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Slowing <span style='color:red'>Memory Market</span> Cools Chip Growth

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Slowing Memory Market Cools Chip Growth

Semiconductor sales growth has slowed substantially in recent months as the rapid price increases that fueled the market's growth for more than two years has slowed to a trickle.The three-month rolling average for chip sales growth slowed to 13.8% in January, the lowest level since November 2016, according to the World Semiconductor Trade Statistics organization. Sales for the quarter were up 13.8% year-over-year, the lowest rate of growth since the fourth quarter of 2016. In fact, it marked the first time since the first quarter of 2017 that the growth rate slipped below 20%.The slowing sales growth has corresponded directly with a decline in the growth rate of DRAM and NAND flash memory prices, which have slowed dramatically in recent months as the memory industry shifts from a prolonged period of supply shortage to oversupply."The softening memory market has started to become a 'headwind' on total IC market growth," said market research firm IC Insights in a recent report. The firm is forecasting that overall chip sales growth will fall to 6% in the fourth quarter.IC Insights — which forecasts that the semiconductor industry has entered a "cooling period" after a prolonged period of expansion — noted that the memory chip market grew by only 8% in the third quarter compared to the second quarter. By contrast, the firm said, the memory chip market grew by 18% from the second quarter to the third quarter last year.Overall, DRAM sales increased by 9% in the third quarter to again set a new record at $28 billion, according to market research firm TrendForce's DRAMeXchange unit. But the firm said that pricing for mainstream DRAM applications such as PC, server and mobile increased by less than 2% in the quarter. Contract pricing for DDR3 consumer DRAM was the first to drop during the quarter because of weakening demand, while contract pricing for graphics DRAM actually decreased by 3% compared to the second quarter because of the sharp demand for cryptocurrency mining, TrendForce said.Also concerning is that TrendForce said that DRAM revenue growth in the third quarter was primarily due to increasing bit shipments, rather than rising prices. "Prices practically flattened out in 3Q18 as the market supply has been steadily expanding in the second half of the year," the firm said in a press statement.TrendForce predicts that DRAM prices, which started to fall in October, will continue to slide through the end of the fourth quarter, officially ending the DRAM boom that lasted for more than two years. Future price declines will be steep because the market has clearly entered an oversupply situation and inventories remain high, the firm said. Meanwhile, TrendForce also reported recently that NAND flash revenue grew by just 4.4% in the third quarter compared with the second quarter, with the average selling price of devices falling by 10-15% on a contract basis. The firm maintains that the NAND market has been in oversupply since the start of this year.“The market for NAND Flash is expected to remain in oversupply during 4Q18, with steeper price decline for various NAND flash products,” said Ben Yeh, a DRAMeXchange analyst, in a statement.

Key word：

Market trend

Release time：2018-11-28 00:00 reading：1117 Continue reading>>

Trade news

Micron Opens Backend Factory in Taichung Aiming 3D memory Market

Major memory manufacturer Micron on October 26 held an opening ceremony for their backend packaging and testing plant in Taichung. With the opening of this factory, Micron Taiwan will be the world’s only memory vertical integration production base with both manufacturing and testing, and the main target product will be 3D memory, which is currently in high demand.Micron Executive Vice President of Global Operations Manish Bhatia stated that following the opening of the backend packaging and testing plant in Taichung, Micron will be capable of responding to customer’s needs more rapidly, and the production cycle will be shortened. At the same time, they will also focus on more valuable and advanced products.Currently, the hottest product in the memory market is 3D NAND flash memory, and mass shipments of Micron’s 64-layer products are underway .The latest 96-layer NAND flash memory products will also go into mass production in the second half of this year. As a result, Micron is upgrading their production capacity for related products, and this will be the key for Micron to increase their profitability.Taiwan Micron Vice President Liang Ming-cheng pointed out that 3D memory that utilizes TSV technology has specialized processing specifications, and there is no general-purpose equipment. All of the packaging and testing equipment has been independently developed by Micron; therefore, it cannot be outsourced. In the future after the new packaging and testing center begins to be utilized, it will be of assistance in expanding production capacity for 3D memory.Following the movement from semiconductor manufacturing to 3D architecture, integrated manufacturing and testing of high-end ICs has become the main trend by and large. For instance, TSMC is continually expanding and increasing their technological capabilities in the domain of packaging and testing and Micron has established their own vertical production line which integrates manufacturing with packaging and testing, which is further evidence of this trend.Hence it will be worth paying attention to whether or not this technology will bring about changes in the current semiconductor industry chain.

Key word：

Micron

Release time：2018-11-01 00:00 reading：1169 Continue reading>>

Shortage of Intel CPU to Impact Notebook Shipments, Causing Further Price Decline in the <span style='color:red'>Memory Market</span>

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Shortage of Intel CPU to Impact Notebook Shipments, Causing Further Price Decline in the Memory Market

TrendForce has adjusted its 2018 global notebook shipments projection downwards due to the worsening shortage of Intel CPUs. Intel originally planned to begin mass production of CPUs based on its latest Whiskey Lake platform in 3Q18, when the notebook market would be in the busy sales season. However, PC-OEMs are now finding an insufficient supply of Whiskey Lake CPUs, which has disrupted vendors’ notebook shipment plans for this year’s second half. Therefore, TrendForce now estimates that this year’s total notebook shipments will drop by 0.2% YoY, and the CPU shortage may further impact the entire memory market as well.The precise reason behind the shortage of Intel CPUs is currently unclear because the problem simultaneously affects the newly arrived CPU product lines and product lines that have been in the market for some time. The affected products include the improved version of 14nm++ and product lines based on the 14nm+ Coffee Lake platform, which has been in mass production for half a year and is one of the solutions for mainstream models in the notebook market. The lack of supply for existing CPU product lines is having a significant impact on the notebook market as a whole. TrendForce estimates that the CPU supply gap in the notebook market has increased from around 5% in August to 5-10% in September. There is a possibility that the supply gap may extend to over 10% in 4Q18, and the shortage is expected to be resolved rather later in 1H19.DRAM prices to slide, with PC DRAM anticipating larger price decline due to the CPU shortageTrendForce notes that the CPU shortage is expected to impact the entire memory market as well. DRAM prices are now approaching an inflection point after climbing for nine successive quarters. DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, previously estimated that the contract prices of PC DRAM products will drop by around 2% QoQ in 4Q18 as the market gradually shifts into oversupply. However, it is now possible that the price decline will become larger due the shortage of Intel CPUs and lower demand for notebooks and PC DRAM in a row.On the other hand, the impact of the CPU shortage may also expand to the NAND Flash market. The insufficient supply would cause PC OEMs’ lower expectations of notebooks demand in the upcoming busy season, thus affecting the demand for SSD in the second half of this year. Therefore, TrendForce expects the SSD price decline to be steeper in 4Q18 than in this quarter.With regard to the server market, the migration from the Grantley to the Purley platform is currently taking place. According to TrendForce’s survey, a minority of server OEMs are experiencing longer lead time in the deliveries of Purley processors. This issue will be followed up because it will affect future server shipments if it becomes more widespread. Moreover, both the NAND Flash and DRAM markets are much more vulnerable to the falling demand from the server application than from the PC or notebook application. Therefore, downward corrections of demand for server memory products will cause a steeper drop in quotations of memory products as a whole.

Key word：

Memory Market

Release time：2018-09-13 00:00 reading：1340 Continue reading>>

Trade news

ASE to Seize Opportunities in the Memory Market in China

Taiwanese semiconductor testing and packaging company, ASE Technology Holding Co., Ltd. yesterday stated that they would increase the scale of their semiconductor development in Mainland China, and in addition to their factory in Fujian Province they would also be open to investment from Tsinghua Holdings to expand their production capacity.In recent years, China has continually expanded the scope of development of their semiconductor industry, especially in the memory market. At the same time, they have also attracted a number of semiconductor companies to China to set up factories, for instance, this year Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company Ltd. (TSMC) will commence operations at their 16-inch plant in Nanjing. As a result of this, ASE became attracted to the prospect of development in Mainland China.ASE Chairman Jason C.S. Chang commented that ASE’s semiconductor business will participate in the business opportunities that the development of the memory industry in Mainland China has to offer. Recently, Siliconware Precision Industries Co., Ltd. (SPIL) has also constructed a factory in Fujian Province and have opened up investment into SPIL by Tsinghua in Suzhou. In the future as the memory production capacity increases in Mainland China, the scope will also experience a corresponding expansion.

Key word：

ASE

Release time：2018-07-31 00:00 reading：1092 Continue reading>>

UMC Won the Preliminary Injunction against Micron in China; Global <span style='color:red'>Memory Market</span> Is Very Likely to See Reshuffle

Trade news

UMC Won the Preliminary Injunction against Micron in China; Global Memory Market Is Very Likely to See Reshuffle

United Microelectronics Corporation (UMC) filed a lawsuit against Micron Technology subsidiaries in China for patent infringements in January 2018, and demanded a compensation of RMB 270 million ($40.7 million). UMC also requested the court to order potential defendants to stop manufacturing, processing, importing, and selling the allegedly infringing products. Yesterday, Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of China issued a preliminary injunction against Micron, enjoining Micron from selling related items in China. DRAMeXchange, a division of TrendForce, expects that the global memory market may have a reshuffle if the judgment is enforced and other Chinese memory suppliers enter the market next year.Micron Technology offers Micron-branded products as well as Crucial-branded notebook DRAM modules and SSD. After this lawsuit, some of its PC DRAM and SSD products are facing a ban on sales in China. Micron still has the right to appeal, and the follow-up of this case is bound to become the focus of the global memory industry amid the critical stage for the US-China trade war. In addition, the production will formally begin in China's domestic DRAM industry, adding to the tensions between the two countries.As a major DRAM supplier, Micron took the third place in the global DRAM revenue ranking for 1Q18 with a market share of 23%, following 45% of Samsung and 28% of SK Hynix, says DRAMeXchange. On the demand front, Chinese domestic market is expected to consume around 26% of the DRAM bit output of Micron, and 20% of global DRAM bit output in 2018 as China remains the world's second-largest economy. If the judgment is enforced in the future, Micron will be prohibited from selling some of its memory products in China. This is bound to influence the company’s revenue performance, which would directly benefit its competitors including Samsung, SK Hynix, as well as Innotron (Hefei Chang Xin) and JHICC who are expected to enter the market formally in 2019.In terms of NAND Flash, Chinese domestic market is expected to consume 25% of global NAND Flash bit output this year, according to the data of DRAMeXchange. In 1Q18, Micron’s NAND Flash revenue ranked the fourth worldwide with a market share of 12%, following 37% of Samsung, 19% of Toshiba and 15% of WDC. Chinese domestic market is expected to consume around 20% of the NAND Flash bit output of Micron in 2018. If the ban is enacted, Micron’s competitors, including Samsung, SK Hynix, WDC, Intel, Toshiba and the new entrant YMTC would be benefited.The judgment issued on July 3rd not only banned the sales of some Micron-branded and Crucial-branded products in China, but also ordered Micron’s IC assembly/testing plant in Xi’an to halt operation; Micron Technology (Shanghai) Co., Ltd. has also been ordered to cease sales. The judgment will have significant impacts on the sales of products under Micron's own brand or the Crucial brand in China. Moreover, the businesses of Micron's downstream partners would also be affected.

Key word：

Memory Market

Release time：2018-07-06 00:00 reading：1105 Continue reading>>

model	brand	Quote
MC33074DR2G	onsemi
CDZVT2R20B	ROHM Semiconductor
RB751G-40T2R	ROHM Semiconductor
TL431ACLPR	Texas Instruments
BD71847AMWV-E2	ROHM Semiconductor

model	brand	To snap up
IPZ40N04S5L4R8ATMA1	Infineon Technologies
ESR03EZPJ151	ROHM Semiconductor
STM32F429IGT6	STMicroelectronics
BP3621	ROHM Semiconductor
TPS63050YFFR	Texas Instruments
BU33JA2MNVX-CTL	ROHM Semiconductor

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