Mature-node foundry capacity is tight enough that one Korean supplier has raised prices twice this year, with the steepest increases aimed at its biggest market.
DB HiTek’s two rounds ranged from about 5 percent to 30 percent, a Korean trade report says. Chinese chip designers, who supplied the largest slice of the company’s first-half revenue, were billed at the top of that range while Korean accounts paid closer to the bottom.
The company ties pricing to how well a customer is doing. Orders from China are growing and margins there have improved, while Korean demand is softer and the domestic fabless sector is weaker. Rival SK keyfoundry is also said to have held prices flat for some Korean clients.
Capacity is the reason. TSMC and Samsung keep moving mature processes onto 300mm lines, leaving less 200mm work in the market. DB HiTek intends to stay where it is and is adding output slowly at its Sangwoo plant in Eumseong, where industrial water supply is the binding limit rather than tooling. Recycling there is being expanded.
The pattern is repeating inside the group. Unit DB GlobalChip is lifting prices after adding customers, with about KRW 59.8B in first-half orders, and management has told staff to raise them again, without settling on a number.
