Samsung and SK Hynix plan to ask substrate manufacturers to lower prices in the second half of the year, and the 3% to 4% price increase at the beginning of the year may be reversed.

According to Mars Finance, on July 1st, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix were negotiating with upstream substrate suppliers regarding delivery prices for the second half of the year, leaning towards lowering prices or even withdrawing the average price increase of 3% to 4% implemented at the beginning of the year. Earlier this year, in response to the sharp rise in raw material costs such as gold and copper, the two chipmakers agreed to raise substrate supply prices; however, with raw material prices stabilizing, the negotiation balance has shifted in favor of the buyers. An Youngwoo, Secretary General of the Korea PCB and Semiconductor Packaging Industry Association, revealed that most substrate companies have received clear demands for lower prices from customers. If the price reduction is implemented, the first-quarter price increases will be completely reversed, and the substrate industry is expected to face price reductions as early as next month. Substrate manufacturers will face a "double dilemma"—raw material procurement costs remain high, while delivery prices face declines, squeezing profit margins from both ends, potentially constraining capital expenditures and next-generation technology R&D. This pressure to lower prices is particularly severe for medium-sized substrate companies. Many medium-sized companies are currently not included in the raw material cost linkage mechanism—a mechanism designed to reasonably share the risk of price fluctuations among all parties in the supply chain, but these companies remain outside of it. KPCA points out that the substrate industry is highly sensitive to raw material prices. If the cost burden is disproportionately concentrated on substrate manufacturers, it will directly weaken their investment capacity and undermine their technological competitiveness. The association has explicitly called on semiconductor manufacturers to postpone price reductions and extend the benefits of the economic cycle to the upstream of the supply chain. It has also put forward a series of institutional recommendations: promoting the extension of the delivery price linkage mechanism from large enterprises to medium-sized enterprises; establishing a supply chain symbiotic negotiation mechanism involving the government and industry; increasing policy support for key medium-sized enterprises in the supply chain; and building a cooperative framework to ensure the sustainable competitiveness of the supply chain.