Mega Electronics, a major Korean solid state drive (SSD) manufacturer, will supply a total of 900,000 2-terabyte nonvolatile memory express (NVMe) SSDs to a leading Chinese electronic component distributor over the next five years starting from this month.NVMe is a new storage access and transport p
The Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy announced on Aug. 12 that South Korea’s exports from the information and communications technology (ICT) sector totaled US$19.5 billion last month, up 30.2 percent year on year. It is the highest July figure ever and the exports rose for the 14th consecutiv
The stock price of Samsung Electronics fell 1.91 percent to 77,000 won per share and that of SK Hynix fell 4.74 percent to 100,500 won per share on Aug. 12. Both reached this year's lowest levels that day, when SK Hynix reached as low as 99,800 won per share and dipped below 100,000 won for the
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at jeff.kim@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Value of battery materials business estimated at KRW2tn We maintain BUY and TP of KRW350,000 on Hansol Chemical. We expect a rise in enterprise value as the revenue proportion of its secondary-battery materials
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. DRAM prices are expected to decline from 1Q22. After the price drop, DRAM makers’ investment should turn conservative. Consequently, we expect semiconductor equipment makers to perform sluggishly in 2
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. The foundry price hikes that have been going on for a year are coming to an end. It is known that TSMC has decided to freeze the unit price for its 28nm process in 2H21. We expect to see foundry suppl
StradVision, a Korean startup specializing in AI-based vision processing technology for autonomous vehicles and ADAS systems, announced on Aug. 9 that it has established a subsidiary in Shanghai and appointed Frank Liu, a local industry expert, as new sales director to strengthen its business in th
As parole was decided for Samsung Electronics vice vhairman Lee Jae-yong, who was imprisoned in connection with the Choi Soon-sil scandal, attention is focusing on his moves.The Justice Ministry decided to grant parole to Lee on Aug. 9. Lee will be released on Aug. 13, about seven months after he wa
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology announced on Aug. 5 that its research team led by electrical and electronics engineering professors Choi Yang-kyu and Choi Sung-yul developed a high-density neuromorphic chip imitating the human brain.The neuromorphic hardware is to realize arti
SK Hynix is expected to appoint the general manager of Intel’s NAND flash business as CEO of a new corporation it will establish in the United States following its acquisition of Intel's NAND flash business unit.Robert Crooke, senior vice president and general manager of Intel’s NAND Products an
Samsung Electronics is on track to complete the expansion of its second plant in Xian, China by the end of 2021. The Korean semiconductor giant invested more than 4 trillion won in the first half of 2021 to install equipment before full-scale production in 2021.Chinese government authorities said th
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at jeff.kim@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Non-memory materials to benefit from increasing activity at Samsung Electronics and TSMC We maintain BUY and our TP of KRW350,000 for Hansol Chemical as we expect non-memory materials revenue to enter a high-gr
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at jeff.kim@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Share price sees three straight days of gains--the first time since January — Shares in Samsung Electronics (SEC) rose for three consecutive days from Aug 2 through Aug 4 (+5.6% on cumulative basis), marking th
The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology announced on Aug. 2 that its research team led by electrical and electronic engineering professor Jung Myung-soo has developed an ohm-GPU technology that boosts the performance of a GPU memory system by combining an optical network and a 3D XPoi
Chinese memory chip maker YMTC has initiated the mass production of 128-layer 3D NAND flash products for use in solid state drives. This shows China’s ambition in the semiconductor industry is still alive.Taiwanese daily Digitimes announced the news on Aug. 2. Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix initia
Stock prices of Samsung Electronics and its competitors have moved in opposite directions so far this year. Samsung Electronics saw its stock price drop by 5.42 percent compared to the beginning of this year, while those of Apple and TSMC rose by 12 percent and 8 percent, respectively.Seven of the t
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Data center investment demand contributed to company-wide earnings improvement in 2Q21. Earnings growth should continue in 3Q21. Slowing DRAM price growth in 4Q21 represents a risk factor.2Q21 earning
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. SK Hynix’s earnings should continue to improve through 3Q21 on increased server demand. ASP growth is set to slow from 4Q21 due to increasing DRAM supply from capacity investment and memory inventory
The author is an analyst of KB Securities. He can be reached at jeff.kim@kbfg.com. -- Ed. Maintain BUY but lower target price to KRW160,000 We cut our TP for SK hynix by 15.8% from KRW190,000 to KRW160,000 (12m fwd BVPS x 1.8x target P/B) to accommodate: (1) a drop in 3y avg. ROE (16.8%→14.3%) trigg
The author is an analyst of NH Investment & Securities. He can be reached at hwdoh@nhqv.com. -- Ed. Despite various measures taken by the industry, the non-memory semiconductor supply shortage continues. In our view, the supply shortage is likely to sustain through 2022. Benefits are expected for fo