SK Hynix is also the memory maker with the largest capital expenditure revision, according to the Taiwan Economic Daily, which cited Korean media sources.
According to TrendForce, SK Hynix’s NAND chip global market share in the second quarter of this year was 19.9%, Armor Man’s 15.6% and Micron’s 12.6%, with the three companies together exceeding Samsung’s 33%.
In terms of DRAM, SK Hynix had a 27.3% market share and Micron 23.8% in the first quarter of this year, with the combined market share of the two companies approaching Samsung’s 43.5%.
The Korean media pointed out that SK Hynix used to decide in August to September every year on the next year’s equipment investment plan, but due to the epidemic, equipment delivery and other factors, SK Hynix placed orders earlier this year, and in April will talk with suppliers about next year’s equipment investment, with the excess supply of chips, the end of September began to equipment vendors to cut orders.
Previously, Micron also slowed down production and cut capital expenditures due to the decline in demand, expecting to reduce capital expenditures by about $8 billion (about 56.72 billion yuan), or at least 30%, and fab equipment expenditures by 50% in the fiscal year 2023.
TrendForce believes that, after the major original DRAM production reduction plan will be far below the historical level of supply growth, the oversupply ratio of DRAM for the whole year of 2023 will converge to less than 10% from the originally estimated 11.6%, which will help improve the rapidly deteriorating inventory pressure. The industry believes that the gradual reduction of production or capital expenditure by major manufacturers will accelerate the industry out of the downturn.
