HK Stock Market Move | ASMPT (00522) surged over 6% in early trading as component delivery times doubled, causing a severe shortage of chip equipment supply.

ASMPT (00522) rose over 6% in early trading. As of press time, it was up 6.06% at HK$169.7, with a turnover of HK$372 million. On the news front, according to reports, delivery lead times for key components of South Korean semiconductor equipment have doubled, causing the equipment industry to fall into a severe supply shortage. An executive at a company that produces deposition equipment said that in the past, components needed for deposition equipment could be received four months after ordering, but delivery times have recently been extended to 10 months. Another semiconductor laser processing equipment manufacturer said that sourcing key components from Japan could take as long as 40 months. Guotai Haitong issued a research report stating that advanced packaging is driving the volume growth and upgrading of bonding equipment. In the short term, it is driven by HBM capacity expansion and GPU/ASIC demand, and thermal compression bonding (TCB) equipment is one of the equipment segments with the highest certainty. In the future, with the upgrading of HBM and the growth in demand for 3D Logic chips, hybrid bonding (HB) equipment is expected to continue penetrating high-end scenarios. The bank pointed out that ASMPT has both advanced logic and HBM TCB demand and is extending toward Fluxless TCB and HB, giving it strong short- to medium-term earnings elasticity.