Gathering micro-network news With the memory-related and data-center demand rising, GlobalWafers Japan (GWJ), a global subsidiary of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd., will invest approximately 8.5 billion yen (approximately US$79.5 million) to increase production of 12-inch semiconductor silicon wafers. In order to increase production capacity by more than 10%, a new high-performance semiconductor wafer production line called SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) has been added to increase the monthly production of existing SOI wafers from about 3,000 wafers. About 10,000.
According to the Nikkei report, according to GWJ, the China-US Crystal Group is the world's third-largest silicon wafer fab, with a global market share of 17%. GWJ 2017 (January-December 2017) Revenue increased 17% year-on-year. About 42 billion yen, I hope to increase the demand for silicon wafers by increasing production. In fiscal year 2020, we will increase revenue by more than 10% compared to 2017. GWJ president Araki Takashi stated that demand from memory-related and data centers has climbed, making it decide to increase production. action.
Specifically, GWJ will invest approximately 8 billion yen in Niigata Plant (Senchi-cho, Niigata Prefecture) before the end of 2020, and increase the monthly production capacity of 12-inch silicon wafers from the current 200,000 wafers by more than 10%; To invest about 500 million yen in the Guanchuan Plant (Guanchuan Village, Niigata Prefecture) before the end of 2019, a high-performance semiconductor wafer production line called SOI (Silicon-on-Insulator) will be added to the factory. The monthly production of SOI wafers has increased from the current level of about 3,000 to about 10,000.
Fuji Chimera Research Institute (Inc.), a Japanese marketing and research organization, points out that the wafers for semiconductor materials (including silicon wafers, SiC substrates/yttrium oxide substrates, and GaN substrates/diamond substrates) will be pre-scaled in the global market in 2020. It is estimated to be 919.1 billion yen, which will grow 12.2% from 2015 (884.1 billion yen).
The Asian Department of Foreign Investment pointed out that Global Wafer's customers have stable demand for advanced and traditional technologies, and their applications cover industrial ICs, power management ICs, and automotive electronics. The expected gross margin will increase from 25.6% last year to 36.3% this year. Next year's 40.8%. Looking to the future, according to the current market trend, the semiconductor industry will continue to drive demand for silicon wafers. Global Crystal will also invest in the next generation of semiconductor wafers currently under development for several years. Product SiC, GaN mass production, in response to customer-side new products, including the rapid growth trend of 5G and automotive components applications.
The Asian Department of Foreign Investment issued a research report stating that the supply of silicon wafers is in short supply. The global wafer wafer price of 12-inch wafers is expected to increase by 24% next year and 17% next year. The price of 8-inch wafers will increase by 15% next year, 8% next year. As a result, global wafers have been synchronised and upgraded this year. The EPS forecast for next year will be 6%, 17% to 28.75 yuan, and 40.1 yuan. In addition, the management will continue to watch silicon wafers of all sizes and will continue to rise until 2019. It also implies that 70% to 80% of capacity before 2019 has been ordered by customers.
SUMCO also announced in August last year that due to strong demand for semiconductors and boosting demand for silicon wafers as a substrate material, supply and demand were tightened, so it was decided to invest 43.6 billion yen in its Imari plant to increase production investment. The target will be in the first half of 2019. 12-inch silicon wafer monthly production capacity increased 110,000.
2. Global crystal orders see 2020, production capacity has been booked more than half
According to the micro-messaging news, Global Crystal Chairman Xu Xiulan pointed out today that the prices of 6, 8 and 12-inch silicon wafers this year will both increase compared to last year and that the increase will be better than the 4th quarter of last year. The expected price will continue to rise next year. At present, the global crystal order visibility has reached 2020, the production capacity has been booked more than half, also represents the overall operating performance of 2019 years ago.
Xu Xiulan also emphasized that the global wafer technology, cost, and management capabilities all have advantages. It is worth mentioning that Global Wafer has up to 16 factories worldwide, only two of them are covered by themselves, and the other 14 factories are Mergers and acquisitions are obtained, and all are purchased at discounted prices. Therefore, the cost advantage is more competitive than the newcomers.
For Xupu Lan’s New Deal on Tax Cuts, Xu Xiulan said that this is not a bullish prospect. Global Crystals has two plants in the United States. In addition to the reduction of corporate tax rates to 21%, capital expenditures can be accelerated depreciation, and for profitable companies It is advantageous.
As for the depreciation of the U.S. dollar, last year did have a heavier foreign exchange loss pressure on Global. Last year, the exchange loss was approximately NT$230 million, and 80% of Universal Crystal's orders were denominated in U.S. dollars. As for the first quarter, there were also some foreign exchange losses. The first quarter of the month’s law says to investors.
Xu Xiulan said that from the perspective of demand, there is absolutely no problem, because the development of technology trends, the demand for semiconductors beyond imagination, including smart home, Internet of things, automotive electronics, electric vehicles, etc., just like consumers use After the mobile payment, it will not go back. Such demand will only increase, and the trend will gradually take shape. The silicon wafer industry is not a demand issue at present. It is that the supply side may have new players and influence the industry. , However, due to the high barriers to entry, and the time required for input recovery, it is difficult to determine when production capacity can be relieved. In addition, due to the tight demand for silicon wafers, the company has also carefully observed whether customers repeat orders. Too many such situations, orders and industry supply and demand are healthy.
On the whole, Xu Xiulan believes that the global supply of semiconductor silicon wafers does not need to be substantially expanded. In terms of the global wafers themselves, they will achieve the best use of space in existing plants, and make good use of space to increase the bottleneck process. Currently, it will not consider investing in a new plant in China. There are no plans to expand production in the five plant areas in Japan. The main consideration for the earthquake in Japan is to eliminate the risk of excessive concentration of production.
3. Shi Feng, general manager of Tongfu Microelectronics: Exploration of the international development of Chinese packaging and testing companies
On April 12, 2018, the 2018 China Semiconductor Market Annual Conference was grandly held in Nanjing. The theme of the summit was 'Core Age, Core Opportunity, and Core Development'. It provided a 'core' idea for the continuous and steady development of China's integrated circuit industry in many aspects. 'Core' power. Tong Fu, general manager of the micro-electricity Shi Lei made a keynote speech at the conference.
The following is a speech record:
Good afternoon, everyone. The conference gave me a propositional composition and exploration of the international development of Chinese packaging and testing companies. The first question is why internationalization of ICs is to be discussed? I also thought that this needs to be addressed in the IC industry. Cognition, the Secretary-General said today, 60 years after the invention of integrated circuits, this should be regarded as a global industry. It can also be regarded as the crystallization of human scientific knowledge and civilization. IC has always been a worldwide cluster of industries and is a global industrial ecosystem. In the morning, we also mentioned AI. Human civilization is on the eve of the smart era. Looking ahead, ICs are still one of the cornerstones of the greatest era. So we borrowed from Xi Da, IC will be part of the human destiny community. Just as the Boao Forum was just opened, we must earnestly understand the spirit of adherence to openness by Xida, so this is why the IC is internationalized.
In connection with China's packaging and testing industry, we will say a few words. First, China's global market for packaging and testing accounts for approximately 50 billion US dollars in global production value. I also have a question mark. This figure needs further consideration. China accounts for one third of the industry. The data is higher, but I don’t think it’s realistic. In Southeast Asia, although there are many places that are not as strong as before, such as Japan or South Korea, their body mass is still huge, and China’s one-third is still good. China's packaging and testing industry has grown at a rapid rate, and its growth over the past few years is much higher than that of global growth.
In 2017, the domestic market for packaging and testing was only 16% of the market share. Most of the market is still in Taiwan, especially high-end packaging and testing, and Taiwan is the largest. Taiwanese manufacturers account for 90% of the packaging and testing industry. Look again. In the recent mergers and acquisitions of the packaging and testing industry, Huatian first purchased approximately US$40 million from FCI in the United States, and Changzhou’s 1.78 billion US dollars acquired Starcop. In 2017, Richtech acquired a company in Japan with almost 40% equity, and The U.S. shareholding in Japanese companies. Over the past few years, the industry of packaging and testing has been surging. We have also participated in this. We can't just watch other people play, but when it comes to mergers and acquisitions, it is still obvious. Therefore, it cannot be too big.
According to our actual situation, we established a joint venture with Japan in 1997. At that time, we called Nantong Fujitsu as a supporting project for the 908 project. In the past 20 years, we have benefited from Fujitsu's joint venture in the first 10 years, taking an introduction. , Digestion and reabsorption path. After ten years of major projects, industrial layout, international mergers and acquisitions. Last year we changed its name to Tongfu Microelectronics, Tongfu Microelectronics has always adhered to the path of internationalization, Fujitsu is the top 10 in the world in our joint venture. The semiconductor companies, but today's top 30 are gone, so at the beginning we were internationally engaged in joint ventures with companies in international cooperation. In these areas, whether in international cooperation, international markets, international talents and all aspects. We and 1997 Contrast with the annual data, sales revenue and profits, assets have made great progress. Especially in recent years, the growth rate of our sales revenue growth rate has been very high. At the same time, our global layout has become increasingly perfect, and we have entered before it. Ten. We have changed from a factory in Nantong to six factories in the past three years. Another is in Malaysia. Strip line.
I have some experience and focus on win-win situation. The open win-win situation just mentioned is not just a slogan. We have been practicing it for so many years. We talked about our cooperating partners before each cooperation, and did not include annual dividends. At the time of registration, the capital was 5.1 million. The U.S. dollar is now 50 times that of 20 years ago. Some companies in Japan at the time were all wholly owned by their domestic sealing and testing plants. At the same time, our cooperation is also the most successful case in the Fujitsu Group.
The Central Party School has done research, wrote an article, called from the joint venture to the core, who knows what will happen in the future. Because it brings us higher prospects, high technology, quality, perfect corporate governance, including When we were planning, we took Fujitsu's bids for a second, and we still had gold. At the same time, we also fostered an international team. This is our advantage. Many of the figures have turned 50 times and many have exceeded 50 times. We have also cooperated with ADM over the years. What's the relationship between China and the United States? The relationship between us and ADM has been very good from our perspective. ADM has been undergoing a transformation in these two years. After we completed the transaction with him, we completed His company's transformation, he was lightly loaded, focused on his design. Our advanced packaging and testing capabilities accounted for the largest part of the revenue, ranked among the world's top packaging and testing companies.
Looking back at cooperation, I think domestic cooperation and international cooperation complement each other. In August 2014, TSMC’s advanced production at Nanjing's 16-nanometer, we prepared in 2014. This will complement each other. In the process of cooperation, the industry The fund just progressed. This innovative structure and special structure allowed us to achieve great development. This should be said to be an innovation of the national fund. This project also won the eleventh new wealth of China's best overseas. One of the projects, this is not only in the semiconductor field, but in various fields. We are more and more internationalized. The joint venture has won two factories in Fucheng and Suzhou as well as all intellectual property rights. At the same time, we have introduced overseas talents. We passed ten years Efforts, almost 200 pins can be packaged, and through a major special decade of support and effort, almost 1000 can be packaged, we have acquired to 3000, is almost such a concept.
We have a huge overseas market and global customers. We have introduced a large number of overseas talents. After our overseas talents arrive, there is basically no situation that is not suitable. This is a better place. Many overseas talents can Come to us here are all high-end talents from outside companies. We have different cultural backgrounds and work experience. We have come to us and we are in the sea. At the same time, we have come back to help us further and have played an important role.
To make a summary, the point of view: The civilized industry still needs the support of the culture. Many of the technologies, talents, and funds that we mentioned have come back to think of this industry as a civilized industry. Today, they asked me a question, saying how Nanjing has done this industry. Well, I said first to forget Nanjing. First, follow the trend of the world, and then follow the trend of China. Finally, talk about Jiangsu and Nanjing. Let's put the order in order. Internationalization is the only way for China to become a semiconductor power in the world. The world's semiconductor powers do not hesitate to close their doors and it is impossible to do so. We have a deep understanding of Xi. After Sino-U.S. dry up, many people said that it was okay. We have been reforming and opening up for 40 years. We have a family, closed doors. It is also the second largest economy in the world. We hope that China’s leaders will not think so. China’s semiconductors cannot be closed down. First, they must become part of the world’s semiconductors. They must first step up their opening up to the outside world, and at the same time develop autonomous and controllable. Specifically, how to cooperate internationally, we find out who is right and right, find a long-term partner, and then share it. Fujitsu was gone. He was very happy to go. Now it is our second shareholder. It shows that the value is in us, not in Fujitsu. So in the future we still want to cooperate and win together. We also hope to cooperate with you. We must first let our partners see it. To our value, then we can use our own value.
Fujitsu is the end of the era, and it is now called Tongfu Microelectronics. The era of the future is an era of intelligence. We hope to participate in this smart era and make the smart era even better. Thank you!
4.Jibang Consulting: NAND Flash is still slightly oversupply in the second quarter, and prices continue to fall
Apr. 12, 2018 — DRAMeXchange, DRAMeXion Consulting, said that the first quarter of the NAND Flash market has seen an oversupply. Although demand has increased following the recovery of working days in the second quarter, growth has remained weak. , NAND Flash is expected to maintain a slight oversupply situation, and prices will continue to decline.
In response to the NAND Flash market trend in the second half of the year, DRAMeXchange pointed out that from the perspective of demand, in addition to the peak season effect in the second half of the year, the channel market showed signs of recovery due to price revisions, and smartphone capacity continued to increase. Demand growth performance is stable.
Observing the supply side, DRAMeXchange pointed out that in order to respond to the market trend in the first half of the year, some suppliers have slowed down the expansion rate, and the next-generation 9x-layer NAND Flash process will not be available until 2019. The impact of supply in 2018 is limited, and the storage capacity of the Yangtze River in China's supply chain, which has received much attention from the outside world, will not be significant until 2019. It will also have little impact on the market conditions in 2018.
Based on the above factors, DRAMeXchange believes that the NAND Flash market will shift from a modest oversupply to a tight supply in the second half of the year. In terms of price trends, considering that suppliers holding DRAM resources adopt a binding sales strategy, we expect NAND Flash items Product price fluctuations are expected to stabilize in the second half of the year, including eMMC/UFS, PC/enterprise SSD, and other price declines will converge over the first half.
5. How to create a 'chip city' in Nanjing Jiangbei New District
Original title: Nanjing Municipal Party Standing Committee, Jiangbei New District full-time deputy secretary Luo Qun: How to create a 'chip city' in Nanjing Jiangbei New District
It should be said that Nanjing Jiangbei New District is the only national-level new district in Jiangsu Province. Our mother River Changjiang now divides Nanjing into two parts: Jiangbei and Jiangnan, and Nanjing has built a 2500-year history. The future of Nanjing’s development and future development hopes to In the Jiangbei New District, of course, Jiangnan and Jiangbei are competing to develop together. Jiangbei New District has an area of 2451 square kilometers. The area of light alone is not large. Everyone may not necessarily have a quantity concept. It is larger than the current size of Shenzhen. The planned area is 788 square kilometers. Currently, the permanent population of the Jiangbei New District currently exceeds 1.7 million. According to the current growth rate, the net increase will be around 100,000 a year.
The future development direction of the Jiangbei New District is mainly to take the road of innovation and development, while the path of innovation and development is focused on coordinated development. The first is the coordinated development of resources at home and abroad. The Jiangbei New District recently established an innovation center with Cambridge University. In addition, Germany’s Frank Institute is also located in Jiangbei, and some other institutions including Berkeley’s laboratories also set up corresponding structures in Jiangbei. A group of foreign resources are gathered in the Jiangbei New District. The second synergistic words are domestic ones. How do innovation resources go to Jiangbei? No matter whether it is domestic Tsinghua University, Peking University, Shanghai Jiaotong University, Fudan University, or domestic innovation resources are gradually entering the Jiangbei New District. The third is coordinated, the state approved Jiangbei New District. Because Jiangbei New Area connects Suzhong and Subei, including the eastern part of Anhui and the upper and middle reaches of the Yangtze River. In this area, Jiangbei New District has achieved coordinated development with the entire surrounding area. The fourth one is our industrial chain and the surrounding area. With coordinated development, Jiangbei New District is mainly a high-end design, R&D, including technology service industry to drive peripheral industries. Development, this is our go the road of innovation.
In the second aspect, the future of industrial development in the Jiangbei New District will now focus on two cities and one center. The first is the 'chip city', which is mainly based on integrated circuits. The second area is 'genes'. The City is centered on life science and technology. The third is the financial center, which is mainly engaged in industrial integration. Both of these industries are capital-intensive industries and require a large amount of investment to support development. Today we are starting the semiconductor industry conference. , I will give a brief introduction on the chip situation.
In the past two years, the Jiangbei New District has also introduced excellent companies. As TSMC has already settled down in the Jiangbei New District, mass production is coming soon, and China’s Ziguang District is also located in the Jiangbei New District. In addition, we have built up these enterprises in recent years. There are a number of upstream design companies, including overseas ARM, creative (GUC) companies, etc. These companies have R&D institutes in Jiangbei New District. Domestic include Xun Xun, including SMIC. , Including today's China Electronics, Jinmeng Technology, Huada Jiutian, and other design companies all have branches in Jiangbei New District. In addition, Jiangbei New District also has an integrated circuit In the service platform, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology specifically placed the first batch of the “core fire” plan in the Jiangbei New District. The purpose was to support the development of integrated circuit design platforms. This public service platform has also hosted some specialization at home and abroad for over a year. The academic conference also invited international masters to give lectures and seminars on integrated circuit development in the Jiangbei New District. In addition, some domestic experts also gave lectures and discussions in the Jiangbei New District. We also conducted academic exchanges at home and abroad through this platform. At the same time, we also trained a large number of innovations and provided services in integrated circuit design. We also held the China Semiconductor Annual Conference in the Jiangbei New District. This year is the second session of the National College Student Integrated Circuit. The competition, last year was 9+7, and 26 college students launched integrated circuit design competitions in Jiangbei New Area. This year the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the Ministry of Education jointly organized. In addition, we also attracted a large number of funds for IC design, including PCs, VCs, and other funds have gathered in the Jiangbei New District. The current IC fund for the entire Jiangbei New Area is nearly 100 billion yuan. Of course, the fund will invest in promising companies.
In addition, Jiangbei New District also held the National Semiconductor Annual Meeting. It was also held in the Jiangbei New District last year. It is still held in the Jiangbei New District this year. We also hope that the annual meeting of the semiconductor industry will last long in the Jiangbei New District and in Nanjing to promote Jiangbei. New District in the development of integrated circuit industry.
Finally, to introduce to you, the development of the integrated circuit industry in the Jiangbei New Area is not just about holding competitions. We have specifically issued relevant policies for IC industry concentration and technological development. This policy also revolves around the Jiangbei New District, including design companies, and the future in the Jiangbei New District. Some enterprises that set up factories, we all provide certain subsidies. In addition, we will give priority to the production enterprises in the Jiangbei New District, Nanjing area, the purpose is that high-end design companies in the Jiangbei New District can enjoy the best service as soon as possible. The shortest process ensures that your design results can be industrialized as soon as possible. This is the policy of IC in Jiangbei New District.
We are an innovative new area. For the IC industry chain, including ICs, we are expanding into new areas, including downstream companies that we are doing. For example, the Internet of Things companies also have a large number of mechanisms. The extended AI companies are also The Jiangbei New District is gathering. The Jiangbei New District has many policies to support the development of small and medium-sized enterprises. The purpose is to create an innovative ecology. At the beginning of this year, the Nanjing Municipal Party Committee and Municipal Government promulgated the “Nanjing to Build a World Famous City of Innovation”, which specifically introduced the No. 1 document. The gold content of this No. 1 document is very high. I also hope that all the entrepreneurs and friends present here today are willing to go to Nanjing to develop. The friends from Jiangbei Development can learn about our No. 1 document, which fully embodies the Nanjing Municipal Committee. The government's support for innovation. To Jiangbei New District to innovate and start a business, we make the entrepreneurial culture, let more people come to Nanjing at the lowest cost, and come to Jiangbei to innovate. I would like to take this opportunity to report the situation in the Jiangbei New District to everyone. I’m not as good as everyone’s going to the Jiangbei New District. Take a look. The Jiangbei New District is Your future, Damei Jiangbei, dreams to sail.
6. Apple Inc. HomePod only has three minutes of heat.
The smart speaker HomePod had a poor market response. It only had three minutes of heat and worried Apple. One of the foundries, Inventec (2356), had received orders from Apple at the end of March.
According to data provided by market intelligence agency Slice Intelligence for financial media, HomePod was strong at the beginning of the listing. In terms of sales volume, the United States accounted for about one-third of the market in the last week of January, but HomePod officially started selling. After three weeks, the sales volume quickly declined and the market share was only about 4%.
HomePod's sales plummeted and inventory began to accumulate. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who hated stocks, could not tolerate it. Adjusting orders is not surprising. It is understood that Apple stores sell less than 10 HomePods per day.
The HomePod problem is not in the hardware itself, but the voice assistant Siri is not smart enough to make HomePod hardware difficult to extend. As long as software updates Siri upgrade, it may increase HomePod sales, so now sentenced HomePod death penalty is still too early.
John Giannandrea, the head of Google's artificial intelligence (AI) department, has announced that he has left the company and has led the Apple camp to lead the AI team. Its main task is to improve the Siri function.