South Korean securities firm NH Investment & Securities reported that the ongoing blockade in Xi'an, China and the fire at ASML's Berlin plant have affected semiconductor production. These events are good for the supply and demand of memory chips, but bad for the supply of logic chips. It is expected that the performance of memory companies such as Micron and SK Hynix will surpass that of logic chip companies in the short term.

According to the report, Xi'an, China, has implemented a two-week lockdown due to the epidemic. While Samsung Electronics has a NAND fab in the region and Micron has a DRAM back-end manufacturing fab, its employees' commuting traffic is currently limited, affecting productivity.

Among them, Samsung's Xi'an plant accounts for 15% of global NAND production. Given that the company's own NAND inventory and the inventory in the channel are at a relatively healthy level, the impact of the epidemic on NAND supply and demand is temporarily limited. It is expected to have a favorable impact on NAND supply and demand starting in the second quarter, as inventories will be nearly depleted by then.

In terms of the fire at ASML's Berlin plant, instruments and inspection equipment were not affected, and the production of DUV lithography equipment parts has also resumed, but the biggest blow is that the recovery of wafer clip manufacturing for EUV lithography equipment is underway, resulting in the use of EUV lithography equipment. The production of DRAM and logic semiconductors below 5nm will inevitably be negatively affected.

Therefore, the supply of DRAM will decrease, and DRAM prices are expected to recover in the second half of the year. In the logic chip industry, which cannot benefit from the reduction in production, it is expected to have a negative impact on related companies such as foundries.