Money Today Reporter Jinyoung Oh | 2024.01.20 11:11
/Photo = Design Reporter Seonjeong Yoon Samsung Electronics, aiming to expand its share of the global semiconductor foundry (load production) market, has seized the opportunity to close the gap with TSMC. This is because TSMC, the leading foundry company, is failing due to poor performance due to noise inside and outside Taiwan. TSMC, whose leadership will soon be replaced, self-evaluates that it has done well even in the recession, but there are doubts even at home.
TSMC announced on the 18th (local time) that it recorded sales of NT$625.5 billion (about KRW 26 trillion) and net profit of NT$238.7 billion (about KRW 10 trillion) in the fourth quarter of last year. Sales were the same as the same period last year (2022), but net profit fell by 19% over the same period. Operating profit margin also decreased by 10.4% compared to last year, and the share of sales in China also decreased compared to the previous quarter. Although it exceeded market expectations, this appears to have been due to a reduction in the number of contracts and an excessive increase in investment costs.
The reason TSMC achieved this performance is because the semiconductor market is shrinking. In particular, it is worth noting that several indicators declined at the same time. There are three main things that the local industry is concerned about: a reduction in the share of future businesses, the intensification of very small competition, and a delay in foreign investment. In particular, the fact that the share of the Internet of Things (IoT) and mobility (means of transport) is falling is cause for concern. In the fourth quarter, the vehicle and IoT business sales shares were each 5%, both down compared to the same period last year.
Delays in foreign investment are also a problem. The operation of the factory in Arizona being built by TSMC has been delayed from late 2023 to 2024, and then again to 2025. An amount of 51 trillion won has been invested, but it is not gaining speed due to issues such as securing a workforce , costs, and conflicts with the US government. Chairman Liu De-in took responsibility and resigned at the general meeting of shareholders last month. There are predictions in the industry that it will be difficult to expand production within this year as demand increases.
For this reason, the domestic industry believes that Samsung Electronics should aggressively expand its market share. This means that while its biggest competitor, TSMC, is failing, it has to accelerate the implementation of high-value processes by securing technological capabilities. The foundation is laid. Samsung Electronics plans to introduce the gate-around approach (GAA), which increases data processing speed and power efficiency, in the industry-leading 2-nano process. This is a technology that has been in use since the first generation of 3-nano technology. TSMC maintains the current FinFET approach.
We must also drive to ensure safe customers. In the 2-nano process, where product and quality assurance is important, customer assurance is an urgent priority. As large customers have recently strengthened their ‘multi-vendor’ stance (diversification of the supply chain), there is a need to rapidly improve the output of very fine processes to appeal to large customers. In addition, TSMC’s customer base continues to decline. It fell for two consecutive years from 535 in 2021 to 532 in 2022 and 528 last year.
If you hesitate to invest, a spark could fly beyond TSMC and into Samsung Electronics. This is because Intel has declared its participation in the 2-nano competition this year. Its market share is outside the top 10, but if a development is successful, it can easily increase its market share by using its unique influence. An industry official said, “As TSMC’s dominance in very fine processes is shaken, the key is to increase customers,” and added, “If we secure large customers by improving technological completeness, we can win easily.”
[저작권자 @머니투데이, 무단전재 및 재배포 금지]
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