Hanmi Semiconductor, 2nd quarter operating profit of 55.4 billion won… 396%↑ YoY
Hanmi Semiconductor announced on the 26th that it recorded consolidated sales of 123.4 billion won and operating profit of 55.4 billion won in the second quarter of this year. These figures represent an increase of 151.6% and 396%, respectively, compared to the same period last year.
TC bonder is the core process equipment of HBM mounted on AI semiconductors and is a core product of Hanmi Semiconductor. Hanmi Semiconductor plans to achieve its sales target of KRW 650 billion this year by starting full-scale delivery of TC bonder for HBM from the third quarter of this year.
Rebellion attracts 20 billion won investment from Aramco’s CVC
Rebellion, a domestic artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor fabless company, announced on the 23rd that it had attracted an investment of 20 billion won from Waed Ventures, a corporate venture capital (CVC) under Saudi Aramco.
Waed Ventures is leading Saudi Arabia’s industrial diversification by investing primarily in technology startups. Since its establishment in 2013, it has invested in more than 70 startups. Rather than simply pursuing financial investment (FI) aimed at future price differences, Waed Ventures is known to pursue strategic investment (SI) that creates synergy with parent companies and government projects by utilizing Waed Ventures’ local and global networks. Rebellion stated that this round of funding was made as a strategic investment.
Japanese Rapiders with Japanese government loan guarantee
Rapidus, a Japanese foundry company that is having difficulties raising funds, is expected to receive a loan guarantee from the Japanese government.
According to industry sources on the 25th, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida visited the Rapidus production base construction site in Hokkaido the previous day and announced that he would urge the National Assembly to provide funding. He said, “We will promptly submit to the National Assembly the bill necessary for mass production of next-generation semiconductors.”
Rapidus is a company established with funds from eight Japanese companies, including Toyota, Sony, Softbank, Kioxia, NTT, NEC, Denso, and Mitsubishi UFJ Bank, in order to revive the Japanese semiconductor industry. Aside from private companies, there are no financial institutions willing to provide funds to Rapidus. It is known that even Japanese financial institutions are reluctant to lend money to Rapidus because it is a new company with no sales performance.
YMTC: “China’s Semiconductor Industry to Grow Explosively in 3-5 Years”
According to the Hong Kong South China Morning Post (SCMP) on the 23rd, YMTC Chairman Chen Nanxiang said in an interview with CGTN, an English-language broadcast channel of China Central Television (CCTV), that “China’s semiconductor industry has not yet reached explosive growth. But that day will come over the next three to five years.” He was elected as the chairman of the China Semiconductor Industry Association (CSIA) in October of last year.
Chairman Chen pointed out that the development of China’s semiconductor industry has been accelerated as semiconductors have become the center of the US-China technology war.
He went on to say that while the US is trying to block China’s access to advanced semiconductor and foundry technologies, advanced packaging could play an important role in the future.
OCI “Expected to establish a joint venture in Tokuyama, Japan in the second half of the year”
OCI announced in a conference call to announce its second-quarter performance on the 24th, “We are expanding our polysilicon plant for semiconductors in Malaysia through a joint venture with Japan’s Tokuyama.” It added, “We had expected to establish the joint corporation in the first half of the year, but due to delays in obtaining permits related to the establishment of the corporation, we expect to establish the corporation within the third quarter.”
He continued, “The silicon anode special material (SiH4) plant currently under construction at the Gunsan plant is expected to begin production in the second half of next year and be recognized in sales.”
NVIDIA AI Foundry Leverages Metarama 3.1
NVIDIA announced on the 25th (local time) that it will provide the NVIDIA AI Foundry (semiconductor contract manufacturing) service and the NVIDIA NIM inference microservice, which strengthen the generative AI of companies around the world, through Meta’s open source AI model collection ‘Llama 3.1’.
This news comes just a day after Meta announced the release of Rama 3.1. Accordingly, Meta has secured the path to widely supply Rama 3.1 at launch through various services provided by NVIDIA.
Meta revealed that it used 16,000 of Nvidia’s latest GPU (graphics processing unit) ‘H100’ for Rama 3.1 training, and CEO Zuckerberg also presented a goal of purchasing 350,000 H100 by the end of the year.
The collaboration between the two companies will enable NVIDIA AI Foundry customers to leverage Lamar 3.1 and NVIDIA software, compute, and expertise to create customized “supermodels” tailored to domain-specific industry use cases.
MK Electronics Completes Acquisition of US Patent Related to Low-Temperature Solder Composition
MK Electronics announced on the 23rd that it has completed the development of low-temperature solder technology in line with the expansion of the forward semiconductor market, including artificial intelligence (AI) and servers, and that an overseas patent related to this was registered on the 9th.
This patent was applied for domestically and internationally at the same time, and was first registered in the US, where fabless companies such as AI and servers are located. Since the existing soldering process is performed at a high temperature (approximately 250℃), it has difficulty in producing fine component defects and stable products, and it is known that by applying low-temperature solder balls and paste products, the soldering process temperature can be lowered, securing productivity and reliability.
Korea & Company Invests 9 Billion Won in Battery Materials Startup
Korea & Company, the business holding company of Korea & Company Group, announced on the 25th that it had made a Series A investment of 9 billion won in ‘JR Energy Solutions,’ a domestic secondary battery electrode foundry company.
JR Energy Solutions is a promising startup that produces lithium-ion battery core material ‘electrodes’ based on smart factory technology. It has a large number of professional personnel and high technical skills, and this year, it completed a 500㎿h electrode factory in Eumseong-gun, Chungcheongbuk-do, securing production capacity.
Through this Series A investment, Hankook & Company acquired a 15.20% stake in JR Energy Solutions, forming a partnership as the third largest shareholder and strategic investor.
POSCO Holdings: “Electric Vehicle Chasm, Opportunity to Secure Quality Assets”… Continued Investing with Tenacity
POSCO Holdings plans to use the current situation (chasm) of stagnant demand for electric vehicles as an opportunity to secure quality assets.
The strategy is to continue investing, considering that the post-chasm situation will arrive in the mid- to long-term, despite the recent decline in the performance of the secondary battery materials business due to the recent downturn in business conditions. POSCO Holdings mentioned this plan during the second quarter performance announcement conference call on the 25th.
POSCO Holdings recorded preliminary consolidated results for the second quarter, with sales of KRW 18.51 trillion, operating profit of KRW 752 billion, and net profit of KRW 546 billion. Compared to the same period last year, sales, operating profit, and net profit decreased by 8%, 43.3%, and 29.6%, respectively.
Chinese government increases subsidies for electric vehicle purchases
On the 25th, the Chinese government’s National Development and Reform Commission announced ‘measures to strengthen support for large-scale equipment updates and consumer goods replacement’ and increased subsidies for consumers of environmentally friendly (electric and hybrid) cars.
The measure focuses on increasing support for vehicle scrapping and renewal, and home appliance trading.
According to the implementation rules of the automobile compensation sales subsidy, when individual automobile consumers scrap national Class 3 passenger cars (referring to gasoline passenger cars registered before June 30, 2011, diesel passenger cars registered before June 30, 2013) or environmentally friendly passenger cars registered before April 30, 2018, or purchase environmentally friendly passenger cars on the “List of Environmentally Friendly Cars Subject to Automobile Acquisition Tax Reduction” or passenger cars with a displacement of 2.0 liters or less, the subsidy standard has been raised to 20,000 yuan (about 3.82 million won) for environmentally friendly vehicles and 15,000 yuan (about 2.86 million won) for passenger cars with a displacement of 2.0 liters or less.
US Ford’s Q2 earnings shock: “The more electric cars you sell, the more you lose”
Shares of U.S. automaker Ford plunged more than 10% in after-hours trading on the 24th (local time) after the company reported second-quarter earnings that fell far short of market expectations.
The operating loss before interest and income tax (EBIT) of the electric vehicle division in the second quarter was recorded at $1.14 billion (approximately KRW 1.57 trillion). The accumulated operating loss before interest and income tax in the first half of the year amounted to $2.46 billion (approximately KRW 3.4 trillion). The continued loss in the electric vehicle division is also leading to a change in business strategy.
Ford announced on the 18th that it would produce the internal combustion engine model, the ‘Super Duty’ pickup truck, at its Ontario, Canada plant, which it initially announced would be used as an electric vehicle production base.
LG Chem “Domestic NCM and Moroccan LFP cathode material plant operation schedule postponed”
LG Chem announced in a conference call announcing its second-quarter performance on the 25th that “the ramp-up of the Gumi plant in Korea and the U.S. plant currently under construction, which is aiming for initial mass production in June 2026, will proceed as planned.”
He also said, “The investment in domestic NCM cathode materials and Moroccan LFP cathode materials, which were under review with the goal of mass production after 2026, will be adjusted based on volume adjustments with customers, and the operation schedule will be revised. After improving asset efficiency such as increasing the operating rate of existing assets, capacity expansion will continue.”
Daebo Magnetics Begins Development of Magnetic Unit Electromagnetic De-Ironing Machine
Daebo Magnetic, a company specializing in electromagnet demagnetizers (EMF), announced on the 22nd that it has begun developing the world’s highest magnetic force unit electromagnet demagnetizer. The ultra-high-performance electromagnet demagnetizer being developed this time can effectively remove even fine magnetic particles.
An electromagnet de-ionizer is a device that removes trace amounts of iron contained in the positive and negative electrode materials of lithium secondary batteries. If the magnetic components are not properly removed, the risk of fire increases due to deterioration in battery quality. Therefore, the de-ionization process is absolutely necessary to improve the safety of secondary batteries and maximize yield.
Kumyang, 4695 Battery First Mass Production Target Next June
Kumyang announced on the 26th that it is targeting June of next year for the first mass production of the 4695 battery. In addition, after completing the Gijang plant by the end of this year, it plans to begin mass production of the 2170 cylindrical battery in January of next year.
Kumyang announced this fact through the 1st ‘SNE Battery Day 2024’ held at the Korea Science and Technology Hall on the 23rd. On that day, Researcher Kim Chan-joong announced this roadmap under the theme of ‘Kumyang’s cylindrical battery business promotion direction.’
According to Researcher Kim, Kumyang is continuing to make bold investments to promote the cylindrical battery business. Last year, it completed the construction of the ‘Energy Technology Quantum Center’ for secondary battery and hydrogen fuel cell development and the ‘Secondary Battery Research and Development Center (R&D Center)’ to secure the 46 Series cylindrical secondary battery base technology.
Autonomous robot capable of carrying up to 1000kg has been released
Eugene Robot announced on the 25th that it has launched the ‘Gokart 1000’, an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) that can load up to 1,000 kg.
The new product can transport up to twice as much weight as the existing lineup of Gokart 180, 250, and 500. The company said that it can implement an automated system in factories or logistics sites where heavy weight transport is required.
Eugene Robot added that it has equipped the Gokart 1000 with a 3D lidar exclusively for robots, giving the product a field of view of up to 360 degrees horizontally and 80 degrees vertically. It plans to supply it to the smart factory sector by linking it with a robot control system.
Google Invests Additional Investors in Self-Driving Subsidiary Waymo… “7 Trillion Won”
Google’s parent company Alphabet announced on the 23rd that it plans to invest an additional $5 billion (about 7 trillion won) in its self-driving subsidiary Waymo.
“This new financing will allow Waymo to continue building the world’s best autonomous driving company,” Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said in a conference call with analysts following the company’s second-quarter earnings announcement.
Waymo, which first raised $2.25 billion in 2020, raised another $2.5 billion in 2021. Alphabet’s additional investment in Waymo comes as rivals including General Motors (GM) have recently halted or delayed production of self-driving cars.
Rideflux Launches World’s Longest Distance Autonomous Public Transportation Service
Rideflux, a self-driving software startup, announced on the 23rd that it will begin Jeju’s first autonomous bus service that will travel back and forth between Jeju City Hall and Seogwipo City Hall using the Tamra autonomous vehicle service it operated until last year.
According to Rideflux, the round trip from Jeju City Hall to Seogwipo First Office is 116km, the longest autonomous public transportation service section in the world. Rideflux is a technology startup that develops autonomous driving software.
GM Indefinitely Halts Development of Origin, a Fully Autonomous Car Without a Steering Wheel
General Motors (GM), the largest automaker in the U.S., has indefinitely suspended development of its self-driving vehicle, Origin.
Some electric vehicle production plans have also been postponed, with plans instead to increase investment and production in internal combustion engine vehicles.
According to the Financial Times (FT) and other sources on the 23rd (local time), GM CEO Mary Barra announced in a letter to shareholders that day that the company would indefinitely suspend the development of Origin, which was being conducted by its subsidiary Cruise, and instead, Cruise employees would focus on the next-generation electric vehicle, the Chevrolet Bolt.
IL Science Expands Itronics Stake to 73%
IL Science, a specialized optical solutions company, announced on the 25th that it has increased its stake in Itronics, a subsidiary specialized in next-generation intelligent transportation systems (C-ITS), to 73%.
IL Science was the largest shareholder with 1,034,000 shares of Itronics (56% stake), and this time, it invested an additional 2 billion won to increase its stake to 73%. Itronics is a strong technology company founded in 2000 by former LG Electronics researchers and was acquired by IL Science in 2021.
Its main business is the construction of single-lane and multi-lane highway Hi-pass and parking lot Hi-pass systems, and it has a 37.1% share of the highway Hi-pass system market.
LG Display: “Sale of Guangzhou LCD Plant Takes More Time Than Expected”
When asked about the sale of its Guangzhou LCD plant during its second-quarter earnings conference call on the 25th, LG Display said, “There has been more progress than last time,” but “It will take longer than expected.”
Kim Sung-hyun, LG Display’s CFO, said, “Strategically utilizing that level of assets (the Guangzhou plant) is a task that takes time,” and added, “We will be able to tell you where (the proceeds from the sale) will be used once we figure it out.”
Display industry to explore new XR markets for industrial and military use
The display industry is focusing on discovering new applications for extended reality (XR) devices for industrial and military purposes.
The Korea Display Industry Association announced on the 24th that it will be promoting the ‘Development and Demonstration Project of Augmented Reality (AR) Glass Optical Modules for Logistics Picking Based on Micro Displays’ starting this year. This project is being carried out with the support of the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy and the Korea Institute of Industrial Technology Planning and Evaluation, and the project period is a total of three years.
According to market research firm Markets and Markets, the global XR market is expected to grow from $40.1 billion (about 53 trillion won) in 2023 to $111.5 billion (about 148 trillion won) in 2028.