The utilization rate of wafer foundry capacity has generally declined, or the industry price war may be set off

Source: IT Home Author: Changhe

    According to Taiwan, China Economic Daily, Samsung‘s chip business profits fell by more than 90% in the last quarter, but its wafer manufacturing business, which competes with TSMC, recorded a new high in the last quarter and the whole year of 2022. Last year‘s profits also increased, reflecting the expansion of advanced manufacturing capacity, and more dispersed customers and application fields.

   However, Samsung frankly said that the pressure of industrial inventory adjustment will not escape this quarter, which will make the capacity utilization rate of wafer foundry business begin to decline. The industry is worried that Samsung is afraid to launch the strategy of price reduction and order grabbing, which is not conducive to manufacturers such as TSMC and Liandian.

    According to the industry analysis, the capacity utilization rate of wafer foundries has generally declined recently, and the capacity utilization rate of Liandian has changed from the previous full load to about 70%. It is said that the capacity utilization rate of some production lines of some manufacturers is only 50%. However, both TSMC and Liandian have stuck to the price. TSMC has increased its price by 6% this year, and Liandian expects the average product price (ASP) to be flat this quarter.

    Taiwan media pointed out that in this context, if Samsung cut prices to grab orders, it would be very attractive to IC design manufacturers and integrated component (IDM) manufacturers who are facing huge inventory pressure and unwilling to pay more manufacturing costs. Samsung can not only fill the capacity gap, but also help to increase market share.

    It is understood that Samsung did not provide the relevant data and quotation dynamics of its wafer foundry capacity utilization rate, but only disclosed the industrial inventory adjustment, which led to the decline of the wafer foundry business capacity utilization rate. However, it is still expected that the demand for automotive and high-speed computing will bring recovery in the second half of the year. It will win new customers with the product competitiveness of the second generation of 3nm process, and has established an advanced packaging team to support the needs of the wafer foundry business.

    In addition, Samsung has updated the information of the most advanced chip manufacturing process. The yield of the 3-nanometer process is stable. The second-generation 3-nanometer process has made rapid progress. It is also developing the 4-nanometer process for automotive applications. This year, it will focus on developing the 2-nanometer process.