In the market for thermocompression bonders (TC bonders), essential equipment for high-bandwidth memory (HBM), longtime rivals HANMI Semiconductor and Hanwha Semitek posted diverging report cards for the first half. Both companies faced a temporary order gap as purchase orders from SK hynix shifted from HBM3E (5th-generation HBM) to HBM4 (6th-generation HBM), but analysts said a clear gap emerged in their stamina to withstand the downturn and in financial stability.
HANMI Semiconductor, whose main client is SK hynix, reduced reliance on a single account by adding U.S. Micron as a major customer, while Hanwha Semitek remained stuck with SK hynix as its sole client and exposed weaknesses in its financial structure, revealing vulnerabilities in future competition.
◇ Hanmi Semiconductor defends profitability with customer diversification despite lower sales
According to the Financial Supervisory Service's electronic disclosure system on the 13th, HANMI Semiconductor's first-half sales were 302.1 billion won and operating profit was 138.8 billion won, down 7.7% and 11.0%, respectively, from a year earlier. The details tell a different story. In the first quarter, operating profit was just 8.5 billion won (operating margin 17%), far short of market expectations and marking an earnings shock, but in the second quarter, sales came to 251.1 billion won and operating profit to 130.3 billion won (operating margin 51.9%), the highest quarterly results on record. The weak first quarter was immediately offset in the second, lifting the cumulative first-half operating margin to the 46% range.
Customer diversification is cited as the reason it defended profitability despite a tough order environment. In addition to its largest client, SK hynix, it increased deliveries to Micron and strengthened the partnership, which in turn dispersed much of the risk that delays in orders from a specific customer would rattle overall results.
Moves to broaden the growth base are continuing. HANMI Semiconductor resolved at a board meeting this month to invest $1.5 million (about 2.1 billion won) to establish a local subsidiary, Hanmi USA, in San Jose, California. Unlike other equipment makers that are highly dependent on domestic clients, it is building a close-response system in the United States and proactively expanding its overseas order base.
◇ Sales up but profits flat, with financial risks piling up at Hanwha Semitek
Hanwha Semitek, by contrast, posted first-half sales of 230.8 billion won and operating profit of 300 million won (operating margin 0.13%). Second-quarter sales surged 77.6% from the previous quarter to 147.7 billion won. On a Hanwha Vision consolidation basis, it beat market consensus by 8.2% for sales and 34.0% for operating profit, but within the Semitek institutional sector itself, profit improvement lagged the increase in sales. Following the fourth quarter of last year (operating margin 0.7%), the pattern of "sales rising while profits stay flat" is repeating.
The more fundamental issue is its financial structure. To avoid capital impairment last year, Hanwha Semitek recognized 91.6 billion won in deferred tax assets, but to have that asset value actually acknowledged, it must earn about 380 billion won in cumulative taxable income going forward. With operating cash flow in the red for two consecutive years (minus 17.5 billion won in 2025), it has been increasing accounts payable to manage immediate cash outflows.
An equipment-industry source said, "At a time when Hanwha Semitek needs to expand production capacity (CAPA) or develop new customers, financial risk management to preserve deferred tax assets has become the priority, making it clearly limited, in terms of investment capacity and speed, to catch up with HANMI Semiconductor."
Brokerages largely expect the temperature gap between the two companies to persist into the second half. Cha Yong-ho, an analyst at LS Securities, said, "Major clients are resuming equipment orders for HBM4," raising the target price for HANMI Semiconductor. In fact, HANMI Semiconductor's TC bonder share at SK hynix is expected to expand to around 60% this year from 50% in 2025, making the recovery in orders increasingly visible.