Samsung fab equipment earns higher revenues for 2021

Samsung’s chip fab equipment subsidiary recorded 3.12 trillion won in revenue and 353.3 billion won in operating profit for the whole year of 2021, and it seems to be the best returns to date. The revenue and operating profit also increased by 41% and 24% respectively from 2020.

‘TheElec’ has reportedly revealed what Semes said that fab equipment has gathered 75% of its annual revenue in 2021, while the flat panel display equipment earned only 1.7% and the rest has come from the contract holdings of the company. In 2020, fab equipment had earned 61.24% of its annual revenue while flat panel display equipment has only accounted for 9.9 percent of earnings.

By looking at this we can say that the demand for fab equipment increasing, and on the other hand, the shipment of flat panel displays is declining. At present times Samsung is investing a very less amount in the liquid crystal display.
Samsung has been investing more in fabs since 2020, to meet the high demand for chips and in developing advanced processing nodes.

Samsung has already spent 22.6 trillion won on expanding semiconductor facilities in 2019, which increased to 32.9 trillion in 2020 and 43.6 trillion in 2021. Last time it invested mostly in 10nm DRAM and NAND flash memory chips, which use EUV lithography.

Samsung is also heavily investing in the 5nm EUV foundry at Pyeongtaek. The researchers and tech analysts who are familiar with the process said there is high demand for fab etching equipment. Actually, the etching equipment is used to etch out the material from the substrates, and most difficult thing is to cut them into small pieces. You will see Samsung investing more in the third and fourth quarters of 2022.