RISK AND CONCENTRATIONS

12 Months Ended

Oct. 31, 2021

NOTE 16 – RISKS AND CONCENTRATIONS

Financial instruments that potentially subject us to credit risk principally consist of trade accounts receivable and short-term cash investments. We sell our products primarily to semiconductor and FPD manufacturers in Asia, North America, and Europe. We believe that the concentration of credit risk in our trade receivables is substantially mitigated by our ongoing credit evaluation process and relatively short collection terms. We do not generally require collateral from customers. We establish an allowance for credit losses based upon factors surrounding the credit risk of specific customers, historical trends and other information.

Our cash and cash equivalents are deposited in several financial institutions, including institutions located within all of the countries in which we manufacture photomasks. Portions of deposits in some of these institutions may exceed the amount of insurance available for such deposits at these institutions. As these deposits are generally redeemable upon demand and are held by high quality, reputable institutions, we consider them to bear minimal credit risk. We further mitigate credit risks related to our cash and cash equivalents by spreading such risk among a number of institutions.

As of October 31, 2021 and October 31, 2020, one customer accounted for 20% and 24% of our net accounts receivable, respectively, and, as of October 31, 2021, another customer accounted for 12% of our net accounts receivable balance. One customer accounted for 17%, 16% and 15%, of our revenue in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively, and another customer accounted for 12%, 14% and 16% of our revenue in 2021, 2020 and 2019, respectively.

We operate as a single operating segment as a manufacturer of photomasks, which are high precision quartz or glass plates containing microscopic images of electronic circuits for use in the fabrication of IC’s and FPDs.

As of the balance sheet dates, our property, plant, and equipment, net and net assets were, by geographic area, as presented below.

	October 31, 2021				October 31, 2020
	October 31, 2021				October 31, 2020
	Property, Plant and Equipment		Net Assets		Property, Plant and Equipment		Net Assets


China	$	285,756	$	210,437	$	262,800	$	180,404
Taiwan		129,660		341,291		123,979		309,911
United States		137,049		173,062		130,164		225,411
Korea		140,380		254,357		110,815		228,579
Europe and Other		3,708		21,415		3,717		17,961

	$	696,553	$	1,000,562	$	631,475	$	962,266