[Featured Stock] Jeju Semiconductor, President-Elect Yoon Discusses Semiconductor Cooperation with the Netherlands... Operating Profit Surges 6-Fold

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Hyungsoo] Jeju Semiconductor is showing strong performance. The news that the Presidential Transition Committee is considering infrastructure support measures for domestic semiconductor companies such as Samsung Electronics at the level of TSMC appears to have influenced the stock price.

At 9:42 a.m. on the 30th, Jeju Semiconductor was trading at 6,210 KRW, up 10.7% from the previous day.

The previous day, a media outlet reported that the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy included in its business report submitted to the Economic 2 Subcommittee of the Transition Committee a plan to provide infrastructure support to Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix at the level of overseas advanced companies like TSMC.

President-elect Yoon Seok-yeol expressed interest in semiconductors during his presidential campaign, stating, “I will upgrade the Korea-US alliance to a global innovation alliance led by semiconductors,” and “Nowadays, wars are fought not with guns but with semiconductors.”

On the afternoon of the 30th, President-elect Yoon will have a phone call with Mark Rutte, Prime Minister of the Netherlands. Kim Eun-hye, spokesperson for the president-elect, said at a briefing in Tongsandong, “Today, we expect to exchange ideas on close cooperation as leading countries in the semiconductor industry, which is called the rice of future industries.”

Jeju Semiconductor recorded sales of 176.6 billion KRW and operating profit of 18.6 billion KRW last year on a separate basis. Sales increased by 60% from 110.5 billion KRW the previous year, and operating profit rose by 589% from 2.7 billion KRW. The operating profit increased significantly due to semiconductor supply-demand imbalance and increased customer demand.

Jeju Semiconductor operates in the memory semiconductor business led by large companies such as Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix. Last year, sales began to be generated in earnest in the memory semiconductor sector used in automotive electronic devices (auto electronics). The proportion of automotive electronics in Jeju Semiconductor’s sales increased from about 1% in 2020 to around 10% last year.

A Jeju Semiconductor official said, “Last year, the semiconductor supply was unable to keep up with demand, continuing a boom,” and “The semiconductor foundry capacity is currently being operated at maximum.”