Reportedly, the operating rate of domestic foundries is falling more rapidly than expected earlier. Foundries in Korea comprise Samsung Electronics, DB Hitech, Key Foundry, Magnachip, and SK Hynix System IC. While the decline is steeper as compared to its rivals, Taiwanese foundry companies. The predominant view is that the situation will remain till the second quarter of the year.
As per the industry’s latest revelation, it is being observed that the foundry effective use rate of several domestic companies is normally maintained at 70%. While currently, its dropped to the 50~60% range.
To be very specific, the utilization rate of a 12-inch foundry fab, considering Samsung Electronics then it is approx 80%. But due to the low yield process, the interpreted rate does not consider much.
While in the case of 8-inch fabs, Samsung Electronics, DB Hitech, and Key Foundry have an operation rate of 60~70% per fab respectively. On the other hand, SK Hynix system IC located in Wuxi, China, is said to be around 50% only.
Samsung Electronics maintains a foundry utilization rate
The operational rate of domestic foundry companies starts to fall at a fast pace in the second half, of last year. While the utilization rate of Samsung Electronics is somehow constant but other companies record a huge decline.
It is expected that the decline in the operating rate of companies is much steeper this year also. Since, because of the decline in the foundry utilization rate due to reducing demand in IT. Additionally, on an item-by-item basis, some items like semiconductors and some MCUs still able to maintain high utilization rates.
The operational rate of facilities that primarily focuses on display driver ICs and CMOS image sensors (CIS) and fabs that have a high proportion of smartphones has significantly fallen. Therefore, companies are reducing the prices of some processes.
Do-yeon Choi, a researcher at Shinhan Investment & Securities, said, “In the case of DB Hitech, its performance is expected to improve from the second half of this year due to the recovery of orders and the increase in operating rate.”