Electronics

Just the latest news, according to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, Kelei South Korea Branch is carrying out the work of screening the leavers. Some resigning objects also raised procedural issues and said: "Without prior notice, I was called to the head office for the reason of annual salary negotiation and was advised to resign."

Kelei will not only lay off workers in South Korea, but also lay off about 3% in the whole world. Korei's branch in South Korea has about 700 employees, many of whom are expected to be laid off.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, the target of the layoff of Kelei is engineers. In the semiconductor equipment enterprises, engineers are responsible for the production, maintenance and repair of products supplied to customers, but they have become the number one target of layoffs, which has caused repercussions in the industry.

According to other information, the proportion of layoffs in the world is about 3%, and the proportion of layoffs in China is unknown. It is suspected that the internal staff of Kelei has previously disclosed on the Internet that many people who have bad relationship with the manager may be on the layoff list, and many excellent personnel from FasT (thin film and scattering measurement), eBeam and SFS-ADE departments are on the list.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, a person familiar with the matter said that due to the relatively small impact of the new regulations of the United States, the proportion of layoffs in Kelei China this time was only 1%, and the unified layoffs were completed globally on March 2.

In addition, according to public information, Applied Materials China also planned to lay off about 10% of staff (the proportion of global layoffs is unknown). This layoff is mainly affected by engineers who maintain equipment. The proportion of layoffs of process support engineers (PSE) has not been determined. However, the latest news shows that the proportion of layoffs in Applied Materials China may be lower than the previous rumors.

At present, Applied Materials has 27000 employees worldwide, including about 3000 full-time employees in China. While Kelei has 14000 employees worldwide, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation reported.

Not long ago, Pan Forest Group announced that it would lay off about 1300 people worldwide. In addition, Panlin Group also laid off 700 temporary workers and will reduce the same number of temporary workers in this quarter. The company estimates that the costs associated with layoffs and facility cuts will be $150 million to $250 million.

According to the data, the company was founded in 1976 and headquartered in Silicon Valley, California, USA. It mainly provides solutions for semiconductor, data storage, LED and other related nano-electronics industries in terms of pre-process control and yield management. The product category has covered all kinds of pre-processing optical and electron beam detection equipment in the processing process. With its efficient and accurate performance characteristics of testing products, Kelei has an absolute leading position in the field of semiconductor testing and measuring equipment.

From the perspective of specific products, Kelei has a wide range of products, including defect detection, Overlay, CD measurement, film thickness, etc.

In addition, Applied Materials, founded in 1967, is the world's largest semiconductor equipment manufacturer. Its products mainly cover film deposition (CVD, PVD, etc.), ion implantation, etching, rapid heat treatment, chemical mechanical leveling (CMP), metrological inspection and other equipment.

According to analysis, the three major American semiconductor equipment manufacturers have laid off workers one after another. On the one hand, it is related to the decline in the global semiconductor market demand since the second half of last year, and many semiconductor manufacturers (especially memory chip manufacturers) have significantly reduced their capital expenditure in 2023; On the other hand, it is related to the new regulations on the export control of American semiconductors to China last October that restricted the purchase of some advanced American semiconductor equipment by mainland semiconductor manufacturers.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, recently, the Institute of Strategic International Studies (CSIS), a US think tank, called that South Korea and Germany should also join in restricting exports to China. According to the report, as the possibility of Samsung and SK Hynix failing to update the equipment in China's production base increases, the American enterprises that provide and manage equipment on this basis will be the first to exit.