Hanmi Semiconductor opens its 6th factory… Next year’s sales target of KRW 1 trillion
Hanmi Semiconductor announced on the 19th that it has opened its 6th factory in the Juan National Industrial Complex in Seo-gu, Incheon.
This factory is a three-story building on a site of about 2,000 pyeong, and Hanmi Semiconductor has a TC bonder production line for high bandwidth memory (HBM) with a total size of 22,000 pyeong along with the five factories at the existing Incheon headquarters. The maximum production volume is 1 trillion won.
Kwak Dong-shin, Vice Chairman of Hanmi Semiconductor, said, “In preparation for the growth of HBM for artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductors, we have expanded our 6th factory and placed an additional order for core component processing facilities worth 20 billion won.” He added, “We have raised our sales target from the previous level to 550 billion won this year and 550 billion won next year.” “We expect sales of 1 trillion won,” he said.
Samsung Electronics Semiconductor participates in the Beijing Motor Show for the first time… Targeting the Chinese automobile market
Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor division will participate in the Beijing Motor Show, China’s largest automobile exhibition, for the first time and begin targeting the Chinese automotive semiconductor market.
According to the industry on the 18th, the Device Solutions (DS) division, which is in charge of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business, will participate in the ‘2024 Auto China’ (Beijing Motor Show) held in Beijing, China from the 25th to the 27th.
The Beijing Motor Show has been held every other year since 1990, but was canceled in 2022 due to the coronavirus pandemic and will be held for the first time in four years.
At this motor show, Samsung Electronics plans to organize a booth divided into memory, system LSI, and foundry sectors, and showcase the latest products used in vehicle infotainment and advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS).
“US memory semiconductor Micron will receive $6.1 billion in subsidies next week”
Bloomberg reported on the 18th that Micron Technology, the largest semiconductor memory company in the United States, is scheduled to receive a subsidy of $6.1 billion (approximately 8.4 trillion won) from the U.S. Department of Commerce next week to fund domestic factory construction projects.
Micron is also expected to receive a loan as part of the package, according to Bloomberg sources. The total amount of the loan is not yet known.
Bloomberg reported that President Joe Biden is scheduled to visit the Micron plant in Syracuse, New York and announce financial support on the 25th. In addition to its headquarters in Idaho, Micron is also building a factory near Syracuse. Bloomberg explained that when the tentative agreement is announced next week, Micron will receive funds linked to each project after months of due diligence.
ASML net profit plummets 37% – orders drop 61%
ASML announced on the 18th that its first quarter sales were 5.29 billion euros (about 7.78 trillion won) and net profit was 1.22 billion euros, a sharp decline of 21.6% and 37.4%, respectively, compared to the same period last year. The amount of new orders in the first quarter was 3.6 billion euros, down 61% from the previous quarter. This figure is significantly lower than the market forecast of 5.4 billion euros.
Major semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics and TSMC purchase equipment by predicting future semiconductor demand. Accordingly, the fact that companies are delaying orders for new equipment can be interpreted to mean that semiconductor inventory is still piling up. Bloomberg News analyzed that the overall semiconductor economy, including mobile chips, needs to recover, saying, “The hot demand for AI chips may not continue in the long term.”
Daeyang Enbio receives support from the Ministry of Environment for development of activated carbon for semiconductor ultrapure water
Daeyang N-Bio announced on the 18th that it was selected for the ‘2024 Small and Medium Environmental Enterprise Commercialization Support Project’ (green new industry sector, ultrapure water sector) supported by the Ministry of Environment.
This support project is a project to increase the success rate of technology commercialization of environmental companies with excellent technologies and to support the expansion of dissemination of environmental technologies to industrial sites. The Ministry of Environment has set a total budget of 26.4 billion won.
Daeyang EnBio will receive 600 million won in support over the next two years. In addition to its own budget of 260 million won, it will pursue customized technology development and commercialization to replace activated carbon, which removes various contaminants, which is the primary core of the ultrapure water production process, with bamboo material. Based on this, we plan to produce high-quality ultrapure water. Hansung Cleantech, the parent company, is responsible for applying technology to ultrapure water and major customers.
Wigit supplies parts for semiconductor ‘glass substrate’ manufacturing equipment… Highlighting precision processing technology
Wigit, a company specializing in semiconductor and display equipment, announced on the 17th that it has supplied major parts, including showerheads, to a semiconductor glass substrate manufacturing equipment company.
Glass substrates are an essential component in the implementation of high-performance semiconductors such as artificial intelligence (AI). It is emerging as a next-generation semiconductor substrate that can increase signal transmission speed and improve power efficiency compared to existing plastic-based substrates used in the semiconductor manufacturing process. Accordingly, global semiconductor companies such as Intel and AMD are pursuing the introduction of glass substrates, and SKC’s subsidiary Absolix, and in Korea, Samsung Electro-Mechanics and LG Innotek, are in full swing with development.
As domestic and foreign semiconductor companies are introducing next-generation glass substrates in their manufacturing processes, major changes are expected in the material, component, and equipment industry, which will be responsible for the supply chain for mass production of glass substrates.
Japanese Kioxia plans to go public as early as this year… “Increasing demand for AI semiconductors”
The Nippon Keizai Shimbun (Nikkei) reported on the 17th that Kioxia Holdings (formerly Toshiba Memory), a Japanese semiconductor memory conglomerate, will resume related procedures with the goal of listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange as early as this year.
According to reports, Bain Capital, a major shareholder of Kioxia and an American investment fund, informed Kioxia’s bank on the 15th of its intention to launch a new initial public offering (IPO). In addition to issuing new shares, Bain Capital plans to sell some of its holdings.
Kioxia is the third largest company in the global market share of NAND flash memory for data storage. It was approved for listing on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2020, but the listing was postponed just before that due to the US-China trade conflict and worsening market conditions. At the time, the market capitalization was expected to be over 2 trillion yen. There is also a possibility that the listing application process will be suspended this time depending on business conditions.
LG Chem Advanced Materials Division Voluntary Retirement
LG Chem receives applications for voluntary retirement from production workers. The target belongs to the Advanced Materials Business Division and also includes the secondary battery materials sector, one of the company’s three new growth engines.
According to the petrochemical industry on the 14th, LG Chem will receive special voluntary retirement applications for production technicians in the Advanced Materials Business Division by the end of this month. Employees with more than 5 years of service, including those on leave, can apply, and employees with less than 1 year left until retirement age are excluded from application. After review, a retirement order will be issued in May.
LG Chem’s Advanced Materials Business Division consists of an anode material and separator division that produces secondary battery materials, an electronic materials division that produces light-emitting materials for organic light-emitting diodes (OLED) and semiconductor back-end process materials, and an engineering materials division that produces high-strength, lightweight automotive materials. It consists of business divisions, etc.
Hyundai Motor Company and Japan’s Toray joint venture to ‘lightize electric vehicle materials’
Hyundai Motor Group has decided to jointly develop CFRP (Carbon Fiber Reinforced Plastic), a new lightweight material for future cars, with Japan’s Toray Group, the world’s No. 1 carbon fiber and composite material sector.
Electric vehicles are hundreds of kg heavier than internal combustion vehicles due to the weight of the battery. Therefore, the biggest challenge for automakers is to reduce weight by making major parts using new lightweight materials or reducing the number of parts using new technology.
On the 18th, at the Hyundai Motor Group headquarters in Yangjae-dong, Seoul, Hyundai Motor Company President Jang Jae-hoon, Kia President Song Ho-seong, AVP (Advanced Vehicle Platform) Headquarters President Song Chang-hyeon, Toray Chairman Nikkaku Akihiro, and President Oya Mitsuo met and signed an agreement on the above.
Xiaomi CEO: “Sales of our first electric vehicle, SU7, are 3 to 5 times higher than expected.”
Sales of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi’s first electric vehicle, the SU7, are three to five times higher than expected, CEO Lei Jun said.
According to Reuters, CEO Lei Jun said that the company began delivering the standard version of the SU7 to buyers in Beijing and Shenzhen on the 18th (local time) and advanced vehicle delivery by 12 days. In response to an online user’s question about future development plans, he replied that Xiaomi has no plans to build off-road vehicles and will mainly focus on the SU7.
CEO Lei Jun explained, “Software must be iterated quickly at least once a month,” and “if there is a problem, it must be improved as quickly as possible.” Xiaomi previously announced that in addition to the standard version, it plans to release the Max model this month and the Pro model at the end of May.
AutoN, Motrex and new electric vehicle charging business MOU
AutoN, a mobility life company, announced on the 19th that it signed a partnership agreement with Motrex, a company specializing in infotainment (IVI), for the electric vehicle charging business.
The two companies cooperate in the field of purpose-based mobility (PBV). We plan to expand our mobile charging business by combining Motrex’s next-generation mobile charging vehicles and Auto&’s PBV commercialization capabilities.
“By signing this agreement, we will do our best to successfully expand our business in the PBV field,” said Wang Gil-hang, head of Auto&’s domestic business division. “We will further solidify our leading position in the future mobility industry and become a highly competitive company in the global market.” “It will grow,” he said.
Even No. 1 Tesla lays off 14,000 people… Will the ‘electric vehicle cold weather’ come to an end?
Tesla, an icon in the global electric vehicle industry, decided to lay off about 14,000 employees.
According to Bloomberg on the 15th (local time), Tesla CEO Elon Musk said in a recent email to employees, “We have made the difficult decision to reduce our workforce by more than 10% globally,” adding, “As we have grown rapidly over the past few years, roles and duties have changed. “There are duplicate cases,” he said.
As of the end of last year, Tesla had about 140,000 employees, including full-time and contract workers. Although this is not Tesla’s first restructuring, it is the largest ever in terms of scale. Last year, as the growth in electric vehicle demand began to slow down around the world, major global automobile companies began full-fledged austerity measures, such as reducing or postponing investment in electric vehicles.
POSCO Group ships Korea’s first lithium ore-based lithium hydroxide
POSCO Group announced on the 19th that it had shipped its first shipment of lithium hydroxide based on lithium ore, the first in Korea to successfully commercially produce it.
POSCO Pilbara Lithium Solution, a joint venture between POSCO Holdings and Australia’s Pilbara Minerals, supplied 28 tons of lithium hydroxide products for the first time on the 16th to a customer that produces anode materials for secondary battery materials.
This is the first case in Korea of commercially producing lithium hydroxide by applying its own technology to extract lithium from ore raw materials, and this local production is expected to contribute to stabilizing the supply chain of raw materials for secondary batteries. POSCO Group completed the POSCO Pilvara Lithium Solution lithium hydroxide plant 1 in Yulchon Industrial Complex, Jeollanam-do in November last year and is steadily expanding production.
Secondary battery cathode material startup ‘SM Lab’ attempts to be listed again
According to related industries on the 18th, SM Lab applied for a preliminary listing review for KOSDAQ listing on the Korea Exchange. This company is characterized by producing ultra-high nickel single crystal anode materials with a nickel content of over 90% through a dry process. Last year, it completed the development of Ultra High Nickel and was recognized by the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy as a company with national advanced strategic technology.
This is SM Lab’s second attempt at listing. The company pursued listing in 2022, but voluntarily withdrew it. Afterwards, it attracted Geumyang, a listed company whose main business is foaming agents, as its largest shareholder. In this process, 100 billion won worth of funds were transfused. We also completed the expansion of the factory expansion costs suggested by the exchange during the preliminary listing review that was previously promoted. Geumyang, the largest shareholder, also lent an additional 40 billion won to SM Lab on the 17th.
‘Self-driving robot Miami patrol’… Newability begins entering the U.S. in earnest
Newbility announced on the 19th that it recently signed a contract with South Florida Security (SFS) Group, a U.S. integrated security service company, to verify robot-based security service business (PoC) in Florida, U.S.
Newbility’s self-driving robot will patrol the Doral Isles Clubhouse, a residential complex in Miami, Florida, for three months starting on the 8th of this month. A Newbility official said, “Patrol robots can effectively solve the problem of blind spots in security supervision and reduce the workload of security personnel,” adding, “It provides multiple monitoring through the control screen and a voice transmission function for immediate warning when an abnormal situation occurs. “I support it,” he said.
In Korea, Newability has been operating patrol robots on campuses such as Duksung Women’s University, Kangwon National University, and Pukyong National University, as well as Songdo Central Park, and has been upgrading its patrol function. In January of this year, an autonomous patrol robot was introduced at CES 2024.
Robotis supplies self-driving robots to LG
Robotis, a self-driving robot manufacturer, announced on the 17th that it will supply its product ‘Ant’ to LG Electronics starting in the second half of this year.
The two companies recently discussed the detailed specifications and delivery schedule of Ant, an outdoor self-driving robot developed by Robotis, and decided to supply the initial quantity to LG Electronics. Only the details of delivery specifications and certification-related procedures were left. It is expected that ants bearing the LG Electronics brand will be able to roam the streets as early as this year. LG Electronics established a cooperative relationship by participating in the paid-in capital increase of Robotis in 2018. Currently, it holds a 7.6% stake in Robotis, making it the second largest shareholder.
Robotis introduced Ant in June last year. It is a 115cm tall self-driving robot that can push buttons high up by stretching out the arms above its body. This is what differentiates it from Chinese-made robots that can only move on flat surfaces. Demand is increasing in hotels, hospitals, and offices at home and abroad, as it allows users to move between floors in an elevator on their own.
‘Slow sales’ Tesla cuts monthly fee for autonomous driving feature FSD by half
Tesla announced on the 12th (local time) that it would reduce the monthly fee for FSD, a driving assistance device, from $199 to $99 in the U.S. and Canada.
FSD is a Tesla driving assistance device called ‘Full Self-Driving’. In addition to the ‘autopilot’ function that follows the lane while maintaining a distance from the car in front, it also changes lanes, detects traffic lights, and navigates to the set destination.
Unlike the autopilot function, which was installed as standard, FSD could be used by purchasing software for $12,000 or paying $199 per month. However, the monthly fee was lowered by half to $99. Tesla did not say whether this price cut was temporary.
Hyundai Mobis’ Level 4 autonomous driving vehicle runs in Incheon city center
The level 4 self-driving demonstration car that Hyundai Mobis is developing with domestic automotive software (SW) partners will begin test operations in the Songdo and Yeongjong Island areas of Incheon Metropolitan City.
Hyundai Mobis announced on the 15th that it signed a business agreement (MOU) with the Incheon Free Economic Zone Authority and Incheon Techno Park for ‘cooperation in fostering smart mobility innovation startups.’
Hyundai Mobis will jointly participate in this autonomous driving demonstration project with about 20 startups, partners, research institutes, and major universities. Until recently, Hyundai Mobis has been leading the expansion of the domestic vehicle SW development ecosystem, and together with them, we are introducing an advanced autonomous driving software platform.
With this agreement, self-driving demonstration vehicles will operate in a 60km section around Songdo and Yeongjongdo centered on Incheon Bridge until the first half of next year.
Saesol Tech unveils ‘Next Generation C-V2X Security Solution’ at ‘ITS America’
Saesol Tech (CEO Junhyuk Han), a company specializing in self-driving connected integrated security solutions, will unveil a more robust next-generation C-V2X security solution for the first time at the ‘ITS America Conference & Expo 2024’ held in Arizona, USA on the 22nd.
Saesol Tech’s next-generation C-V2X security solution ‘All-in-One V2X SCMS PKI Server & Security Test System’ is a product that supports all processes from SCMS profile, test case creation, and verification preparation with just a few clicks. You can test by inserting test cases for various profiles such as ‘1609.2.1 2022 PICS proforma’, ‘SCMS Manager Profile’, and ‘5GAA Draft CP’. Saesol Tech’s self-developed ASN.1 parser and encryption engine enable the development of multiple test cases more quickly.
Samsung Display unveils QD-OLED monitor for broadcasting at US exhibition
Samsung Display is entering the broadcast monitor market with QD-OLED (organic light emitting diode) technology.
Samsung Display announced that it unveiled a new QD-OLED reference monitor at ‘NAB 2024’, the international broadcast equipment exhibition held in Las Vegas, USA from the 14th to the 17th (local time). The new product is a product of collaboration with broadcast monitor brands SmallHD and FSI.
FSI, a leader in the broadcasting equipment market, unveiled the 31.5-inch and 65-inch reference monitors ‘XMP310’ and ‘XMP650’ using Samsung Display’s QD-OLED at the exhibition. SmallHD, a powerhouse in monitors for broadcasting sites, introduced ‘Quantum 32’, a high-end reference monitor using Samsung Display’s 31.5-inch QD-OLED for the first time.
Source: kipost.net