Changjiang Storage / Changxin Storage actively expand the memory industry chain to become a "hot cake"

After a long period of oversupply market, the memory industry has gradually changed from the balance of supply and demand to the shortage of production capacity.

Recently, due to the tight production capacity of the three original factories of Samsung, Hynix and Meguiar, the DRAM market is in short supply, taking the lead in entering the rising cycle, while NAND Flash due to many suppliers, the market competition is more fierce than DRAM, but driven by demand for smartphones, servers, notebooks, etc., there is also a stop signal.

Domestic memory manufacturers actively expand production

With the fluctuation of the memory market, the domestic memory industry has experienced production in 2019, mass production and sales in 2020, and then stable mass production and active production expansion in 2021.

In terms of NAND Flash, as the main force to conquer NAND technology in China, Changjiang Storage has mass produced 64 layers of 3D NAND flash memory since September 2019, with a yield of 90%. 128 layers of 3D NAND flash memory was released in April 2020, and both production capacity and output are in the stage of improvement.

When the production capacity of the first phase of the Wuhan memory base climbed rapidly, the construction of the second phase of the Yangtze River storage project also officially started in June 2020. after the two phases of the project reached production, it is estimated that the total monthly production capacity is 300000 pieces.

According to the global NAND Flash market data released by TrendForce in the third quarter of 2020, Samsung is the leader of flash memory, accounting for 33.1% of the global share, followed by Kioxia, Western Digital, SK Hynix, Micron and Intel. Although the share left to other flash memory manufacturers is only 1.5%, the share of Changjiang storage is the highest, which is expected to exceed 1%.

In terms of DRAM, according to Hefei Industry and Investment Group, by the end of 2020, the Hefei Changxin 12-inch memory wafer manufacturing base project reached 40, 000 wafers / month ahead of schedule and started the construction of 60, 000 wafers / month, realizing a key leap from commissioning to mass production and then to mass sales.

TrendForce estimates that Hefei Changxin Storage as a new DRAM manufacturer, so the increase in the number of films will be more positive than the existing competitors. Changxin Storage has a total of 10, 000 films per month in the first quarter of 2020, but it has rapidly increased to 45000 in the fourth quarter of 2020, and is expected to reach 85000 in the fourth quarter of 2021. It will surpass South Asia Science and Technology, which currently ranks fourth (71000 tablets per month).

According to people familiar with the matter, Changxin Storage will be more advanced in 2021 (17nm process DRAM chip), pre-production will reach full load in 2022, and its share in the world is expected to reach double digits.

For China's memory industry, it is basically in a state of zero before 2019, from film launch to mass production is a breakthrough from 0 to 1, and with the products officially entering the market, the production capacity of Yangtze River storage and Changxin storage is also expanding rapidly. China's memory industry will also go to the stage from 1 to N.

Industrial chain enterprises have joined the bureau one after another.

In the stage from 0 to 1, in order to ensure smooth mass production, production enterprises need to adopt more technologically mature and leading suppliers, while from 1 to N, more enterprises in the upper and lower reaches of the industrial chain are needed to join in to establish a safe and reliable domestic memory industry chain.

In the new stage of memory production expansion, the demand for semiconductor equipment is also breaking out, which is also driving the domestic equipment manufacturers to layout memory devices. In the latest fixed increase fund-raising R & D project, China Micro Corporation has laid out a number of new products for the large production lines of 3D NAND flash memory and dynamic random access memory ((DRAM)).

At the same time, the proportion of domestic equipment purchased by Changjiang Storage is also increasing year by year. According to the bidding of about 2500 equipment of Yangtze River Storage sorted by CITIC Securities from 2018 to 2020, Japanese and American manufacturers still occupy the dominant position, but the proportion of domestic manufacturers is increasing year by year. In 2019, Chinese manufacturers accounted for 9.65% of the 1088 Yangtze River storage equipment bidding, while in 2020, Chinese equipment accounted for 14.36% of the Yangtze River storage 1107 equipment bidding, showing an upward trend. Among them, North Huachuang, China Micro Corporation and Shengmei Co., Ltd. respectively won a total of 97 / 45 / 25, which is in the forefront of domestic manufacturers.

In addition to equipment manufacturers, domestic semiconductor material manufacturers have already opened the certification. According to WeChat, some products of Shanghai Silicon Industry 300mm semiconductor wafer have been certified in Changjiang Storage and Changxin Storage; Xingfu, a subsidiary of Xingfa Group, passed the Hefei Changxin certification test in the third quarter of 2020, which is the first domestic electronic-grade sulfuric acid enterprise to successfully supply 28nm process semiconductor factory. Nanjing University Optoelectronics ARF photoresist products are in the Yangtze River storage verification; Jinhong Gas also said that Fujian Jinhua is the company's customer, Changjiang Storage and Changxin Storage are in the certification process, and are progressing smoothly.

In addition, Jacques Technology has become a Changjiang storage and Changxin storage supplier, Shanghai Xinyang is a Changjiang storage supplier, and Jingrui and Haohua Technology are both Hefei Changxin suppliers.

According to industry insiders, on the whole, the domestic memory technology reserve is relatively weak, the industrial chain does not have many supporting facilities, the localization is also a breakthrough from zero to one, the development opportunities are relatively clear, and the industrial chain enterprises are laid out earlier, so they are more likely to expand the scale.

After stable mass production of Changjiang Storage and Changxin Storage, nothing will benefit most from the closed test manufacturers with early layout. According to previous reports from WeChat, Taiwan's Licheng, Nanmao, East China Science and Technology, as well as mainland China's Ziguang Hongmao, Shenzhen Technology's Pei Dun, Tonfu Micro Power, Huatian Technology, Changdian Technology, Taiji / Taiji Semiconductor, Shenzhen Konka and other manufacturers are all in the plus code memory closed test market.

According to a person in a closed testing industry, the memory is a standardized product with a fixed shape, so the production line equipment does not need to be adjusted, and at present, our production line needs to deal with multiple varieties of products, so it is faced with equipment debugging and loss. Reduced production efficiency. However, in terms of testing, memory testing is more complex and expensive. Overall, the gross profit margin of the memory closure test is high and the prospect is bright.

It can be predicted that with the rise of the domestic memory industry, it is expected to drive the continuous improvement of the market demand of the supporting industry chain, and the enterprises with early layout will also get a lot of development opportunities.