Samsung's Austin Chip Production Back Near Normalcy Levels: Reuters

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd’s SSNLF Austin, Texas chip plant production had returned to near-normal levels last week after over a month of global chip capacity crunch led interruption, Reuters reports.
Samsung and other chipmakers with production facilities in the area had to shut down operations due to severe weather on Feb. 16, further intensifying the crisis.
Qualcomm Inc QCOM 5G radio frequency chips and Samsung display and image sensor chips account for 65% of the Samsung plant’s monthly production. Other chips include power management integrated circuits (PMICs) and a small number of chips that control electrical parts.
The disruption can hamper the global smartphone production between April and June by 5% and may hamper the 2021 5G smartphone penetration rate.
Lower smartphone vendor inventory level can hamper smartphone production from the plant shutdown in the second half of the year.
Samsung’s estimated losses between $265 million-353 million (300-400 billion won) will mainly reflect in January-March quarter earnings as per analysts.
This month, NXP Semiconductors NV NXPI expected a revenue hit of $100 million from its Texas production shutdown.
German chipmaker Infineon Technologies AG IFNNF IFNNY expected a quarterly revenue hit in the high double-digit million euro range from the shutdown.
Price action: QCOM shares traded lower by 0.66% at $130.4 in the premarket session on the last check Tuesday.