Micron shares tumble after rival says a Chinese court banned chip sales

[qwerrty]

cnbc.com
Micron shares tumble after rival says a Chinese court banned chip sales
Chloe Aiello

• Micron's Taiwanese rival says the American chipmaker has been issued a temporary sales ban in China.
• Micron says it hasn't been served with a preliminary injunction and will not comment until it has received and reviewed any court documents.
• It's the latest in the ongoing trade secrets dispute between United Microelectronic Corporation and Micron.

4-5 minutes

Scott Mlyn | CNBC

Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra

Micron shares fell as much as 8 percent during regular trading on Tuesday after Taiwanese rival United Microelectronic Corporation (UMC) released a statement claiming a Chinese court had temporarily banned sales of Micron chips in China.

Micron closed down 5.5 percent on the day.

Micron said it has not been served with an injunction and would not comment further until it has received and reviewed court documentation.

UMC's statement said the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court of the People's Republic of China had issued a preliminary injunction, preventing Micron from selling 26 products, including certain solid-state hard drives and memory sticks, in China.

"UMC is pleased with today's decision. UMC invests heavily in its intellectual property and aggressively pursues any company that infringes UMC's patents," UMC president Jason Wang said in a statement.

The Taiwanese chipmaker sought the sales ban, alleging that Micron violated its patent rights in China. UMC and Micron have gone back and forth in the courts, alleging various intellectual property violations. Micron has accused UMC of assisting in the theft of Micron’s designs to help China pursue its own semiconductor ambitions.

Is Micron caught in middle of US-China trade war?

Hans Mosesmann, Rosenblatt analyst, discusses reports that a Chinese court temporarily banned Micron chip sales over a patent ruling in favor of Taiwanese rival United Microelectronics.


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Hefty fines are afoot if Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron are found guilty of DRAM price fixing

While China is still investigating Samsung, SK Hynix and Micron for allegedly fixing the prices of DRAM throughout 2017, the reported penalty is not looking pretty. If found guilty, the companies could face a potential $8 billion fine for intentionally hindering Chinese vendors.

https://www.kitguru.net/components/...micron-are-found-guilty-of-dram-price-fixing/

 

[jetray]

So whats preventing china from fining these companies? every one knows they have created a monopoly of chips supply and rigged the prices as they have done in the past.

 

[TaiShang]

So whats preventing china from fining these companies? every one knows they have created a monopoly of chips supply and rigged the prices as they have done in the past.

I think political considerations.

Now that everybody put their best hands on the table, we may see more very un-China measures in the coming weeks.

For instance, from July 6th, new US economic sanctions will put into effect.

Then it will be interesting to see China's reaction and the impact on global economy.

The reality is no country, big or small, will yield to US bullying.

 

[jetray]

I think political considerations.

Now that everybody put their best hands on the table, we may see more very un-China measures in the coming weeks.

For instance, from July 6th, new US economic sanctions will put into effect.

Then it will be interesting to see China's reaction and the impact on global economy.

The reality is no country, big or small, will yield to US bullying.

Disregarding the political angle, these companies have been running the cabal for the past nearly 1.5 years where dram prices more than tripled. Even china started the investigation in nov-dec time frame but only now we are seeing some action. Samsung in-spite of the (battery issue) bombed sales of its flagship galaxy phones still managed to make impressive profit on semiconductor business. Micron from being nondescript is now darling of analysts. All bcos they deliberately choked supply to keep prices high.

 

[qwerrty]

qualcomm is still asking chinese court to ban apple products. china should grant 'em that wish and then ban qualcomm after that on national security ground. that would be sweet. lol. gonna be interesting in the next few days, they should take a look at that

 

[Jlaw]

qualcomm is still asking chinese court to ban apple products. china should grant 'em that wish and then ban qualcomm after that on national security ground. that would be sweet. lol. gonna be interesting in the next few days, they should take a look at that

Banning apple would be great
. You will see the DJIA and its tech sector sink

 

[qwerrty]

Banning apple would be great
. You will see the DJIA and its tech sector sink

yeah, they should do it. it's a good excuse. usa company v.s. another usa. let em kill each other

 

[gambit]

So whats preventing china from fining these companies? every one knows they have created a monopoly of chips supply and rigged the prices as they have done in the past.

Because...

https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2018-04-29/why-can-t-china-make-semiconductors-jglgice5

...manufactures only 16 percent of the semiconductors it uses domestically. It imports about $200 billion worth annually -- a value exceeding its oil imports.

Despite all the hoopla on this forum by the Chinese members about how China is 'dominating' the semiconductor industry, the reality is far more harsh.

China's semicon fabs -- 300 mm -- are still one generation behind US, South Korea, JPN, and Taiwan in terms of die size, yield per wafer, reliability, and performance. There are still some 200 mm fabs but they are slowly going away so there is no need to consider them.

China's technological growth cannot be without foreign imports. Most Chinese fabs do spot checks, meaning a fab will take samplings of its product and put those samples thru a full testing regime: functional, parametric, reliability, and burn-in.

Micron -- my former employer -- do %100 testing on every wafer it ships. When I say every wafer, I also mean literally every die on the wafer.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Probe_card

A 'probe card' is not a cheap tool.

https://www.formfactor.com/products/probe-cards/
https://www.mjc.co.jp/en/products/semiconductor/probe_card.html

If a company come up with a new product, it must supply the probe card manufacturer the necessary specs, so each probe card is essentially a custom made device. On a prober, the most expensive card is the one touchdown design, meaning all dies are tested for functionality per cycle. Less expensive cards are of the multi-touchdowns design, meaning the card can only test X quantity of dies per cycle. Then it moves to the next grouping of dies, then the next, and so on.

Micron (MU) uses only 1TD cards and the company will invest in enough 1TD cards to literally test ALL wafers prior to ship. As of now, the latest industry intelligence is that most Chinese fabs have limited 1TD cards for specific customers and uses multi-TD cards for sampling. That is far below Micron's standards.

The latest industry intelligence also have Chinese fabs performs only sample burn-in.

https://www.twi-global.com/technica...rn-in-testing-related-to-electronics-devices/

Sampling is below Micron's and Intel's standards. Micron and Intel insists on %100 burn-in of ALL wafers.

A burn-in testing regime is not the same as functionality/parametric testing at the wafer level. On a commodity product such as DRAM, for example, a burn-in testing regime is when the DRAM die is extracted from the wafer, packaged (encapsulated), and put in an oven where the packaged DRAM die is tested under temperature and data cycling, meaning injection of 1 and 0, for a certain amount of time.

Wafer Level Reliability (WLR) does the same thing except at the wafer level...

http://www.mpi-corporation.com/ast/applications/wlr/

The latest industry intelligence for the semiconductor manufacturing sector in China is that most Chinese fabs performs sampling testing of both WLR and Burn-In testing. The saving grace here is that commodities like DRAM or NAND are so established in manufacturing that Chinese fabs can get away with it -- FOR DOMESTIC MARKET. The Chinese market can withstand a higher level of consumer product failures. The American and EU markets will not. The Americans and the Euros will definitely raise hell.

Every company performs opposition research, meaning they buy competitors' products and reverse engineer them. I work closely with our Yield Enhancement (YE) dept who has the scanning electron microscope and seen enough Chinese fabs product that I would never use any DRAM or NAND from a Chinese company. Products from Chinese fabs that are under Micron and Intel management -- Yes -- such Intel Dalian Fab 68. But never from an all Chinese managed company.

Finally...Everything I posted above? You will never see from the Chinese members here. None of them are in the industry. All they know how is post news.

 

[qwerrty]

Micron temporarily banned in China
https://www.fudzilla.com/news/46671-micron-temporarily-banned-in-china

caves in already

U.S. Allows ZTE to Resume Some Business Activity Temporarily
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...some-business-activities-temporarily-jj646524

more than 50% of micron revenue is from china and can easily replaced with chips from toshiba, umc, hynix or more superior samsung chips. lol. you kill my zte, i'll kill your micron.

 

[TaiShang]

Jul 04, 2018 06:15 PM

Court Blocks Micron Sales in China

By Ke Dawei

Micron Technology Inc. computer chips are seen in Tokyo in July 2015. Photo: VCG

* Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court issued the injunction on Tuesday in response to a patent infringement case brought to it by United Microelectronics Corp.

* Ruling prevents Micron from selling 26 types of products, and it bans the company from importing more chips into China

(Beijing) — A court in China’s coastal Fujian province has ordered U.S. semiconductor giant Micron Technology Inc. to immediately cease selling its products on the mainland in a move that will likely add to trade tensions between Washington and Beijing.

The Fuzhou Intermediate People’s Court issued the injunction on Tuesday in response to a patent infringement case brought to it by Taiwan’s second-biggest chipmaker, United Microelectronics Corp. (UMC), UMC said in a statement.

***

China Taiwan company playing an instrumental role

 

[qwerrty]

Jul 04, 2018 06:15 PM
China Taiwan company playing an instrumental role

umc also helped recruited engineers from micron with all the blueprints to chinese company that will start mass production soon. very funny... when china offered to buy stake in micron few years ago, the us blocked em. they could've made billions back then and billions more in the future for a long time, because of china partnership. now they get nothing, get banned and maybe hefty fine too

 

[TaiShang]

Micron sales ban shows growing ability of mainland firms to fight back in patent suits: analysts

By Xie Jun Source:Global Times Published: 2018/7/4

Mainland firms fight back in patent suits

Memory chip parts by Micron Technology are pictured at an industrial fair in Frankfurt in 2015. File photo: VCG

The sales ban on a number of products from US-based chipmaker Micron in the mainland market over patent lawsuits shows the growing capacity of mainland companies to fight back against patent suits from overseas companies, domestic mobile analysts told the Global Times.

The ban issue is unlikely to be solved out of court amid the current Sino-US trade row, an analyst said, despite assurance from Chinese authorities that the case has nothing to do with the row.

Lu Kang, spokesperson for the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said during a press briefing on Wednesday that the ban on certain Micron products is an individual intellectual property rights protection case that has nothing to do with the Sino-US trade frictions.

Lu also said that China provides equal protection to all companies whether domestic or foreign.

According to a statement released by Fujian Jinhua Integrated Circuit Co Tuesday, the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court ordered Micron's Shanghai subsidiary to immediately stop selling and importing about a dozen products including solid-state drives (SSD) and chips.

The court also told Micron's subsidiary in Xi'an, capital of Northwest China's Shaanxi Province, to stop manufacturing, selling and importing several Micron memory chips.

Jinhua said that Micron had about a dozen products suspected of violating Jinhua's patents, including several of Micron's Random-Access Memory (RAM) and SSDs.

Jinhua also stressed that in the past it had already sued Micron for violating its patents for some of Micron's SSD and RAM products.

Micron Semiconductor (Xi'an) Co and Micron Semiconductor (Shanghai) Co had not accepted interview requests as of press time. Jinhua also declined to comment on Wednesday.

Sun Yanbiao, head of Shenzhen-based research company N1mobile, said that for the high-tech sector, companies frequently sue each other over patent issues.

"You can never see the end of patent lawsuits in this sector, and many of those suits are just left unsettled in the end," he told the Global Times Wednesday.

Xiang Ligang, chief executive of telecom industry news site cctime.com, told the Global Times Wednesday that a high-tech product usually involves dozens of patents, and it is easy for companies to "trample on patent rights," though not deliberately in many cases. "For example, for some small patents, manufacturers can't check who owns them," he said.

According to Sun, in the past, mainland companies, without many patent reserves, could only be sued by overseas companies in patent disputes. "But now as patent systems gradually mature, mainland companies can also counterattack by suing back."

In December 2017, Micron filed a lawsuit against Jinhua, accusing the latter of infringing on its DRAM (dynamic random access memory) patents and intellectual property rights, according to media reports.

According to Xiang, amid the escalating Sino-US trade frictions, the "soft measures" used in many cases in the past, such as out-of-court settlement, are not likely to happen in the Micron lawsuit this time.

Xiang said that the ban on Micron product sales in the mainland would severely hurt Micron's business, as the mainland market occupies an important position in the company's global business landscape.

A Reuters report on Wednesday noted that Micron now gets about half of its revenues from mainland markets.

But Xiang stressed that the ban wouldn't have too much impact on Chinese buyers as Micron's products can be replaced by other brands easily.

According to media reports, Micron now supplies SSD products to mainland internet giants including Alibaba and Tencent. Tencent said on Wednesday that it is "not convenient" to comment on the issue .

On Wednesday, Taiwan-based United Microelectronics Corp (UMC) also announced that the Fuzhou Intermediate People's Court had issued a preliminary injunction against Micron's subsidiaries in Xi'an and Shanghai in sales of items like SSD and memory sticks in the mainland because of alleged patent violations.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1109545.shtml

***

umc also helped recruited engineers from micron with all the blueprints to chinese company that will start mass production soon. very funny... when china offered to buy stake in micron few years ago, the us blocked em. they could've made billions back then and billions more in the future for a long time, because of china partnership. now they get nothing, get banned and maybe hefty fine too

LOL @ US Confidence.

 

[gambit]

umc also helped recruited engineers from micron with all the blueprints to chinese company that will start mass production soon. very funny... when china offered to buy stake in micron few years ago, the us blocked em. they could've made billions back then and billions more in the future for a long time, because of china partnership. now they get nothing, get banned and maybe hefty fine too

Here is the harsh reality...

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...banned-in-china-on-patent-case-rival-umc-says

China is the largest market for semiconductors, yet isn’t home to even one of the top 10 producers of the crucial electronic components. The memory chip market has been increasingly concentrated in the hands of Micron and its two Korean rivals, Samsung Electronics Co. and SK Hynix Inc. They have generated record profits recently from the components that are essential to everything from supercomputers to smartphones.

What this means is that any revenue loss to Micron will be minor compares to the degree of dependency ZTE have on US sources. ZTE quite shut down. No one expects the same for Micron.

 

[seesonic]

Because...

Micron -- my former employer -- do %100 testing on every wafer it ships. When I say every wafer, I also mean literally every die on the wafer.

The latest industry intelligence for the semiconductor manufacturing sector in China is that most Chinese fabs performs sampling testing of both WLR and Burn-In testing. The saving grace here is that commodities like DRAM or NAND are so established in manufacturing that Chinese fabs can get away with it -- FOR DOMESTIC MARKET. The Chinese market can withstand a higher level of consumer product failures. The American and EU markets will not. The Americans and the Euros will definitely raise hell.

WOW.

What kind of semiconductor industry have you been in?

@jhungary

 

[TaiShang]

qualcomm is still asking chinese court to ban apple products. china should grant 'em that wish and then ban qualcomm after that on national security ground. that would be sweet. lol. gonna be interesting in the next few days, they should take a look at that

***

It will definitely be more interesting.

Banning apple would be great
. You will see the DJIA and its tech sector sink

Your wish may eventually be granted

***

China to implement countermeasures immediately after US tariffs take effect

Xinhua, July 5, 2018

China's additional tariffs on some import products from the United States will be implemented immediately after the new U.S. tariffs take effect, the country's customs authority said Thursday.

In response to the U.S. announcement to impose additional duties on Chinese imports, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council decided in mid-June that additional tariffs for 545 items worth about 34 billion U.S. dollars, including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products, will be effective from July 6, 2018.

China will not implement additional tariffs ahead of the United States' tariff move, an official of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said Wednesday.

qualcomm is still asking chinese court to ban apple products. china should grant 'em that wish and then ban qualcomm after that on national security ground. that would be sweet. lol. gonna be interesting in the next few days, they should take a look at that

***

It will definitely be more interesting.

Banning apple would be great
. You will see the DJIA and its tech sector sink

Your wish may eventually be granted

***

China to implement countermeasures immediately after US tariffs take effect

Xinhua, July 5, 2018

China's additional tariffs on some import products from the United States will be implemented immediately after the new U.S. tariffs take effect, the country's customs authority said Thursday.

In response to the U.S. announcement to impose additional duties on Chinese imports, the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council decided in mid-June that additional tariffs for 545 items worth about 34 billion U.S. dollars, including agricultural products, vehicles and aquatic products, will be effective from July 6, 2018.

China will not implement additional tariffs ahead of the United States' tariff move, an official of the Customs Tariff Commission of the State Council said Wednesday.