Morgan Stanley sees more upside in hardware stocks as memory chipflation worsens

Phichem announced on September 30 that its board of directors had received a notification letter from the controlling shareholder Phichem Holdings and its concert party Zhang Yanxia. As of the disclosure date, the two had cumulatively reduced their holdings in the company by 5,680,075 shares and decided to terminate this share reduction plan ahead of schedule. Shares not yet sold under the plan will no longer be reduced within the remaining period. Based on the average reduction price disclosed in the announcement, the shareholders cashed out approximately 200 million yuan in total from this reduction. The company had pre-disclosed the reduction plan on June 10, 2026. Phichem Holdings and Zhang Yanxia originally planned to reduce their combined holdings by no more than 5,669,464 shares within three months starting 15 trading days after the pre-disclosure announcement, through block trades or centralized bidding, representing no more than 1.00 percent of total share capital. Because the registration of shares vested under the first归属 period of the 2025 restricted stock incentive plan was completed in June 2026, total share capital increased from 566,946,450 shares to 570,033,250 shares, and the planned reduction amount was correspondingly adjusted to no more than 5,700,332 shares, with the proportion of total share capital unchanged. On the same day, the board also received a notification letter from Phichem Holdings and its concert parties Zhang Justin Jicheng, Zhang Alan Jian, Zhang Yanxia, and Xia Shifeng stating that their equity change had reached 1 percent. From May 20, 2025 to September 29, 2026, the combined shareholding ratio of the above shareholders decreased from 22.00 percent to 20.79 percent. Phichem is mainly engaged in the research, development, production, and sales of electronic chemical materials. Its 2026 semi-annual report showed that during the reporting period it achieved total operating revenue of 1.722 billion yuan, up 17.79 percent year on year; net profit attributable to the parent company was 267 million yuan, up 23.20 percent year on year; non-GAAP net profit was 260 million yuan, up 47.19 percent year on year; and net cash flow from operating activities was 478 million yuan, up 101.81 percent year on year.

SUSS MicroTec SE has entered the wafer-level cleaning market with the launch of its new GreenTec Solutions product line and its first system, the GT200. The company said the wafer-cleaning market it is targeting represents an addressable market of approximately EUR 5.4 billion, driven by advanced packaging, heterogeneous integration and rising semiconductor demand from AI and high-performance computing. The GT200 is designed for research and development, process qualification and production in 200 mm manufacturing environments for MEMS, RF, Power Device and CMOS applications, and combines the company's TurbulenStrip and CrustBuster process technologies in a single platform. SUSS said the GT200 is the first member of a scalable GreenTec platform and that it will expand toward high-volume manufacturing with a dedicated 300 mm HVM platform in 2027, pulled in from its original schedule due to strong customer interest, followed by a 200 mm HVM platform in 2028. Chief Executive Officer Burkhardt Frick called the launch an important milestone in the execution of the company's Ambition 2030 strategy, while Senior Vice President Photomask Solutions Yuta Nagai said the product line represents its vision for a next generation of semiconductor manufacturing where sustainability and process excellence go hand in hand.

National Silicon Industry Group announced that its board of directors recently received a written resignation report from Chairman Jiang Haitao. Due to a job change, Jiang Haitao applied to resign from his positions as chairman of the company's third board of directors, director, member and convener of the strategy committee, member of the nomination committee, and member of the remuneration and assessment committee. After his resignation, he will no longer hold any position in the company. Jiang Haitao does not hold any company shares, and there are no outstanding public commitments that have not been fulfilled. The company will complete the by-election of directors and the election of a new chairman as soon as possible in accordance with relevant regulations.

National Silicon Industry Group announced on September 29 that its board of directors recently received a written resignation report from Chairman Jiang Haitao. Due to a change in work arrangements, he applied to resign from his positions as chairman of the third board of directors, director, member and convener of the strategy committee, member of the nomination committee, and member of the remuneration and assessment committee. After resigning, he will no longer hold any position at the company. Jiang Haitao is 54 years old this year and has served as a director of National Silicon Industry Group since June 10, 2021. Before his resignation, he was chairman of the company. He previously worked for a long time in the Shanghai port system and the Shanghai Federation of Trade Unions. Since May 2020, he has served as deputy party secretary of Shanghai Guosheng Group, and he currently serves as deputy party secretary, president, and director of that company. National Silicon Industry Group mainly produces polished wafers, epitaxial wafers, and SOI silicon wafers. On August 19, the company released its 2026 interim report. Operating revenue was 2.32 billion yuan, up 36.5 percent year on year. Net profit attributable to the parent company swung from a loss of 367 million yuan in the same period last year to a loss of 965 million yuan, with the loss widening further. Net profit attributable to the parent company after deducting non-recurring items swung from a loss of 481 million yuan in the same period last year to a loss of 958 million yuan, with the loss also widening further. Net operating cash flow was 179 million yuan, up 138.8 percent year on year. The company said the revenue growth was mainly driven by a year-on-year increase of more than 90 percent in sales volume of 300-millimeter semiconductor silicon wafers, while the year-on-year decline in profit was mainly due to increased research and development investment, higher financial expenses caused by exchange rate fluctuations, and increased asset impairment losses.

Sidike announced on the evening of September 23 that it plans to invest in a high-end functional BOPET base film expansion project with an annual capacity of 103,000 tonnes, with total investment estimated at about 1.652 billion yuan. The project will be implemented by its wholly owned subsidiary Jiangsu Xingyuantai New Material Technology Co., Ltd., located in Sihong, Jiangsu, with a construction period of 1.5 years. Funding will come from Xingyuantai's own capital and self-raised funds. The project aims to mass-produce multiple series of high-end functional BOPET substrate products, including MLCC release film base film, polarizer release and protective film base film, photosensitive dry film base film, general release and protective film base film, and window film base film, mainly serving downstream sectors such as microelectronic MLCC manufacturing, specialty optical devices, precision PCB circuits, smart terminal protection, automotive and building energy-saving window films, and industrial precision protection. The investment still needs to be submitted to the company's shareholders' meeting for approval before implementation, and requires approval or filing procedures from relevant government departments for project registration, environmental impact assessment, energy conservation review, safety evaluation, and fire protection acceptance. The 2026 interim report shows that in the first half of the year, the company achieved operating revenue of 1.593 billion yuan, up 14.11 percent year on year, and net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company of 46.0118 million yuan, up 82.38 percent year on year.