According to the micro-network news, media reports have recently revealed that Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd. opened the mainland IPO ahead of schedule. Following Foxconn, the second Taiwanese large-scale electronics company opened the A-share IPO channel. The TSMC official responded that it did not issue a CDR plan.
Last month Hon Hai’s Taiwanese media at the mainland IPO pointed out that comparing Taiwan’s representative industries, Taiwan’s semiconductor companies are definitely the most desired target for the mainland’s IPO. Currently, TSMC is already listed in Taiwan and the United States and operates in the mainland. And the proportion of investment is very low, and the probability of wanting to list on the A-share is extremely low.
Wu Daren, Ph.D. from the State University of New York at Stony Brook, specializes in the theory of industrial organization and competition. He is currently the director of the Taiwan University’s Center for Economic Development Research, the director of the Yunus Center for Social Enterprise, and the professor of the Department of Economics at Central University. He believes that the short term As a result, TSMC is unlikely to be on the mainland A-shares. It is not a question of foreign ownership of TSMC's share. In fact, TSMC's main production base is still Taiwan. The relatively small size of TSMC's Nanjing plant cannot be compared with TSMC's and Hon Hai's situation. Hon Hai can be in the mainland IPO. It is because most of its resources are on the mainland.
Earlier, Chen Deming, president of the ARATS, said that the mainland is actively inviting Taiwan's high-tech companies to list on the mainland. There are currently about 22 Taiwan-funded companies listed on the mainland. A few companies chose to first go to Taiwan and transfer to mainland A-share listings. For example, the ERP manufacturer Dingxin Computer (developed by Dingjie Software in the Mainland) has developed a joint venture with Digital China to select the market in Taiwan for the development of the mainland market.
The Chinese Depository Receipt (CDR) refers to the fact that listed companies outside China (including Hong Kong, China) will entrust part of the issued shares to local custodial banks and will be issued by depositary banks in China, in the domestic A share market. Listed, settled in renminbi transactions, investment certificates for domestic investors to buy and sell, so as to realize the trading of shares in different places.
As early as February 28, official sources stated that the Securities and Exchange Commission’s issuance department will target Unicorns with a certain market size in the four major new economic sectors including biotechnology, cloud computing, artificial intelligence, and high-end manufacturing. 'Enterprises, relax the approval time and profit standards, take the special channel that is 'reported and reviewed'.
It can be seen that the supervisory level is using rare support to welcome the new economy. 'Unicorn' companies are listed on the A-share market. Wang Yanhui, secretary-general of the Mobile China Alliance, said that it is very important for IC companies to choose a listing location. With a good financing environment, Taiwanese listing is more likely to be accepted by European and American customers or suppliers.
Taiwanese companies have advantages and disadvantages for going to the mainland CDR
There are advantages and disadvantages in listing on the mainland. Xu Tingquan, manager of Allianz China New Ideas Fund, said that the attractive price-earnings ratio of mainland A shares is attractive. For the semiconductor industry where TSMC is located, the current P/E of listed companies is as high as 50 times to 150. Times; on the other hand, TSMC's P/E ratio is between 15 and 17 times.
A director of the underwriting business of a Taiwanese securities firm pointed out that the existing issue of old shares or new shares to the Taiwan region must be reviewed by the Taiwan Regional Financial Management Association. Therefore, for many Taiwanese manufacturers, CDR is not unattractive, but political considerations are needed. If the competent authority does not release it, it will not work if you want to send it.
The brokerage said that the advantage of issuing overseas depository receipts is to increase the efficiency of fundraising. However, the reputation of the company itself is very important. As in recent years, dozens of companies have been listed in the European and American markets, but there are no known 'frozen stocks' challenges to raise funds. It is not necessarily smoother than the market in Taiwan.
The most successful companies are large companies such as TSMC. International investors are interested in investing in ADR (American Depositary Receipts), GDR (Global Depositary Receipts), and sufficient liquidity.
In addition, there are cost considerations in the issuance of CDR. In terms of ADR, although it is only a depositary receipt, it must be entrusted to a foreign brokerage firm, and the underwriting cost is usually ten times higher than that of the domestic brokerage firm.
Brokerage analysis, additional review and other operational costs, only large companies can afford, so it is not difficult to imagine large companies taking the lead in the issuance of CDR news, follow-up follow-up if follow-up, but also large companies.
2. Semiconductors enter the peak season for wafers. Silicon wafer prices rise to the end of next year.
According to a report by Micronet, the continued shortage of silicon wafers will have an increased impact on the semiconductor production chain. According to suppliers, 7 to 80% of the total capacity of the wafer fabs this year and next year has been covered by large plants. With the mainland market As demand gradually increases, silicon wafers will not only be missing by the end of next year, but prices will also rise all the way to the end of next year.
According to the latest year-end silicon wafer industry analysis report released by Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) under the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI), the total area of global silicon wafer shipments in 2017 increased by 10% from 2016 to 11,810 million square meters. Inches, however, market revenues have increased dramatically to US$8.7 billion, which is 21% more than in 2016. This phenomenon shows that last year, silicon wafers not only shipped heavy volumes, but also prices have risen sharply. This year will also maintain the same volume. Yang trend.
Semiconductor silicon wafers are in short supply, including five major silicon wafer fabs, including Shin-Etsu, Nippon Seiko, Taiwan Universal, Siltronic, and SK Siltron. Shipments accounted for 9 of global demand. As a result, due to the shortage of silicon wafers, the semiconductor chain will be in danger of chain disconnection. Therefore, silicon wafer fabs have also announced plans to expand production. However, the key production equipment for silicon wafers is in short supply. Machines, if combined with lead time such as trial production and certification, it will be almost impossible to see significant capacity opening in two years.
From the perspective of demand, although the growth of smartphone shipments has slowed down, chip usage has continued to increase due to new features including dual cameras. Furthermore, new applications such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and automotive electronics have grown rapidly. The demand for advanced processes has grown rapidly. As a whole, silicon wafers demand growth has been significantly greater than the increase in supply. In the event of supply shortages, most semiconductor companies adopt prepaid deposits to ensure that prices will be adjusted quarterly next year.
In the case of semiconductor manufacturers requesting signing contracts to consolidate the production capacity of silicon wafers, among the total capacity of the wafer fabs this year and next year, 7-80% of the wafer fabs have been packaged by big manufacturers, plus a 12-inch plant newly built in China. In the second half of this year, a large number of films will be launched. In the case of a sharp increase in demand, silicon wafers will be out of stock this year and prices will also increase quarter by quarter. The industry has increased prices all the way to the end of next year. A high degree of consensus.
Industry experts pointed out that the average annual price of 12-inch silicon wafers last year was about 75 to 80 US dollars, but the average price of 12-inch silicon wafers will rise above 100 US dollars this year, with an annual increase of 25 to 35%. It is estimated that although the price increase will slow down next year, there will still be a 10% to 20% increase in space. For suppliers such as Universal, Taiwan Seiketsu and Hejing, the operation is optimistic all the way to the end of next year.
China's 12-inch fabs that have blossomed all over China last year entered a peak period for equipment installation this year, and they are expected to enter the production stage after the third quarter. The industry estimates that the monthly production capacity of 12-inch wafers this year will look up to 700,000 wafers. The supply of wafers is in short supply. Mainland semiconductor manufacturers have been unable to reach volume production in order to avoid shortage of silicon wafers. Recently, the price of semiconductor wafers has once again exceeded the market price by 1~20%.
Semiconductor silicon wafers have been out of stock pressure last year, prices have increased quarter by quarter. Last year, the average price of 12-inch silicon wafers rose by an average of 2 to 3 percent, and the price of 8-inch silicon wafers also increased by more than 10 percent. Also pay bright transcripts.
Although the first quarter of this year was the traditional off-season of the semiconductor market, the supply of silicon wafers was still in short supply, the price continued to increase by 5 to 10%, and the company's consolidated revenue for the first two months of the year was 9.032 billion yuan. 1.317 billion yuan, which is nearly 40% higher than the same period of last year. Taiwan Shengke Group's consolidated revenue of 2.519 billion yuan in the first two months, an increase of 27.4% year-on-year is also better than expected.
Semiconductor enters the film season
As the semi-conductor plant enters the filming season in the second quarter of each year, the demand for silicon wafers gradually heats up, and the price naturally rises again. According to industry sources, the contract price of 12-inch silicon wafers has approached 100 US dollars, and the spot price has already looked at 110~. US$120. However, this year, the global silicon fab has not added any new production capacity. In the event that demand exceeds supply, semiconductor companies have signed up with silicon wafer suppliers.
However, it is worth noting that the mainland semiconductor factory recently started a major move to grab silicon wafer sources.
According to the statistics of market adjustment agencies, by the end of 2017, there will be 20 new 12-inch fabs newly planned and planned in China. This year will enter the peak period of equipment installation and will be put into production in the second half of the year. It is expected that by the end of 2018 China China's 12-inch wafer manufacturing capacity will reach nearly 700,000 units per month, an increase of more than 40% from the previous year.
Although half of the 12-inch plants that have entered the film market in mainland China this year are foreign-funded or domestic-foreign joint ventures, SMIC, Huahong Hongli, Hualiwei, Changjiang Storage, Shilanwei, and other new land-based plants will also start filming. , The amount of silicon wafers purchased by the mainland semiconductor companies has seen strong growth in the near future. Since the majority of silicon wafer fabs' production capacity has been contracted by the big manufacturers, the land-based plant has locked in for the remaining production capacity, and it has reported an increase in the price. ~ 20% of the price to grab the goods.
According to industry experts, the domestic 12-inch wafer fab has been mass-produced soon. In order to consolidate its production capacity and increase the price of silicon wafers, it is expected that the price of silicon wafers in the third quarter will increase by more than 10%, and prices will continue to rise in the fourth quarter. It's impossible to avoid. The legal person is optimistic that the silicon wafer market will be the seller's market before the end of this year.
3. Taiwan's four major electronic foundries exchange loss near NT 20 billion;
The US-China trade war extended to a currency war. Under the weak US dollar, the central parity of RMB hit a new high of nearly two and a half years last (2) days. The industry judged and the situation continued in the second quarter of this year. Export-oriented electronic foundry operations The impact of the exchange loss should not be underestimated.
Since the beginning of last year, the renminbi’s appreciation against the U.S. dollar has continued to have a negative impact on the operation of electronic subcontracting factories. This was demonstrated in last year’s financial report. Hon Hai was the first to suffer. In the fourth quarter of last year, the single-season exchange loss amounted to 11.7 billion yuan (NT$, afterwards). ), the total amount of foreign exchange losses incurred by the four major electronic foundries last year reached a record high of RMB 19.1 billion, setting a record high. However, in some IC designs, the semiconductor distributors have been adversely affected by the presence of RMB assets.
Regardless of whether the manufacturing or OEM industry bluntly said that 'this year's dollar sales business is very hard'. Hon Hai's exchange losses last year continued to reflect the impact of RMB appreciation, last year, the exchange loss exceeded 15 billion yuan, and other electronic foundries also suffered, Ren Bao suffered a loss of 2 billion yuan in the past year, Heshuo suffered a loss of approximately 1.55 billion yuan, and Inventec lost approximately 572 million yuan. In contrast, Quanta had exchange gains. The annual exchange gain was 1.725 billion yuan.
In addition, the IC design companies in the semiconductor industry are depreciated in dollars, and the renminbi assets are expected to benefit from appreciation. For example, the supplier of microcontrollers Holtek has held as much as 70% of the yuan in its hands. The exchange interest of about 300,000 yuan appeared, compared with the previous year's exchange loss of up to 29 million yuan, which is equivalent to a loss of 30 million yuan. Both the Renminbi and the New Taiwan dollar appreciated, and Shengqun is expected to experience exchange interest in the first quarter.
Leading semiconductor distributors at the General Assembly also said that because most of the businesses are paid in US dollars, the impact is not significant; 5 to 6% of the revenue is received by the renminbi, paying the US dollar. The recent strengthening of the renminbi has made the US dollar relatively weak.
As regards exchange rate operations, UCC has stated that regardless of the trend of the US dollar and the exchange rate of the Taiwan dollar in recent years, foreign exchange gains have occurred in recent years. Because of the long-term fluctuations, there is a set of safe-haven operating modes. The operating instruments are mainly used for forward foreign exchange. Exchange rate exchange
IC Design Services’s Creative Electronics stated that the US dollar has long been a valid currency, and under this natural hedge, the impact of the exchange rate is quite small. TSMC announced early last year that it will use the U.S. dollar as the main currency, avoiding the Taiwan dollar exchange rate. Impact of Volatility. Economic Daily
4. Nvidia's next generation AI chip Orin TSMC 7nm foundry;
After X Professor changed the water! Xie Da, graphics chip maker (NVIDIA) ARM architecture processor Xavier (Professor X in the X-Men) for artificial intelligence (AI) and self-driving calculations, has been in Taiwan 12 to 12 Chennai A small amount of meter shots. Nvidia at this year's GTC conference revealed that the next-generation processor Orin (Justice League Alliance Waterman) will be more powerful, is expected to use TSMC 7nm process mass production.
Nvidia builds a self-driving platform using artificial intelligence calculations. At present, DRIVE PX Parker in mass production is a 6-core processor, adopts TSMC's 16nm production process, integrates 2 NVIDIA Denver and 4 ARM Cortex-A57 cores, and is equipped with Parker Pascal embedded graphics processor core. Based on this, Nvidia launches the NVIDIA DRIVE PX2 platform with Parker processor and Pascal graphics chip. It has been adopted by first-tier depots such as Tesla and Audi, and is used to develop self-driving technology.
The new Xavier Nvidia processor has been finalized. Xavier is an 8-core processor with 8 Nvidia Carmel processor cores and Xavier Volta embedded processor cores, using TSMC 12nm process. In addition, Nvidia's new Volta graphics chip TSMC has adopted 12nm process mass production film.
Nvidia uses two Xavier processors and two Volta graphics processors to develop a new DRIVE Pegasus platform supercomputer that extends AI operations to Level 5 cars. The new system can provide more than 320 megaflops per second , Compared with the previous generation of NVIDIA DRIVE PX2 processor performance increased by several times 10 times. NVIDIA Xavier processor has entered the production phase, DRIVE Pegasus platform is expected to send samples in the third quarter, will enter the mass production in the third quarter of next year stage.
The CEO of Invisec, Huang Renxun, at the just-concluded GTC 2018 Conference, revealed that Xavier's next-generation processor was code-named Orin. Although Huang Renxun did not disclose too many details of Orin's processor, he emphasized that computing power would be more powerful, for example, with 2 With the computing power of Orin processors, the performance of DRIVE Pegasus's four chip modules can be used. The industry sources pointed out that Orin will adopt the TSMC 7nm process.
Although the timing and architecture details of Orin's launch are still unknown, the industry is expected to launch it by 2020. In terms of market positioning and differentiation, the operational benefits of DRIVE Pegasus platform are mainly used to build Level 4 to Level 5 Drive test platform and calculations, as Orin processor and follow-up launch of self-driving platform, should be used for Level 4 or higher self-driving production models. Business Times
5. Jingyuandian Chairman Li Jingong: Positively facing the crisis turnaround;
This led to the growth of KYEC from the initial 4,50 employees to nearly 7,000 employees at home and abroad, and played the role of a global technology leader in semiconductor technology. The driving force behind this is the current chairman Li Jingong. He was appointed General Manager of KYEC in 1991. In 1998, he took over as Chairman of the Board. In 2001, he successfully launched KYEC to the market. After a long period of time, the company suffered huge losses, the bank pumped money and other countless severe tests, but with his steel-like perseverance, he let KYEC. Electric successfully stood on the global semiconductor stage and glowed.
Life and death experience successfully overcome adversity
Li Jingong graduated from the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Ocean University, claiming to be a “person who sailed”. He had done property insurance at the beginning of his career, Fang Zhongye, etc. Later, he was sent to work at UMC by the widower Cai Ming Jie (Chairman of MediaTek) before he got to work. In the semiconductor industry, Li Jingong was promoted to executive level at UMC for 10 years. However, UMC had a clause that banned third-class parents. At that time, Cai Mingjie was the general manager of UMC IC Design Group. If he stayed at UMC, In the future, he will no longer be able to move up. He has a strong attempt to “start his own business” and has allowed him to resolutely leave UMC. He is also entering the business layer of KYEC in the interim.
KYEC was established in 1987. From the initial over 40 employees, after more than 30 years of continuous expansion, now there are more than 7,000 employees at home and abroad, and it has become a world-class semiconductor testing company. Li Jinzheng walks along the way. Especially deep, first discovered a stomach tumor in a health examination in 1998. Fortunately, it was discovered at the zero period. Then there was another fulminant hepatitis. The two life and death hurdles passed peacefully, giving him a view of life. With great changes, he believes that as long as the challenges are met positively, then the difficult test can be solved. "We haven't had a bit of cold and bones, but plum blossoms are everywhere."
Li Jin-kung said that in 2001 the company's stock was listed, it happened to hit a client of a major international manufacturer, heeded the price, and the company's listing was downgraded by three times in a short period of six months. It was turned over by a legal person and a small shareholder. Originally he wanted to use the market and The resources of the capital market can effectively turn KYEC into an international semiconductor factory. But at the time, a series of queries and buzzes made him fall into the worst adversity in life. Fortunately, there are still many noble people who are willing to lend a helping hand along the way. Ting, so that companies can bear fruit in the face of adversity, the so-called "road to know horse power, see the people for a long time."
Therefore, the crises of the 2003 SARS crisis, 2008, and the financial tsunami in 2009 will no longer be a crisis, turning the test into a driving force. Instead, the company will grow in the crisis and pay a surplus.
Iron Man also has a soft glass heart. Li Jingong met with countless nobles in his life, including his widower Cai Ming Jie and Cao Xingcheng and Xuan Wise two UMC chiefs. As a result, when something unfortunate happened in the society, he often used Anonymous. Silently helping out.
In August last year, State Road police officer Chen Qirui was killed in a rear chariot crash and left behind his wife and children. Li Jingong served as chairman of the Miaoli County Police Friendship Association. He immediately invited Chen Qirui’s widow to work for the company and arranged for Chen’s son to teach at KYEC. Cooperative schools work part-time, hoping to solve their difficulties.
"Performance, innovation, excellence, sharing, is the core value of KYEC Group," said Li Jingong. Performance: Set high goals, achieve higher quality, lower cost, faster delivery and increase customers Satisfaction: Innovation: Improve performance and provide innovative solutions to give customers satisfied quality, higher satisfaction services; Excellence: Efforts to complete tasks, and actively accept challenging work goals to achieve outstanding standards and performance Excellent; Share: Willing to share their knowledge and skills and experience to others, Let companies and customers share and grow together.
The birth of KYEC from the initial 4,50 people to now has nearly 7,000 employees at home and abroad, and it is playing a key role in the world's semiconductor industry. The driving force behind this is the current chairman Li Jingong.
KYEC’s current production bases are Taiwan, China, and mainland China. Taiwan is a major production base, including Hsinchu and Miaoli. In recent years, it has gradually shifted its focus to the Miaoli copper-column plant, which is expected to be expanded in four phases. With a total investment of 12 billion yuan, the average investment is about 3 billion yuan per phase. Both the first and second plants have been completed and produced, mainly based on self-made test benches, covering CMOS sensing elements, micro-electromechanical (MEMS) components, Logic and communication chips and other tests.
Some of China's mainland is currently concentrated in Suzhou, with Zhenkun and Jinglong holding 100% of their subsidiaries. Among them, Jinglong, a testing company, has long been profitable. It will continue to expand its production base and production capacity in Suzhou in the future, while not excluding market With customer demand, reinvest in another production base.
At present, the paid-in capital of KYEC has expanded to RMB 12 billion, ranking the world's most prestigious professional testing foundry with a turnover of 19.967 billion yuan last year. This year it is expected to easily exceed the RMB 20 billion mark. The proportion of overseas customers will increase year by year to 49. %, the main customer type, fabless (fabless) plant accounts for about 76%, foundry (foundry) plant accounts for about 2%, and the remaining IDM (integrated components factory) plant accounts for about 22%. Distributed in mobile phones, wireless communications, LCD driver ICs, graphics cards, special DRAM, NOR Flash, consumer electronics IC, MEMS and other industries. Economic Daily