Officials Visiting Equipment Makers Abroad
Samsung Electronics is all-out to secure core semiconductor production equipment. The company’s key officials are visiting equipment producers in the United States and the Netherlands despite the COVID-19 pandemics to ask for a stable supply of equipment. Global investment in semiconductor facilities is expected to explode in a short period of time due to the United States’ push for semiconductor independence and TSMC’s expansion of semiconductor production facilities. As a result, global chipmakers are scrambling to secure production equipment.
A high-ranking official of Samsung Electronics is to visit major equipment companies in the United States this week to discuss the supply of production equipment. The official is expected to meet Gary Dickerson, CEO of Applied Materials, the No. 1 semiconductor equipment maker, and Tim Archer, CEO of Lam Research, the leader in etching equipment.
Another key official also has made a business trip to the Netherlands, home to ASML, the world’s only producer of extreme ultra-ultraviolet (EUV) lithography equipment. Samsung Electronics vice chairman Lee Jae-yong visited ASML in October 2020.
Industry insiders say that Samsung officials’ visits to equipment manufacturers despite the COVID-19 pandemic shows how fierce the competition is among semiconductor manufacturers to acquire production equipment on time.
Securing sophisticated production equipment holds the key to improving competitiveness. The world's semiconductor equipment market is dominated by four players -- AMAT, LAM Research, Tokyo Electron (TEL), and ASML. Their presence is growing as the number of processes for chip production increases.
The problem is that each equipment company has a limited production capacity. Suppliers’ equipment delivery schedules are already very tight. To proceed with their investment plans without a hitch, semiconductor companies need to form close cooperative relationships with equipment producers.
Industry experts are predicting that a shortage of semiconductor equipment will deepen as the U.S. push for semiconductor self-sufficiency has been coupled with an increase in demand for chips.