Bernstein: South Korea's Semiconductor Equipment Import Diverges, AI Storage Investment Still Ongoing

Here’s the English rewrite tailored to American financial news conventions: June 16 — Bernstein analysts, including David Dai, noted in a June 15 report that South Korea’s semiconductor equipment imports fell 5% month-over-month in May, but their year-to-date (YTD) year-over-year growth rate climbed to 39%. The firm says these import figures track tightly with combined capital expenditures (capex) from Samsung and SK hynix. Even though both chipmakers’ Q1 capex dipped, that’s purely seasonal and tied to prior infrastructure builds — Bernstein expects spending to bounce back soon. South Korea’s imports of lithography gear from the Netherlands hit €928 million in May: a 28% month-over-month jump and nearly 150% year-over-year surge, marking the second-highest quarterly level on record. Bernstein projects ASML’s Q2 system sales in Korea will land around €2.31 billion, more than double last year’s same-period total. That momentum is likely fueled by DRAM capacity expansions and faster 1c node rollouts, which demand far more lithography equipment. Testing gear is also showing strength: Korea’s imports of test machines from Japan and Malaysia rose 103% year-over-year and 5% month-over-month in May. Bernstein’s regression model forecasts Advantest’s Q2 sales in Korea could surge 84% quarter-over-quarter — way higher than the market’s 3% overall revenue growth expectation. Not all equipment makers are thriving, though: Korea’s imports of Tokyo Electron-linked wafer fab equipment dropped 27% in May. Bernstein sees the firm’s Q2 sales in Korea falling 15% quarter-over-quarter, well below the market’s expectation of flat revenue. Bernstein maintained “Outperform” ratings for ASML, Advantest, Tokyo Electron, Samsung Electronics, and SK hynix. The report adds that the AI-driven storage investment cycle is still rippling upstream to the equipment supply chain, with lithography, testing, and advanced DRAM expansions leading the growth charge.