Today's hot spots
1. UMC Suzhou was exposed to the epidemic situation, and production was gradually suspended
2. Global chip famine continues to ferment The delivery time of certain types of products has been extended to nearly 2 years
3. Chip demand is booming, and the profits of the world's 9 major equipment manufacturers soared by 50%.
4. ASML's sales in the United States declined for three consecutive years, while those in South Korea and Taiwan increased threefold in the same period
5. Winbond Electric: After-tax net profit increased by more than 9.4 times a year, and it is planned to invest 29 billion yuan to fight advanced processes
6. Toshiba's hard drive shipments and shipment capacity increased at an annual rate in 2021
7. SEMI: Global silicon wafer shipments and revenues rose both in 2021, hitting a record high
01
UMC Suzhou exposed the epidemic situation, and production was gradually suspended
On February 14, UMC announced that its 8-inch fab in Suzhou and one employee of the ship were suspected of being infected, and the ship cooperated with the local authorities to conduct full testing, and production activities were gradually suspended.
The announcement pointed out that the resumption of work will be fully resumed after the test is carried out in cooperation with the approval of the competent authorities.
UMC said that the monthly output value of Hejian only accounted for about 5% of its overall consolidated revenue, so this event had no significant impact on UMC Finance, and the first quarter performance outlook remained unchanged. UMC expects shipments to be flat in the first quarter, with an average selling price of products rising 5%, a gross rate of about 40%, and a market share of the global foundry industry that will continue to expand. The company estimates that UMC's revenue in the first quarter will increase by about 5% quarterly, which will continue to set a record high in the history of a single quarter.
02
Global chip famine continues to ferment The lead time of certain types of products has been extended to nearly 2 years
According to Sourcengine, a U.S. electronic component distributor, the pre-production time of chips from order to delivery in February this year increased by 5-15 weeks compared with October 2021. The average lead time for general-purpose 16-bit processors is 44 weeks, the average lead time for power chips is 37 weeks, and the lead time for specific processors is up to 99 weeks, almost 2 years.
Among them, the delivery time is significantly extended by general purpose products, and the delivery time of DRAM (DDR4 type) is 20 to 30 weeks, which is stable compared with October 2021. Manufacturers give priority to the supply of cutting-edge products, and are slow to expand the production capacity of general products.
McKinsey of the United States pointed out that the production line of the process of 40 nanometers or more that is more used in general products will increase the production capacity in 2021 by only 4% compared with 2020, while the production line of the process of 28 nanometers or less for cutting-edge products will increase by 13%. Demand for generic products is growing and is not expected to be met in the short term.
03
Chip demand is booming, and the world's 9 major equipment manufacturers have made a profit of 50%.
According to the Nikkei Shimbun, due to the strong demand for chips, but also led to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment market is hot, Tokyo Weili Kechuang and other global 9 major semiconductor equipment manufacturers performance continued to be prosperous, last quarter (October to December 2021, partly From November 2021 to January 2022) 9 equipment manufacturers net profit showed growth, the total value of 7.2 billion US dollars, an increase of 50% over the same period last year, profit for the ninth consecutive quarter showed growth.
According to the report, Japanese equipment manufacturers have also increased their profits higher than overseas manufacturers because they have taken the earlier step to ensure parts, so that production/shipment can be carried out smoothly, and inventory management (Japanese companies tend to hold more inventory in response to unpredictable events such as disasters). Inventory will lead to increased costs, so it is better to keep inventory to a minimum as much as possible, but in the chaos of the supply chain, it is advantageous to have more inventory.
Last quarter, among the world's top 9 equipment manufacturers, the top 4 manufacturers in terms of profit growth were all handled by Japanese factories, of which Screen Holdings' net profit in the previous quarter soared by 1.6 times (more than 160% over the same period last year), ranking first among 9 manufacturers, followed by a 1.4 times increase in Tokyo Weiji Kechuang, a 1.1 times increase in Advantest and an 87% increase in Disco. In addition to the above 4 Japanese factories, the top 9 equipment manufacturers including the United States Applied Materials, KLA, Colin R&D, Tereda and the Netherlands ASML also include the above 4 japanese factories.
04
ASML's sales in the United States declined for three consecutive years, while South Korea and Taiwan increased threefold in the same period
According to Taiwan media ETNews, the sales of ASML, the global leader of lithography machines, have declined in the United States for 3 consecutive years, in stark contrast to this, the sales of ASML in South Korea and Taiwan have increased by as much as 3 times in the same period, proving that the United States has insufficient investment in semiconductor production infrastructure.
Earnings reports show that from 2019 to 2021, ASML's revenue in the United States fell by about 20%. From 1.98 billion euros in 2019, it decreased to 1.657 billion euros in 2020 and 1.583 billion euros in 2021. During the same period, ASML's sales in Asia increased significantly. In South Korea, a major semiconductor production site, sales nearly tripled from EUR 2.202 billion in 2019 to EUR 6.223 billion in 2021. Taiwan also grew from 5.357 billion euros in 2019 to 7.327 billion euros last year, an increase of 37%.
Behind the growth of Korea and Taiwan, South Korea's Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have introduced a large number of EUV lithography machines to expand cutting-edge microprocessing capabilities, and TSMC has invested heavily in semiconductor equipment, which has also driven sales growth.
Annual sales also doubled in Chinese mainland, which was banned from asML exporting its core EUV equipment by the U.S., to €2.74 billion in 2021, from €1,377 million in 2019. According to analysis, Chinese mainland buy more lithography equipment than the United States. In addition to the regulated EUV equipment, lithography equipment such as ArF, KrF, and i-wire has been introduced.
The decline in ASML sales in the U.S. proves that U.S. investment in semiconductor production infrastructure has not been enough so far. By 2020, the United States lacks the will to invest in semiconductor fabs. According to the analysis, this is because Intel announced its late entry into the foundry field, and Micron had been skeptical of EUV devices.
05
Winbond Electric: Net profit after tax increased by more than 9.4 times a year, and it is planned to spend 29 billion yuan to fight advanced processes
Storage manufacturer Winbond Electric held a corporate briefing meeting on the 11th, pointing out that in 2021, benefiting from the rising price and shipment of DRAM and Flash, coupled with its investment in Nuvoton Technology, the performance of strong growth, the annual consolidated revenue of 99.570 billion yuan (NT$, the same below, about 22.684 billion yuan) hit a record high, after-tax net profit increased by more than 9.4 times.
Against the backdrop of strong growth, Winbond's board of directors approved a capital budget of NT$28.99 billion, an increase of nearly 200% from RMB9.82 billion in 2021, which will be used to promote DRAM and Flash processes and promote the Kaohsiung plant into mass production in the fourth quarter.
Chen Peiming, general manager of Winbond Electric, said that the inventory correction of niche DRAM customers is over, supply and demand tend to be balanced, and applications from WiFi 6/6E and WiFi 7 next year, industrial and security control will drive the demand for niche DRAM, and the shipment of vehicle DRAM will be smooth. In the NOR Flash part, the main suppliers have not significantly expanded production until 2023, including PC, network communications, security, vehicles and other stable demand, Winbond Order Visibility and market share continue to increase.
Chen Peiming said that the problem of the length and short material of the client production chain has gradually eased, with 90% SoC in place, the first half of the year is estimated that storage products can reach the balance of supply and demand, and whether the overall production chain in the second half of the year will still be difficult to predict, just as the epidemic is still serious, but the world may only be left in Taiwan and Chinese mainland is still pursuing zero, many countries have decided to coexist with the epidemic, with the normalization of life, the change in demand for electronic products remains to be seen.
06
Toshiba's hard drive shipments and shipment capacity increased at an annual rate in 2021
Recently, Toshiba Electronic Components and Storage Devices Co., Ltd. (Toshiba) announced that in 2021, hard disk shipping and shipping capacity increased by 4% and 61%, respectively, with total shipments reaching 54.68 million units and a capacity of 187.24 EXB. Near-line, enterprise-class performance hard disks, built-in hard disks/consumer electronics hard disk product shipments and shipping capacity have increased steadily, of which near-line hard disks ranked first in applications, with shipments increasing by 73% and shipment capacity soaring by 114%.
In addition, Toshiba's single-quarter nearline hard drive shipments in the fourth quarter of 2021 also hit a new high, exceeding 2.9 million units, and the total shipment capacity reached 33.93 EXB, an increase of more than 94% over the same period last year. Toshiba leads the industry in all eight areas of annual growth and is the only hard drive company to see shipments grow in 2021.
07
SEMI: Global silicon wafer shipments and revenues rose both in 2021, a record high
According to the annual report of wafer industry analysis released by semi (Silicon Manufacturers Group, SMG), a subsidiary of SEMI (International Semiconductor Industry Association), global silicon wafer shipments in 2021 increased by 14% compared with 2020, and total revenue increased by 13%, exceeding the $12 billion mark, all of which set a record.
Total silicon wafer shipments in 2021 surpassed the 12,407 million square inch (MSI) in 2020 to 14,165 million square inches to meet the growing demand for semiconductor equipment and a wide range of applications, whether 12-inch, 8-inch or 6-inch wafers. Total revenue was $12,617 million, surpassing the record of $12,129 million set in 2007.
Silicon wafer shipments and revenue trends year by year, Source: SEMI, February 2022
*Shipment data includes only semiconductor industry applications, excluding photovoltaic applications.
Neil Weaver, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Vice President of Product Development and Application Engineering at Shin-Etsu Handotai America, said: "Silicon wafer shipments and significant annual revenue growth are a testament to how much the contemporary economy relies on silicon wafers. Wafers are the locomotives driving digital transformation and emerging technologies that shape the way we live and work in the future."
P.S.: After the uproar in the industry and the Western Digital material pollution incident, research agency TrendForce expects to wait until mid-March to resume normal production as soon as possible, and reverse the second quarter of 2022, driving the price of NAND Flash to rise.