Samsung Electronics’ foundry has secured the order of 200 trillion KRW for next 5 years. If they complete the process verification of 3 nanometer(nm) and start mass production in the second quarter, it is expected to gain more orders. Samsung Electronics emphasized they have stabilized 4·5 nano process, which had yield issues.
Moon-soo Kang, vice president of Samsung Electronics Foundry Division, reported during first quarter business report in the conference call on 28th, “(Samsung Electronics Foundry’s) The remaining orders for next 5 years is 8 times more than sales of last year, and this amount will only grow.” Considering that the industry estimates that Samsung Electronics' foundry sales last year were between 23 and 25 trillion KRW, the remaining order is expected to reach 200 trillion KRW. Samsung Electronics' foundry added that it has secured supplies until 2027.
Samsung Electronics dismissed all the concerns from the market that their visibility of their business was not clear. In the industry, some observations were brought upthat major customers such as Qualcomm and NVIDIA have moved their semiconductor consignment production partners to TSMC. Kang said, “There are too much concerns in the market these days. With strong partnership with our major customers, we are not only working with mobile, but also with high performance computing (HPC), network, automotive and others to improve our customers’ portfolio and business structure.”
Samsung Electronics announced that they have recently completed quality verification for their3 nano process. Mass production is scheduled to begin in the second quarterwithout any change in schedule. Kang added, “4nano process has also entered the yield improvement curve, and the 5 nano process is at a mature yield stage. Based on a stable yield, we are maximizing our supply.”
Samsung Electronics reached 77.78 trillion KRW of sales in the first quarter, and 14.12 of operating profit which were the highest of their record. Although the first quarter is the off-season for the electronics industry, they maintained solid earnings in semiconductors and achieved even growth across all sectors, including smartphone (mobile) sales and display performance.
Samsung Electronics gained excellent result through many unfavorable factors including Russia attacking Ukraine and causing sharp rise in raw material prices, and shutdown in major cities in China which caused major delay on parts. After exceeding 70 trillion KRW in sales for the first time in the third quarter of last year (73.98 trillion KRW), it kept going over the record for three consecutive quarters of sales until the first quarter of this year, following the fourth quarter (76.57 trillion KRW). Samsung Electronics explained, “Server memory recorded the highest in quarterly sales performance in our history through portfolio conversion to actively respond to server·PC demand.The decline in price was also slower than expected, which resulted better than market expectation.”
LG Electronics also announced their first quarter performance on the same day, and they also broke their quarterly sales and operating profit record. On a consolidated basis, the company achieved sales of 21.1114 trillion KRW and operating profit of 1.8805 trillion KRW. LG Electronics recorded 7.97 trillion KRW in sales in the home appliance& and air solution (H&A) sector, widening the gap with Whirlpool (5.92 trillion KRW in sales in the first quarter), which is competing company for the top spot in the world market, by more than 2 trillion KRW.
By Staff Reporter Bong-kyun Ham(hbkone@etnews.com)