[Featured Stock] Unisem Expected to Benefit from Samsung's Non-Memory Super-Gap Strategy Following Strong Q2 Performance

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Hyun-seok] The stock price of Unisem, a semiconductor and display equipment developer, is on the rise. This is interpreted as a result of strong performance in the second quarter of this year, combined with expectations of benefits from Samsung Electronics' super-gap strategy.

As of 9:54 a.m. on the 13th, Unisem was trading at 7,660 KRW, up 4.93% (360 KRW) compared to the previous trading day.

Unisem announced that its operating profit based on consolidated financial statements for the second quarter of this year was 9.8 billion KRW, an increase of 204.9% compared to the same period last year. During the same period, sales increased by 50.1% to 56.4 billion KRW, and net profit also rose by 160.0% to 7.8 billion KRW.

A company official stated, "Good performance trends continued as the facility investments of major domestic customers exceeded expectations," adding, "Sales are occurring mainly in highly profitable semiconductor equipment, and equipment orders from Chinese display companies are also continuing, so the performance trend in the second half of the year is expected to be favorable."

Unisem is a specialized company in scrubbers, which are harmful gas treatment equipment generated during semiconductor and display production processes, and chillers, which are temperature control equipment. It supplies equipment to leading semiconductor and display companies in the industry such as Samsung Electronics, SK Hynix, and LG Display.

An Unisem official said, "As Samsung Electronics accelerates investment in the semiconductor sector with its super-gap strategy, equipment demand is steadily occurring," and added, "Recently, the proportion of non-memory equipment sales has been increasing, and Samsung Electronics is expanding its non-memory semiconductor foundry production lines."

Furthermore, the official added, "The groundbreaking of Pyeongtaek Plant 3 (P3) is also expected to be expedited, so future benefits are anticipated."

Samsung Electronics announced in May its investment plan for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) foundry production line in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. In June, it also announced plans to expand the Pyeongtaek NAND flash production line. The industry estimates the scale of these investments to be around 10 trillion KRW and 8 trillion KRW, respectively.