US, Korea Development
Taiwanese market research firm TrendForce said in its report that South Korea’s production share in the global DRAM market is expected to rise from 64 percent to 65 percent from this year to 2025. “According to the U.S. CHIPS Act, semiconductor manufacturers subsidized by the U.S. government cannot expand their production facilities in China for 10 years and, as a result, most facility expansion from now on is likely to occur in the United States and South Korea,” it said.
At present, the top three in the global market are Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and Micron Technology. Samsung Electronics and Micron Technology currently have no DRAM production facilities in China. SK Hynix is reducing production in China and its new facilities are likely to be built in South Korea. According to the firm, China’s production share in the market is estimated to fall from 14 percent to 12 percent in that period.
“In the NAND market, South Korea’s production share is expected to rise from 33 percent to 43 percent while that of China is predicted to fall from 31 percent to 18 percent,” it explained, adding, “It is TSMC that is likely to be most affected by the act.”
TSMC has expanded its 28-nm process facilities in Nanjing since last year, and any further expansion is impossible once a subsidy is given from the U.S. government. According to the firm, for this reason, TSMC is transferring orders received in the first quarter of this year to its facilities in Taiwan.