Chinese semiconductor industry

Status
Not open for further replies.

huemens

Junior Member
Registered Member

SK Hynix's Intel NAND business takeover wins China approval with conditions​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

SEOUL, Dec 22 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Hynix Inc
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
said on Wednesday it has received merger clearances from the Chinese antitrust authority for its acquisition of Intel Corp's
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
NAND memory chip business, clearing the way for the world's second-largest memory chip maker to completion of securing regulatory approvals from all eight countries.

The U.S. chip giant last October agreed to sell its NAND memory chip business to SK Hynix for $9 billion, part of a move to divest to focus on its smaller but more lucrative Optane memory business which uses more advanced technology.

"SK Hynix sincerely welcomes and appreciates the State Administration for Market Regulation's merger clearance for the deal. SK Hynix will enhance its competitiveness of NAND Flash and SSD business by continuing the remaining post-merger integration process," the company said in a statement.

China's market regulator said on Wednesday that it had approved the acquisition deal but with conditions.

The concentration of the PCIe and SATA solid state drive businesses after the acquisition will have or may have a restrictive effect on competition in those markets, so additional conditions to this deal are needed, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement.

Additional conditions include that SK Hynix should not supply PCIe and SATA enterprise-class solid state drive products to China's domestic market at unreasonable prices.

The Chinese regulator also said SK Hynix should continue to expand its output of PCIe and SATA enterprise-class solid state drive products within five years of the effective transaction date.

SK Hynix should not force customers in China's market to exclusively purchase products from SK Hynix or companies controlled by it, nor should it enter into deals with its main competitors in China that exclude or restrict competition.

The deal is SK Hynix's biggest acquisition, as the Korean firm tries to boost its capacity to build NAND chips which are used to store data in smartphones and data centre servers and to beef up its pricing power.

"There has been speculation that it will be difficult for SK Hynix to win China’s approval for the deal or any approval could be delayed significantly given the complex situation ... amid tensions between the United States and China in the semiconductor sector.

"It seems like the approval could come at the right time without a significant delay as the deal is deemed mutually beneficial for all three countries," SK Hynix said.

Analysts said the deal will help SK Hynix narrow the gap with market leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.
 

huemens

Junior Member
Registered Member

China’s Leading Chip Maker SMIC Obtains $3.15 Million Property in Shenzhen for 12-Inch Wafer Plant​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

Shenzhen Business Daily reported on Tuesday that
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
recently obtained new property Pingshan District, Shenzhen, for 20.1 million yuan ($3.15 million), spanning a total land area of 34,703 square meters and a building area of 69,410 square meters. The property will be used to set up an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) plant for12-inch wafers.

According to the announcement issued by the Investment Promotion Service Department of Pingshan District, the project is to develop 12-inch display driver chips and power management chips. Facilities such as a gas station and chemical warehouse will be built in the plant to produce nitrogen, oxygen and chemicals such as acid and alkali.

As early as March this year, SMIC announced that it would expand its 12-inch wafer production capacity in Shenzhen. Total investment for this project is estimated to be $2.35 billion, with production scheduled to start in 2022.

SMIC is one of the world’s leading IC wafer OEM enterprises. One of the founders of the company is Zhang Rujing, who once worked for Taiwan-based competitor TSMC. At present, two chief executive officers of the company are Liang Mengsong and Zhao Haijun, who once worked for Samsung and TSMC.

According to the latest survey conducted by Jibang Consulting, the output value of the top ten wafer OEM enterprises in the world reached $24.407 billion in the second quarter of this year, an increase of 6.2% from the first quarter, and has reached a record high for eight consecutive quarters since the third quarter of 2019. Among them, SMIC ranks fifth.

In August this year, SMIC indicated that it had signed a cooperation agreement with the management committee of the Lingang New Area in Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, and planned to build a 12-inch wafer OEM project with a production capacity of 100,000 wafers per month.
 

antiterror13

Brigadier

SK Hynix's Intel NAND business takeover wins China approval with conditions​

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

SEOUL, Dec 22 (Reuters) - South Korea's SK Hynix Inc
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
said on Wednesday it has received merger clearances from the Chinese antitrust authority for its acquisition of Intel Corp's
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
NAND memory chip business, clearing the way for the world's second-largest memory chip maker to completion of securing regulatory approvals from all eight countries.

The U.S. chip giant last October agreed to sell its NAND memory chip business to SK Hynix for $9 billion, part of a move to divest to focus on its smaller but more lucrative Optane memory business which uses more advanced technology.

"SK Hynix sincerely welcomes and appreciates the State Administration for Market Regulation's merger clearance for the deal. SK Hynix will enhance its competitiveness of NAND Flash and SSD business by continuing the remaining post-merger integration process," the company said in a statement.

China's market regulator said on Wednesday that it had approved the acquisition deal but with conditions.

The concentration of the PCIe and SATA solid state drive businesses after the acquisition will have or may have a restrictive effect on competition in those markets, so additional conditions to this deal are needed, China's State Administration for Market Regulation said in a statement.

Additional conditions include that SK Hynix should not supply PCIe and SATA enterprise-class solid state drive products to China's domestic market at unreasonable prices.

The Chinese regulator also said SK Hynix should continue to expand its output of PCIe and SATA enterprise-class solid state drive products within five years of the effective transaction date.

SK Hynix should not force customers in China's market to exclusively purchase products from SK Hynix or companies controlled by it, nor should it enter into deals with its main competitors in China that exclude or restrict competition.

The deal is SK Hynix's biggest acquisition, as the Korean firm tries to boost its capacity to build NAND chips which are used to store data in smartphones and data centre servers and to beef up its pricing power.

"There has been speculation that it will be difficult for SK Hynix to win China’s approval for the deal or any approval could be delayed significantly given the complex situation ... amid tensions between the United States and China in the semiconductor sector.

"It seems like the approval could come at the right time without a significant delay as the deal is deemed mutually beneficial for all three countries," SK Hynix said.

Analysts said the deal will help SK Hynix narrow the gap with market leader Samsung Electronics Co Ltd
Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!
.

Who are the eight countries that need to approve this ?

Does it mean that Intel SSD will be gone?, Intel SSD is crappy SSD anyway, it was once the best one. My first SSD was Intel 330, the best at that time in 2012, since then I always bought Samsung SSD
 

antiterror13

Brigadier
These are the 8 regulators referred in some earlier articles I read:
US, China, EU, South Korea, Taiwan, Brazil, UK, Singapore

But in the end I think its just China and US. Because all the other countries in this list would probably follow what US says.

Interesting that Japan and India are not part of it and tiny Singapore and Taiwan are in there

And Brazil ? really?
 

huemens

Junior Member
Registered Member
Interesting that Japan and India are not part of it and tiny Singapore and Taiwan are in there

And Brazil ? really?

I have also wondered about this. But these are the 8 countries listed in several articles. I think Singapore and Taiwan is there because they are a big part of semiconductor supply chain. Then as you said why not japan? Brazil does have some commercial Fabs, but I don't think any of them belong to SK Hynix or Intel. I don't think India currently has a commercial Fab or participate in the semi supply chain in any way. They have a small Fab used by their military and Space Research organization.

Brazil could also be there due to it being a huge market. Then again as you said so is India.
 

Tyler

Captain
Registered Member
Who are the eight countries that need to approve this ?

Does it mean that Intel SSD will be gone?, Intel SSD is crappy SSD anyway, it was once the best one. My first SSD was Intel 330, the best at that time in 2012, since then I always bought Samsung SSD
Any place where you can buy Chinese ssd?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top