Samsung Semiconductor Director: Low visibility in the semiconductor industry

The president of Samsung Electronics’ semiconductor business and device Solutions business unit said that considering future long-term development needs, Samsung will not rule out any form of M&A in the future. The president of Samsung Electronics Semiconductor and Device Solutions Division stated on the 29th that the visibility of the semiconductor industry is low and the growth rate will not be too high next year. The DRAM industry is even more "very difficult", such as NAND Flash. Smartphones or mobile applications have high growth potential. Quan Wuyi also revealed the direction of Samsung's future development, oriented consumer products toward intelligence and low energy consumption, and will continue to cooperate with major international companies in component parts and other areas. Samsung was not active in mergers and acquisitions in the past, but considering long-term development needs, Samsung will not rule out any form of mergers and acquisitions in the future.

Quan Wulu believes that the poor economic conditions in mature markets such as Europe and the United States add to the uncertainties of the semiconductor industry and also reduce the visibility of the industry. It is expected that the growth rate of semiconductors will slow down next year, and growth will not be too high. Before the five-year period, UBS chief executives Sun Shiwei and Gartner also held conservative views on the semiconductor market. Quan Wuyi believes that the DRAM industry is in a very difficult position, mainly due to the slowdown in the growth of the personal computer (PC) market. When DRAM prices fall to the bottom, it is currently unpredictable. In contrast, NAND Flash has a relatively high growth rate in smart phones and mobile applications.

He pointed out that Samsung has begun to use 20-nanometer manufacturing process DRAM, leading the industry one or two generations of technology, in the short term first reduce PC DRAM chip volume to about 30%, and the remaining 70% into mobile, server and other basic type of memory production.

He emphasized that under the general environment of slowing economic growth, technology determines everything and business operations also have polarization differences. Samsung's efforts to lower PC DRAM chips do not mean abandoning the PC DRAM market. In the future, Samsung will continue to develop new technologies and maintain its leading position.

Due to the low visibility of the industry, Samsung is still undecided on its capital expenditure next year. It is estimated that it will not be able to have preliminary plans until after visiting customers in October and November to understand actual demand. He revealed that Samsung’s investment next year will dominate the mobile device and computing market that will dominate the competition.