Raising prices, building factories, outsourcing business, Samsung is accelerating “money printing”!

There is such a ridicule on the Internet, “Korean people cannot avoid three things in their life, death, taxes and Samsung”, which is enough to prove that Samsung is ubiquitous in the lives of Koreans, and this sentence is placed in the semiconductor industry chain, but also in part. Be applicable.

In the five major industries of panel, memory, wafer foundry, image sensor, and MLCC, Samsung ranks in the top two in each field, and its influence is evident. In the recent wave of global capacity shortage, Samsung plays a role in key role.

On April 7, Samsung Electronics announced the estimated financial report data for Q1 this year. It is expected that Q1 revenue will reach 65 trillion won (about 380 billion yuan), a year-on-year increase of 17.5%, and profit will increase by 44% year-on-year to 9.3 trillion won ( About 54.4 billion yuan).

　Memory: Prices climb

In the memory market, Samsung has always been the leader, and due to the rise of the home economy such as online office due to the epidemic, the demand for memory is also increasing. On the one hand, the demand is increasing, and on the other hand, the production capacity is insufficient. The interaction of the two has jointly pushed up the price of memory, and at the same time, it is also helping Samsung continue to “print money”.

According to the latest data from TrendForce, DRAM prices have officially entered a rising cycle. In the second quarter, due to the continued strong demand for terminal products and the recovery of data center demand, the contract price will continue to rise, with an upside of 18% to 23%.

Specifically for server DRAM, due to the conservative expansion plan of the original DRAM factory, there is generally no new expansion plan, and the second quarter is the traditional peak season for server shipments, so the imbalance between supply and demand has led to the continued increase in server DRAM prices. It is expected that the second quarter will usher in a procurement peak, and prices will increase by 20% to 25%.

In terms of PC DRAM, due to the aggressive production targets of major PC OEMs and the peak season for notebook production in the second quarter, PC ODMs recorded a 7.9% quarter-on-quarter increase in total notebook production in this quarter. At the same time, notebook computers will continue to benefit from remote office and teaching, which will further expand the price increase of PC DRAM.

TrendForce believes that PC DRAM prices in the second quarter rose to 23-28% due to the increase in notebook production.

In terms of Mobile DRAM, the global shortage of chips has caused various mobile phone brands to actively prepare materials, which has led to an increase in mobile DRAM demand and a higher price. In addition, the server will also cause production capacity crowding out of Mobile, which will further increase the price.

In terms of production capacity, the new wafer production line of Samsung’s Pyeongtaek Second Plant (P2) has been debugged and is expected to be put into production in June, mainly using EUV lithography equipment to produce the third-generation 10nm LPDDR5 DRAM. In addition, the factory has an ultra-fine wafer foundry line and a next-generation V-NAND flash memory production line, and is very likely to carry out seventh-generation V NAND production.

　Panel: Increased Orders

In terms of panels, Samsung has made a strategic retreat in LCD in recent years, focusing on QD-OLED panels, and in October last year, Samsung Display announced that it would focus on investing 110% in the production line of QD-OLED quantum dot panels. One hundred million U.S. dollars.

According to TrendForce, the proportion of AMOLED models is expected to increase significantly to 39% in 2021, while the share of a-Si LCD will decrease slightly, while the proportion of LTPS LCD models will continue to be compressed, and the proportion is expected to decrease. to 33%.

At the same time, it has been recently reported that Samsung Display OLED panels are currently being snapped up, and Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, Apple, etc. have planned to sign 2022 OLED purchase contracts with Samsung Display in advance.

　　MLCC: Price hike

Since the epidemic last year, there has been a large gap in the global MLCC production capacity, and the price has been rising all the way. Coupled with the widespread power outages caused by the “213” earthquake in Japan, the original supply of MLCCs has become even more scarce. The product delivery time of Murata, the world’s largest MLCC company, has exceeded 112 days, and the longest is 180 days.

As the world’s second largest MLCC company, Samsung Electro-Mechanics raised some MLCC prices by 10%~26% for medium-sized contract customers last month. Even if the price increases, MLCC is in short supply, which will further push Samsung Electronics up. ‘s revenue.

　CMOS Image Sensors: Outsourcing

In the field of image sensors, CMOS image sensors have been in short supply for a long time, and this phenomenon will continue.

According to data from TrendForce, even with the impact of the epidemic, shipments of mobile phone lenses will still grow by 3% in 2020. It is expected that this wave of gains will continue, and the shipment of mobile phone lenses in 2021 is expected to reach 5.07 billion, an increase of 11% year-on-year. Corresponding to this is the increase in mobile phone lenses, and the corresponding increase in the demand for CMOS image sensors.

And in the past six months, Samsung’s market share has gradually increased. Taking Xiaomi Mi 11 as an example, there are four front and rear cameras, three of which are from Samsung. The latest Xiaomi Mi 11 Ultra is also a Samsung product.

In order to alleviate the capacity crisis and occupy more market share, Samsung chose to form an alliance with UMC, planning to invest in equipment, assist UMC Nanke P6 plant to expand production, and use the 28nm process to produce CIS chips. It plans to start construction this quarter and mass production in 2023. , the target monthly production capacity is 27,000 pieces.

　Foundry: Building a factory

In Samsung’s semiconductor-related business, Samsung’s chip division revenue in the first quarter of 2021 was lower than expected. The main reason was that the blizzard in Texas in February this year caused a blackout, which caused the Samsung factory to be unable to operate and suffered losses. However, as the factory entered Normal operation, the factory will also contribute a part of Samsung’s revenue.

In addition, according to a Reuters report, Samsung has bought a land near the Austin fab, with an area of ​​about 140 football fields, where it will build a new fab, which is likely to start in the second quarter of this year. It will be in production by the third quarter of 2023.

According to Samsung’s announcement, the factory mainly manufactures high-end logic ICs and builds smaller and faster computing chips for customers. The main customers include Tesla, Qualcomm, Nvidia, etc.

　Summarize

Under the background of global shortage of production capacity, healthy companies can get more orders, but the increase in orders is one aspect, and it is more important to see who can get more market share. As an imperial enterprise, Samsung has opened up and closed in many fields, expanding production if its production capacity is insufficient, and seeking other OEMs if it is unable to expand production, so as to ensure that it can occupy more market share in the fiercely competitive industrial development. , let the “printing machine” open faster.