CONNECT WITH US

Highlights of the day: Memory demand remains weak

DIGITIMES staff 0

Memory spot price rally that had started in September slowed down in October amid growing COVID-19 worries and sluggish demand from the data center sector. Despite a pick-up in demand for consumer electronics applications, the overall memory demand remains slow. But the automotive sector is ganing momentum, as carmakers replenish their inventory. Demand for automotive chips and components is expected to remain strong till first-quarter 2021. For TSMC, clients are scrambling for foundry supply of not only advanced node capacity, but also of mature processes. TSMC has seen 28nm capacity utilization reach almost 100%, thanks to orders switched from China's SMIC.

Memory spot prices stop rising: Memory spot market prices have stopped rising since November, probably an indication of demand weakness as a whole, according to sources at memory module makers.

Automotive chips, components demand turning strong till 1Q21: Demand for automotive power chips and components has started picking up since the third quarter of 2020 after experiencing almost two years of stagnancy, with sales outlook promising for first-quarter 2021, according to industry sources.

TSMC sees 28nm process capacity utilization ramp up: TSMC has seen capacity utilization rates for 28nm process technology surge and come to nearly 100% in the fourth quarter of 2020, thanks to the bulk of orders transferred by Qualcomm and other fabless chip vendors from China's Semiconductor Manufacturing International (SMIC), according to industry sources.