On May 17th, it was reported that with only a few days left until the strike began on May 21st, Samsung Electronics' semiconductor production line has initiated a production reduction program ahead of schedule. This strike involves 43286 workers, more than half of the total number of employees in Samsung's semiconductor division (DS department), making it the largest work stoppage since the company's establishment. It is reported that Samsung has entered emergency management mode and gradually reduced production and operation load. In emergency mode, the factory limits the number of new wafers that can be put into the production process, which directly impacts the semiconductor manufacturing process that typically requires 24-hour uninterrupted operation.
The strike target production line mainly produces HBM, LPDDR5, and some customized logic chips, which are the core storage components of current AI computing and high-performance devices. Once the semiconductor production line is shut down, the recovery cycle is extremely long. Even if the strike only lasts for 18 days, it will still take two to three weeks to restart the production line and restore stability, which will impact the global supply of storage chips. The expectation of a strike has spread to the spot market. The price of DDR4 8Gb DRAM chips in the Huaqiangbei market in Shenzhen has increased by about 20% this week, and the price of DDR5 RDIMM 64GB modules has risen to $1350. If customers switch to SK Hynix or Micron due to unstable supply, Samsung may face the risk of long-term market share loss. The South Korean government has warned that the losses will be unimaginable and has stated that it is considering all measures, including emergency arbitration.
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