Held annually before Micron's announcement
Samsung "Coincidentally overlaps on the 19th"
Crisis due to weak demand and Chinese low-price competition
Discussion on foundry orders and yield improvement
Interest in President Hanjinman's role
Samsung Electronics' Device Solutions (DS) division, which is responsible for the semiconductor business, will hold a global strategy meeting on the 19th. Coincidentally, on the same day, the U.S. semiconductor company Micron will announce its results for the first quarter of 2025 (September to November 2024). Attention is focused on whether this will influence Samsung Electronics' business strategy for the next year.
According to industry sources on the 17th, Samsung Electronics' global strategy meetings have traditionally been held before Micron's earnings announcements. Because of this, the timing of this year's meeting is considered unusual. Last year, Samsung Electronics held its global strategy meeting on December 19, with Micron announcing its results the following day. This year, with Yeonghyun Jeon newly appointed as the head of the division, the global strategy meeting was held on June 26, and Micron announced its Q3 results the next day, on the 27th.
Industry insiders and securities analysts interpret that Samsung Electronics may have scheduled the DS strategy meeting with awareness of Micron's earnings announcement. Micron is known as the "memory barometer" because it reports quarterly results earlier than other semiconductor companies worldwide. Since Micron, along with Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, divides the high-bandwidth memory (HBM) market into three, the performance of Micron could significantly influence Samsung Electronics' memory business strategy.
This is analyzed to be related to recent trends in the memory market. As the second half of this year begins, the global memory market is showing signs of facing a downturn. Demand for general-purpose memory, excluding AI applications, remains sluggish, and due to the "low-price offensive" by Chinese companies such as Changxin Memory Technologies (CXMT), DRAM prices have continued to fall, resulting in a loss of profitability. Recently, the market research firm D램익스체인지 reported that the "average fixed transaction price for November PC DRAM general-purpose products (DDR4 8Gb 1Gx8)" was $1.35, shocking the industry.
Samsung Electronics commented on scheduling the meeting immediately after Micron's earnings announcement, saying, "Micron has always announced results around a similar time, and this time it seems coincidental that it falls on the same day."
Additionally, attention is focused on Hanjinman, the head (president) of the Foundry business division, at this Samsung Electronics global strategy meeting. This is due to his experience honed in the U.S., including overseeing the North American business division. Samsung Electronics is expected to explore ways to increase foundry orders and yields, which remain at low levels, and to devise strategies to attract customers at this meeting. Discussions are also expected regarding responses to the approximately 9 trillion won in semiconductor subsidies from the U.S. government, which have been promised but not yet received.
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