Micron incident "showdown"** foreign media explained the beginning and end in detail.
Over the years, the United States has frequently used the "Entity List" to suppress China's semiconductor industry, and even joined forces with the Netherlands, Japan, and South Korea to deal with China. Since last year, the international market for memory** has been in a state of "ups and downs". Giants of the memory industry, South Korea's Samsung and SK hynix have all been hit hard.
In April this year, China took corresponding measures against the United States, starting with Micron Technology, a giant in the American memory industry. But the United States has warned South Korea that even if Micron is ** in China, Samsung, Hailik and other companies don't want to occupy their market. The two major companies, whose performance had declined, are now in a dilemma, and may even become "chess pieces" and become victims of the United States
The memory chip market continues to be sluggish.
In the past year, as the global semiconductor industry continues to slump, the sales of memory chips have also been declining, approaching the "bottom". According to SK hynix, the No. 2 giant in South Korea's memory chip industry, the company showed 3The loss of 4 trillion won (17.6 billion yuan) was its worst performance since its acquisition of Hynix in 2012.
Samsung, the "boss" of memory, is also bleak. According to the data, Samsung's earnings fell by 69% in the last month of last year and by almost 96 percentage points in the first quarter of this year!It was also Samsung's worst performance since the 2009 economic crisis.
In the past year, the world's memory chip sales have fallen by 18%, and the price of memory chips has also fallen by 40% in a year. Since last year, the demand for memory chips has dropped sharply around the world. Micron and Kioxia have been reducing production since last year in response to the crisis. Samsung did not make any plans to cut it last year, but this year, it could no longer hold on, and announced that it would reduce production for the first time.
The situation of these two companies is very bad, but the United States ** has no way to let them make up for Micron's losses in China. China's market share of memory chips before 2016 was basically zero, and it still needs to import a small number of memory chips, and if it cannot sell memory chips to China, it will face a more disadvantageous situation.
China initiates inspections of Micron.
In the DRAM memory chip market, in addition to Samsung and Hynix, the American manufacturer Micron occupies the third place in the market share. Micron was once a major manufacturer of memory chips in China. Products from China used to account for 56 percent of Micron's total revenue, but this has persisted due to the U.S. ban on the product. Micron's revenue in China reached $3.3 billion in 2022, or 11% of its total revenue. Although it made a lot of money in China with memory chips, Micron still spent a lot of money to persuade the United States to deal with Chinese memory companies.
Micron also filed a lawsuit against Fujian Jinhua Group in 2017, resulting in Jinhua Group being on the "entity list". Subsequently, under the persuasion of Micron, Yangtze River Warehousing also joined the list. This behavior not only hurt the company's profits, but also almost ruined China's emerging memory chip industry.
In April, Micron's security inspections began in China, and in the process, Micron's business will inevitably suffer, and at the same time, Micron's sales of up to $3.3 billion will be squeezed out, which is equivalent to China's current sales. Moreover, the Chinese companies Changxin (Shinweistorage) and Changjiang (CH Chuanjiang) will replace the company. In fact, Micron's performance for the year was not as good as it could have been, with its revenue falling 53% in the second quarter to 2312 percentage points, the worst performance in 20 years. This means that whether China conducts cyber censorship or not, Micron will face a difficult time.
China's memory chips have sprung up.
Compared with other types of semiconductors, China is still very competitive in the field of memory chips, and in some fields, it is also the first semiconductor chip in China to be completely independently developed. China not only has advanced scientific and technological strength, but also its first is relatively cheap, in recent years, domestic memory chips have quickly replaced similar foreign products.
Among these companies, Changxin Storage, a company specializing in DRAM chip manufacturing, has established a 12-inch foundry that can mass-produce 19nm chips.
YMTC is the largest manufacturer of memory chips in China, mainly manufacturing NAND flash memory. Yangtze River Storage completed 232 3DNAND processes in the past year, but had to suspend its manufacturing after the United States imposed restrictions on it. However, it has been reported that YMTC purchased 5nm etching chips from a semiconductor device manufacturer in China some time ago and will re-invest in the production of 3DNAND chips. This is a huge step forward for China's memory chips, and it can be said that it is a big step towards independence.
In addition, the technology will also be used in cloud computing, new energy vehicles, artificial intelligence and other fields, and the country will also increase investment in the semiconductor industry. The reason why the United States does not let South Korea take over Micron is because they are worried about the shortage of memory chips in China, but at the same time, it also gives Chinese companies room for development, and there is no need to worry about the "showdown" between the United States and them.
Samsung, Hynix, Micron's three major competitors in the memory chip industry, have all seen a significant increase in the past year. At the same time, China has once again scrutinized Micron, the giant of the American memory industry. The United States expects South Korean companies Samsung and Skhynix not to replace the void left by Micron. But China has its own memory chip company, and it is developing rapidly, so South Korean companies do not use it to grab, they can replace it with China's own things, and there is no need to worry about the United States having a "showdown" with them.