A new round of new crown pneumonia has recently appeared in Xi'an, Shaanxi, and the epidemic prevention situation has gradually become severe. The local area has begun to adopt more stringent epidemic prevention measures. The official decision to adopt closed management measures to minimize the movement of people. Under this circumstance, most companies can only work remotely, and some physical companies have stopped production.
On December 29, Samsung officially announced that due to the epidemic, it would temporarily adjust the operations of its Xi’an plant in China to protect the safety of its employees as much as possible.
Samsung said it will take all necessary measures, including using its own global manufacturing network, to ensure that customers are not affected by this stalled operation.
At present, the personnel living in the staff dormitory are being used to the maximum to ensure the normal operation of the production line. Samsung Electronics arranged for the personnel needed to operate the production line to stay in the employee dormitories near the factory instead of private houses to avoid contact with the outside world. And is negotiating with the local authorities to allow these personnel to enter and leave the factory.
According to data, Samsung’s Xi’an Storage Plant is the second semiconductor production plant established by South Korea’s Samsung Electronics after entering Austin, the United States in 1996. It is the largest investment project in the history of Samsung Electronics’ overseas investment and is also a domestic electronic information plant since China’s reform and opening up. The industry’s largest foreign-invested project is the largest foreign-invested high-tech project introduced in Shaanxi and the western region. The Samsung Electronics Xi’an plant is Samsung’s only overseas semiconductor memory production base, responsible for 40% of Samsung’s flash memory chip (NAND) output.
At present, Samsung has two large factories in Xi'an, both of which are used to manufacture 3D NAND products. The monthly production capacity of the first phase is about 120,000 pieces, and the monthly production capacity of the second phase is about 130,000 pieces, accounting for 42.3% of the company's total production capacity of NAND flash memory. , The global production capacity accounted for 15.3%.
Industry insiders pointed out that the recent NAND spot price has fluctuated slightly, but the decline has slowed down, and the price correction period has been significantly shorter than before. The suspension of operation of Samsung's Xi'an plant this time will affect the price trend of NANDFlash and help prices rise.
According to TrendForce's forecast, the average global NAND flash memory price will fall by 10%-15% in the first quarter of 2022. At present, the spot market is sluggish. At this stage, buyers and sellers have a large amount of NAND flash memory inventory, which has little effect for the time being, and the price fluctuates only slightly. If relevant measures are effective, Samsung can ensure that sufficient inventory is prepared in mid-January next year, and the final impact will be relatively limited.
