Foundry houses' attempts to expand 8-inch fab capacity to cash in on extremely strong demand have been prevented by limited suppluy of 8-inch equipment on the market. Chinese semiconductors firms are said to be willing to pay "unreasonably" high prices for second-hand 8-inch fab equipment, trying to outbid competitors. Component shortages have been marring production in many IT and semiconductor sectors. Samsung reportedly has told clients that short supply of controller chips has disrtupted its PCIe SDD productin. Despite the component shortages, notebook makers Wistron and Inventec still expect brisk shipments in first-quarter 2021.
Eight-inch fab equipment still in hot demand: Foundries remain aggressive in purchasing 8-inch fab equipment and facilities including those from the secondhand market, according to industry sources.
Controller supply constraints disrupting Samsung PCIe SSD shipments: Samsung Electronics has notified clients that production of its PCIe SSDs is being disrupted by tight supplies of controller chips, with the production unlikely to restore until May, according to market sources.
Wistron, Inventec February notebook shipments remain brisk: Notebook ODMs Inventec and Wistron saw their shipments grow substantially in February 2021 compared to a year earlier, but decrease sequentially.
