, MRSI received the China Optoelectronics Expo Award (CIOE Award) for the latest MRSI-HVM 1.5 micron series of products. These awards reflect our continued priority and focus on innovation to improve our value proposition in key markets.

We look forward to 2022 with a continued investment in talent across the globe and new product innovations as we see increased demand for our products driven by the continued growth in 5G deployments, cloud computing and critical infrastructure. We are optimistic for the electronics assembly industry in 2022 with hopefully some relief in the supply chain as it returns to more normal patterns of behavior.