The price of NOR Flash will increase by 30% next year, and the back-end packaging and testing is hot

Industry sources pointed out that the current shortage of NOR Flash chips has intensified, and prices will continue to rise next year.

For example, Winbond’s production capacity in the first half of next year will be fully loaded, and it will increase by 10% in the first quarter of next year, and prices will continue to rise every quarter. It is not even ruled out that customers will be suspended from placing orders to avoid failure to deliver, and the production capacity in the second half of the year is also expected to continue. Fully loaded, the outlook is very optimistic. Although Winbond is reluctant to comment on the price, because SMIC has transferred more production capacity to the use of logic chips, Zhaoyi’s innovative production capacity is limited, resulting in a shortage of supply, and the price increase is not unexpected.

Affected by the trade conflict, the large order of NOR Flash plug-in for the iPhone Panel originally given to Zhaoyi Innovation will be transferred to Winbond and Macronix. However, the legal person seems to prefer Winbond. The news that the price has risen for three consecutive quarters has actually been spread for a while. Since the last weekend, the buying has been actively stuck, but relatively speaking, Macronix’s gains are limited. Winbond’s market share of NOR Flash-related chips was actually as high as 22.8% last year. Now, due to the restrained production capacity in China, the market share will continue to rise.

It is worth mentioning that in addition to smartphones, TWS products have also ushered in a wave of demand recently. For example, Apple’s just released AirPods Max over-ear true wireless Bluetooth headset is also a big seller, and its NOR Flash is also provided by Winbond. When Winbond’s production capacity is fully loaded, its downstream main force in packaging and testing, East China, has also benefited. The recent operation has also increased significantly with the recovery of the memory market, and the profit in the third quarter has increased significantly.

Others such as Licheng and Huatai are also performing very well. Licheng is optimistic that the packaging and testing of logic ICs will become the growth driver for next year, and Huatai has also begun to turn losses into profits, and there is even news of a large order for PS5 solid-state hard drives.