1. Industry: The recovery of wafer foundry is not as good as expected, and a price war will start
According to the Science and Technology Board Daily citing Taiwan’s Economic Daily, the recovery of the semiconductor industry is not as good as expected. According to supply chain industry insiders, wafer foundries based on mature manufacturing processes will fill capacity utilization in the second quarter. The strategy has not worked well, and has recently turned to a price war. For the OEM price of 12-inch mature process, large customers can reduce the price by up to 20%; the market for 8-inch mature process OEM is even more bleak, and the price reduction will not attract customers.
2. It is said that Qualcomm and MediaTek’s production scale in the second half of the year is “quite conservative”
According to Taiwan’s Electronic Times quoted by Science and Technology Board Daily, Qualcomm and MediaTek, two major mobile phone SoC makers, have not disclosed their views on the demand in the second half of the year, but market sources say that the scale of the two companies’ production in the second half of the year is quite conservative, even if they both have new flagship products. launch, but shipments are likely to be very conservative. Some people in the industry believe that it is correct to maintain a conservative film investment strategy. After all, the mobile phone market has not seen any turning point in 2023.
3. Phison: Original manufacturers of NAND flash memory have a strong willingness to raise prices, and some master controllers are in short supply.
According to Kechuang Daily citing Taiwan Economic Daily, Pan Jiancheng, CEO of NAND flash memory factory Qunlian, said that the inventory level of the NAND flash memory chip market is still high, and the price has fallen below the manufacturer’s bottom line, affecting profitability. Willingness to raise prices starting in July.
In addition, the current demand for some main control chips is urgent, and some models are even in short supply. The demand for NAND solid-state hard disk modules is also slowly increasing. With the arrival of the traditional peak stocking season in the third quarter and the relatively low price of NAND, the demand for NAND storage modules is growing slowly recently, and customers are gradually launching large-capacity SSD storage products.
4. Nanya Branch: The sales volume of DRAM has increased significantly, and the fourth quarter is expected to balance supply and demand
According to China Taiwan Business Times, DRAM factory Nanya Branch held a law conference on the 10th. General Manager Li Peiying pointed out that the DRAM market has bottomed out in the second quarter, and the demand for mobile phones and TVs will gradually improve in the second half of the year. The four seasons tend to be balanced, but we still need to observe the recovery strength of the mainland domestic demand market, the US cloud market and the global economic boom.
Nanya announced its self-concluded financial report on the same day. The revenue in the second quarter was NT$7.027 billion, an increase of 9.4% from the previous quarter; reduce. The net operating loss was NT$3.185 billion, the operating profit margin was negative 45.3%, a decrease of 0.4 percentage points from the previous quarter, the non-operating income was NT$1.264 billion, the net loss was NT$771 million, and the net profit margin was negative 11.0%.
5. TSMC’s revenue in June was NT$156.404 billion, down year-on-year and month-on-month
Wafer foundry TSMC announced on the 10th that the consolidated revenue in June 2023 will be approximately NT$156.404 billion, a decrease of 11.4% from the previous month and an 11.1% decrease from the same period last year. The cumulative revenue from January to June 2023 is approximately NT$989.474 billion, a decrease of 3.5% from the same period last year.
6. Japan will provide subsidies to silicon wafer factory Sheng Gao to increase production capacity
According to relevant reports quoted by IT House, to revive the semiconductor industry, the Japanese government announced that it will provide a subsidy of 75 billion yen to Sumco, a major producer of silicon wafers, to achieve higher production capacity. According to the Nikkei News, Seiko plans to invest 225 billion yen in plant and equipment, of which one-third of the cost is subsidized by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry of Japan.
Sheng Gao is the world’s second largest semiconductor silicon wafer factory. Its main production facility is located in Saga County, Kyushu Island. It plans to build an advanced chip factory in a nearby town. The new factory is expected to start wafer production in 2029.
7. Hon Hai and Indian companies terminate cooperation in semiconductor plant construction
According to China Taiwan Business Times, Hon Hai said on the evening of the 10th that its cooperation with Vedanta in the semiconductor field will be terminated, and that it will no longer participate in the operation of the joint venture between the two parties. In the future, this company will be fully owned by Vedanta.
Hon Hai originally planned to build a 28nm 12-inch wafer fab in a joint venture with Vedanta, which is expected to be put into production in 2025. At the request of the Indian government, Hon Hai and Vedanta invited STMicroelectronics as a technology partner to provide wafer production technology. If the investment is successful, it will receive an incentive bonus of US$930 million from the Indian government.