Intel to Reclaim Number One Semiconductor Supplier Ranking in 2019

According to IC Insights, Intel is to reclaim the number one semiconductor supplier ranking in 2019 from Samsung due to the downturn in Memory (DRAM and NAND). The top 3 memory suppliers (Samsung, SK Hynix, and Micron) are according to IC Insights forecast to register ≥29% year-over-year declines in 2018 with SK Hynix expected to decline the most by a 38% down in sales 2019.

The expected top 15 semiconductor (IC and O-S-D—optoelectronic, sensor, and discrete) sales ranking for 2019 is shown above.  It includes six suppliers headquartered in the U.S., three in Europe, two each in South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan.

Source: IC Insights (LINK)

SK Hynix: SK Hynix Starts Production of 128-Layer 4D NAND, 176-Layer Being Developed

SK Hynix has announced it has finished development of its 128-layer 1 terabit 3D TLC NAND flash. The new memory features the company's charge trap flash (CTF) design, along with the peripheral under cells (PUC) architecture that the company calls '4D' NAND, announced some time ago. The new 128-layer TLC NAND flash devices will ship to interested parties in the second half of this year, and SK Hynix intends to offer products based on the new chips in 2020.1 Tb 128-Layer '4D' TLC NANDSK Hynix's 1 Tb 128-layer TLC NAND chip features four planes as well as a 1400 MT/s interface at 1.2 Volts. 

"SK Hynix has secured the fundamental competitiveness of its NAND business with this 128-Layer 4D NAND," said Executive Vice President Jong Hoon Oh, head of global sales & marketing. "With this product, with the industry's best stacking and density, we will provide customers with a variety of solutions at the right time."

rSource: Anandtech LINK

US-China Trade War—DRAM Price to Drop Further 15%

US-China Trade War—DRAM Price to Drop Further 15%: DRAMeXchange, tech market intelligence firm TrendForce's memory and storage branch, announced that it expects Huawei's blacklisting by the U.S. government to contribute to a DRAM price drop of up to 15% in the third quarter. The DRAM market has already struggled amid falling demand, inventory surpluses, and other problems. 

 

Those problems have led to steady price drops throughout 2018 and the first half of 2019. Memory companies have already felt the sting of these price drops--Samsung even ceded the semiconductor throne to Intel in May because its profits had dropped so much in recent quarters. Losing Huawei as a customer is expected to make things worse.

 

 

Source: Tom´s Hardware LINK

 

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By Abhishekkumar Thakur

Samsung Electronics will maintain its DRAM production volume

Samsung Electronics will maintain its production volume without reducing memory semiconductors such as DRAMs. This is a different strategy than the second and third largest memory semiconductor makers SK Hynix and Micron announced their plans to cut production. According to Samsung Electronics, the semiconductor market is expected to improve from the second half of the year as early as 3Q, and it has been said that it does not cut production for preemptive countermeasures.

• SK Hynix, the second-ranked maker, also announced that it will reduce its NAND flash wafer input this year by more than 10 percent from its 1Q earnings release. 
• Micron has announce that it will cut DRAM and NAND flash by 5% each to resolve supply-demand imbalances and inventory problems last month. 

Source: www.asiae.co.kr LINK

 

Samsung Electronics also announced last week that it will invest 133 trillion won in memory and non-memory semiconductors by 2030 (LINK). 

 

 

The investment plan is expected to help the company to reach its goal of becoming the world leader in not only memory semiconductors but also logic chips by 2030. The company also plans to create 15,000 jobs in R&D and production to bolster its technological prowess. (Source: Samsung)

SK Hynix confident of memory chip recovery after quarterly profit drop

SK Hynix Inc said on Thursday it was confident of a recovery in memory chips later this year due to rising demand from data centres, after the South Korean chipmaker posted its smallest quarterly profit in more than two years.

 

Source: Reuters LINK

SK Hynix completes expanded DRAM fab in Wuxi China

CET News reports that SK Hynix has completed an expanded fabrication plant (C2F) in Wuxi, China. C2F is an expansion of the existing DRAM production line, C2, in Wuxi. The Company decided to expand its production line in 2016 to solve the shortage of production space due to technology migration.

Source: CET News LINK

 

SK hynix wins nod to build semiconductor cluster near Seoul valued at 120 trillion won ($136 billion)

SK hynix on March 27 won approval for its plan to build a semiconductor cluster in the Seoul metropolitan area as the government decided to lift development regulations in the region. The update on the project, valued at 120 trillion won ($136 billion) came after the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy requested the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport last month to ease regulations that limit the total size of industrial zones in the area.

Source: The Korea Herald LINK

SK Hynix plans to spend $107 billion building four memory chip plants

SK Hynix's plans for the factories, producing DRAM and next-generation chips, come as chipmakers prepare for a surge in demand to power new technology such as 5G and artificial intelligence. 

Source: CNBC (LINK)

South Korea continues bold investments in memory sector

South Korea is a global semiconductor powerhouse, with semiconductor output recording an increasing ratio of its total annual exports, surging from 12.6% in 2016 to 17.1% in 2017, and further to 21.2% in the first 11 months of 2018. The significant growth momentum has largely resulted from constant heavy investments by major players Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix in memory solutions development, technology upgrades and capacity expansions, as well as in foundry and even packaging process advancement.

In its latest major investment project, Samsung is building its second semiconductor plant in Pyeongtaek at a total cost of US$27.7 billion to make 3D NAND flash and DRAM, with investment and production scales double those of its first plant in the Korean city. After completion by mid-2019 with official run slated for the second half of the year, the new plant will have monthly capacity of 130,000 wafers for DRAM alone.

Continue reading: DIGITIMES LINK

Top-3 memory chipmakers combined DRAM revenues hit record high in 3Q/201818

The world's top-3 memory IC vendors - Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix and Micron Technology - saw their combined DRAM and flash memory revenues climb to a record high of US$37.3 billion in the third quarter of 2018.

The combined revenues for third-quarter 2018 represented increases of 8% sequentially and 36% on year, thanks mainly to demand for servers and smartphones that come with higher density memory specs.

DRAM chip sales accounted for as high as 71% of the combined memory chip revenues generated by the top-3 vendors in the third quarter of 2018, Digitimes Research indicated. The top-3 memory chip vendors saw their combined DRAM memory sales reach US$26.4 billion in the third quarter, up 10% sequentially.

Source: DIGITIMES LINK

SK Hynix : Announces 1Ynm 16Gb DDR5 DRAM

(marketscreener.com) SK Hynix Inc. Announces 1Ynm 16Gb DDR5 DRAM2018.11.15 Seoul, November 15, 2018 - SK Hynix Inc. (or 'the Company', www.skhynix.com) announced that it has developed 16Gb (Gigabits) DDR5 (Double Data Rate 5) DRAM, the industry's first DDR5 to meet the JEDEC standards. 

 

The same 1Ynm process technology used for the recently-developed 1Ynm 8Gb DDR4 DRAM was applied to the new DRAM, giving an industry-leading competitive edge for the Company. DDR5 is a next-generation DRAM standard that offers ultra-high speed and high density with reduced power consumption as compared to DDR4, for use in data-intensive applications such as big data, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. SK Hynix successfully lowered the operating voltage from 1.2V to 1.1V, achieving 30% lower power consumption compared to the previous generation, DDR4 DRAM. The new 16Gb DDR5 DRAM supports a data transfer rate of 5200Mbps, about 60% faster compared to 3200Mbps of the previous generation, with which it can process 41.6GB (Gigabytes) of data-11 full-HD video files (3.7GB each)-per second. The Company provided a major chipset maker with RDIMM (Registered Dual In-line Memory Module) and UDIMM (Unbuffered DIMM) for server and PC platforms, with more memory banks-doubled from 16 to 32 banks-in accordance with the JEDEC DDR5 standards. 'Based on technological advancements that allowed the industry's first DDR5 DRAM to meet the JEDEC standards, SK Hynix plans to begin mass producing the product from 2020, when the DDR5 market is expected to open, to actively respond to the demands of clients,' said vice president Joohwan Cho, the Head of Volume Product Design Group. According to IDC, a market research institute, demand for DDR5 is expected to rise from 2020, accounting for 25% of the total DRAM market in 2021 and 44% in 2022.

Source: 4-traders LINK

SK Hynix 96-Layer 512Gb TLC NAND

SK Hynix Inc. Launches the World’s First ‘CTF-based 4D NAND Flash’ (96-Layer 512Gb TLC)

Seoul, November 4, 2018 – SK Hynix Inc. (or ‘the Company’, www.skhynix.com) launched the world’s first 96-Layer 512Gb (Gigabit) ‘CTF based 4D (Four-Dimensional) NAND Flash (4D NAND)’ based on its TLC (Triple-Level Cell) arrays, using 3D CTF (Charge Trap Flash) design paired with the PUC (Peri. Under Cell) technology. The Company will start the early stage of mass production of the 96-Layer 4D NAND within this year. A single 512Gb NAND Flash chip can represent 64GB (Gigabytes) storage.

Source : SK Hynix (LINK)

SK Hynix posts record third-quarter profit as chip outlook dims

South Korea's SK Hynix Inc posted record third-quarter operating profit on Thursday despite softer chip prices, beating expectations thanks to a seasonal sales boost for mobile devices and strong server demand.

Source: Reuters LINK

Samsung, SK Hynix stepping up DRAM EUV technology R&D

Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix have already kicked off their respective DRAM EUV technology R&D, with Samsung likely to soon move the process to commercial production, according to Korea media reports.

 

Samsung has announced that it will soon incorporate EUV technology into 7nm fabrication process before extending the technology to DRAM production, Korea's Business Post has reported.

 

SK Hynix recently also announced a plan to build a new DRAM plant in Icheon City, South Korea, with the plant to adopt the latest EUV technology now under development by the company.

 

Source: DIGITIMES LINK

SK Hynix to Start Producing 96-Layer 3D NAND Flash Chips

SK Hynix will hold a completion ceremony for its M15 semiconductor plant in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, on October 4 and start producing fifth-generation 96-layer 3D NAND flash chips. This will further solidify its position as the world’s second-largest memory semiconductor manufacturer.

The company invested 15 trillion won (US$13.5 billion) in M15, which will produce fourth-generation 72-layer NAND flash chips before churning out the 96-layer NAND flash chips from early next year. The latter is currently the most advanced 3D NAND technology, in which 96 cells as minimum data storage units are stacked for a 30% to 40% improvement in speed, capacity and power consumption as compared with the former.

Source: BusinessKorea LINK

Samsung and SK Hynix to increase fab investment in semiconductors

The Korea Times Report: Samsung Electronics and SK hynix plan to invest up to 45 trillion won to enhance their semiconductor manufacturing facilities mostly in Korea, officials directly involved with the matter said Monday.

While consumers may know the brands for handsets and TVs, Samsung is the long-time leader in the semiconductor industry. SK hynix is the runner-up.

According to major investment banks, semiconductors generated almost half the operating revenue of Samsung Electronics last year. The latest investment means revenue could swell further.

 

"The combined investment by Samsung Electronics and SK hynix in facilities throughout this year will be 45 trillion won because Samsung is increasing its investment in chip fabrication facilities to 30 trillion won from an earlier 27.3 trillion won," said an official wishing to remain anonymous. That will see SK hynix increase its capital expenditure to 15 trillion won.

An SK hynix official said its adjusted 2018 investment is subject to change, according to market conditions. The company, affiliated with SK Group, earlier said it would invest 13 trillion won. The SK unit is actively using high chip prices to lift its position in the industry with the aggressive spending. 

It is part of a consortium led by U.S.-based fund Bain Capital that agreed to purchase Toshiba's memory chip business, which was recently approved by China.

Samsung Electronics Topples Intel to Become World's Largest Chipmaker

The combined share of Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. in the global semiconductor market stood at 20.7 percent last year, up 5 percent points from a year earlier. Samsung Electronics surpassed Intel as the world's biggest chipmaker by market share for the first time. SK Hynix jumped two spots from the 5th, following Samsung Electronics and Intel.

According to market research firm IHS Markit on March 18, Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division posted US$62.03 billon (66.28 trillion won) in sales last year, up 53.4 percent from 2016. The company’s market share came to 14.5 percent, exceeding Intel, which had been the world’s biggest seller of chipsets for a long time, by 0.2 percent point. Last year, Intel recorded sales of US$61.46 billion (65.61 trillion won).

SK Hynix, which has become the third largest chip manufacturer, had sales of 26.64 billion (28.46 trillion won) in total last year. Its market share stood at 5.2 percent, followed by Micron Technology Inc. with 5.3 percent, Broadcom Corp. with 4 percent and Qualcomm Incorp. with 3.9 percent

Source: BusinessKorea LINK

SK Hynix ramps up eSSDs with 72-Layer 3D NAND Flash

SK Hynix Inc. (or 'the Company', www.skhynix.com) today announced that the Company recently completed developing an enterprise SATA Solid State Drive (or 'eSSD'). With its 72-Layer 512Gb (Gigabits) 3D NAND Flash chips, the Company is paving the way for its full-fledged entrance to the high value-added eSSD market.

 
SK Hynix combined the 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND Flash with its in-house firmware and controller to provide the maximum density of 4TB (Terabytes). SK Hynix makes the most of its 72-Layer 512Gb 3D NAND chips to double the biggest density of the SSD of the same size with 256Gb NAND chips.

Source: EPS News  LINK

Chip maker SK Hynix's 4Q net profit doubles to record high

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — SK Hynix said Thursday its fourth quarter net profit doubled from a year earlier to a record high and forecast that robust demand for chips would continue this year.

South Korea’s second-largest chipmaker said its October-December earnings jumped to 3.2 trillion won ($3 billion) from 1.6 trillion won a year earlier. Its quarterly sales and operating profit were also at the highest levels in the company’s history. Quarterly sales surged 69 percent to 9 trillion won ($8.5 billion) while operating profit more than doubled to 4.5 trillion won ($4.2 billion).

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Memory chips led the way in 2017 boosting a 22% record semiconductor growth in revenue

Memory chips (DRAM & FLASH) led the way in 2017 boosting a 22% record semiconductor growth in revenue. Samsung Electronics became the number 1 in overall semiconductor sales for the first time, displacing Intel, which had held the top spot in sales every year since 1992. 

EE Times reports : Semiconductor sales grew by 22 percent to reach a record $419.7 billion — with memory chips leading the way — according to a preliminary estimate by market research firm Gartner.

Gartner (Stamford, Conn.) estimates that increased sales of memory chips due to shortages of NAND flash and DRAM accounted for about two-thirds of overall chip market growth in 2017. Memory also become the single largest semiconductor products category last year, according to the firm.

Full story: LINK

Gartener 2016 to 2017 revenue change for Top 10 Semiconductor companies [replotted]