Market falls short of expectations, leading storage chip manufacturers significantly reduce capital expenditures

According to 21ic news reports, due to the continued weakness of the consumer electronics market, the storage chip market has been in a state of oversupply and continuous price decline since 2022. Last year, the NAND Flash market comprehensive price index fell by 41%, and the DRAM market comprehensive price index fell by 35%. As a result, storage chip manufacturers have significantly reduced production and reduced capital expenditures.
According to the latest Global Semiconductor Equipment Market Report released by the International Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI), the global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment reached $107.6 billion last year, a record high of 5% year-on-year growth. However, this year’s semiconductor equipment market is not optimistic. Due to reduced chip demand and high inventory, it is expected that the semiconductor equipment market will decline by 22% year-on-year in 2023.
In response to the continuous decline in the storage market, Japan’s NAND Flash giant Armor announced in the third quarter of last year that it would reduce production by about 30% at its four day market and Beishang NANA Flash wafer factories in Japan. Subsequently, American storage giant Micron also announced a reduction of approximately 20% in its DRAM and NAND wafer production, and reduced its capital expenditure to 40% in the 2023 fiscal year at the beginning of the year.
In addition, South Korean storage giant SK Hynix has also announced a 50% reduction in capital expenditure this year due to a decline in storage business performance. Samsung announced at the beginning of the year that it would reduce its investment in semiconductor equipment by 18% year-on-year, and as the semiconductor market recovery in the past quarter fell short of expectations, Samsung also began to reduce production.https://www.stoneitech.com/