Samsung Increasing Semiconductor Investment
Due to high demand and high utilization at its semi fabs, Samsung Electronics (005930.KS) is both increasing its semiconductor investment plans and pulling in the timeline for such expansion. Equipment suppliers have indicated that Samsung has increased its expansion plans for its Pyeongtaek 2 fab from an additional 30,000 12” wafers to 40,000 for 1Q, and boosted the annual capacity increase at the plant from 60,000 wafers to 70,000. With this large portion of the increased yearly investment in the 1st quarter (57%), Samsung is pushing to meet the increased demand, much of which is coming from the company itself.
Samsung is also stepping up its investment in 5nm foundry production, increasing those plans by ~54% to 43,000 wafers/month and is expected to allocate its next EUV tool to the 5nm line, rather than DRAM as originally intended. Given there are only two suppliers at the 5nm node, Samsung has little choice but to expand at least in line with competitor Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) or fall further behind TSM, who leads the industry as to 5nm capacity. Samsung has been using EUV on at least one layer of its latest 1znm DRAM, used in the Galaxy S21 5G smartphone, which has reduced cell size by 3.4% when compared to Micron (MU) DRAM and D/R by 8.2% vs. Samsung’s last generation (1ynm).
Last month Korean exports of memory products, leader Samsung’s homeland, grew 14.9% y/y and memory prices rose in February between 3.9% and 7.9% (DRAMeXchange), with server demand expected to increase substantially (8.4% according to the SIA) this year, after a 6.8% increase in total global industry sales last year. Samsung seems to be pushing hard to take advantage of current demand by increasing overall capacity plans and pulling in as much as possible into the 1H of this year, while competitor SK Hynix (000660.KS) recently announced that they will be spending $4.3b US to purchase additional EUV tools through 2015, with existing EUV tools to be introduced at its $3.13b M16 plant in Icheon, South Korea.
Samsung is also stepping up its investment in 5nm foundry production, increasing those plans by ~54% to 43,000 wafers/month and is expected to allocate its next EUV tool to the 5nm line, rather than DRAM as originally intended. Given there are only two suppliers at the 5nm node, Samsung has little choice but to expand at least in line with competitor Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) or fall further behind TSM, who leads the industry as to 5nm capacity. Samsung has been using EUV on at least one layer of its latest 1znm DRAM, used in the Galaxy S21 5G smartphone, which has reduced cell size by 3.4% when compared to Micron (MU) DRAM and D/R by 8.2% vs. Samsung’s last generation (1ynm).
Last month Korean exports of memory products, leader Samsung’s homeland, grew 14.9% y/y and memory prices rose in February between 3.9% and 7.9% (DRAMeXchange), with server demand expected to increase substantially (8.4% according to the SIA) this year, after a 6.8% increase in total global industry sales last year. Samsung seems to be pushing hard to take advantage of current demand by increasing overall capacity plans and pulling in as much as possible into the 1H of this year, while competitor SK Hynix (000660.KS) recently announced that they will be spending $4.3b US to purchase additional EUV tools through 2015, with existing EUV tools to be introduced at its $3.13b M16 plant in Icheon, South Korea.
RSS Feed