Strike Catalyst + Price Hikes Spreading! Memory Chips Lead Morning Gains, Sector Leaders Hit 20CM Daily Limit Up

On the morning of March 18, storage chip stocks opened higher and continued to rise, with many hitting the daily limit. By the morning close, the sector was up 3.50%, leading the market concept sectors. Among individual stocks, Tongyou Technology hit the daily limit with a 20CM rise, Xice Testing surged over 17%, Shenkeda increased over 15%, Langke Technology rose over 14%, Yunhan Chip City gained over 10%, Guanghe Technology, Chengbang Shares, China Electric Port, and Dagang Shares hit the daily limit. Shannong Chip Creation, Jiangbolong, Baiwei Storage, Lianyun Technology, and others rose over 8%.

Samsung Union Plans Largest Ever Strike

In news, Samsung Electronics’ largest-ever strike plan is entering voting countdown.

According to foreign media, Choi Seung-ho, chairman of Samsung Electronics Labor Union (SELU), stated last week that union members are voting on the strike planned for May, and he expects “production disruptions at that time.” The voting ends this Wednesday, with about 90,000 union members eligible to participate, accounting for the vast majority of Samsung’s 125,000 employees in Korea.

If negotiations fail, workers plan to strike for 18 days starting May 21. Choi Seung-ho said this action could impact about half of Samsung’s Pyeongtaek semiconductor plant’s output. An insider quoted in the report said, “Even a single production halt caused by a strike could damage customer trust, and it may take years to repair.”

Image: Samsung memory products, Samsung official website

The core of this labor dispute lies in the widening pay gap between Samsung and its competitors. The union SELU’s demands include a 7% increase in basic wages, the removal of the cap that performance-based pay cannot exceed 50% of the annual basic salary, and the introduction of a profit-based bonus pool to replace the current standards, which the union considers “outdated and opaque.”

Competitors Previously Offered Large Year-End Bonuses

Choi Seung-ho pointed out that after SK Hynix accepted union demands for salary reform in September last year, the number of Samsung union members increased significantly in the following weeks. SK Hynix approved plans to remove bonus caps and allocate 10% of operating profit into the bonus pool.

According to SELU estimates, an employee in Samsung’s chip division with a basic salary of 76 million won in 2025 would receive about 38 million won in performance pay, less than one-third of what SK Hynix employees with similar salaries could earn. Over the past three months, more than 100 union members have left Samsung to join competitors like SK Hynix.

Image: SK Group development history, SK official website

Notably, in early 2026, SK Hynix announced it would distribute an average performance bonus of over 136 million won (about 640,000 RMB) to all employees, the highest in the company’s history.

The reason SK Hynix can award such a large bonus is that in September 2025, the company reached a historic labor agreement with the union, abolishing the previous cap of “profit sharing (PS) not exceeding 10 times the basic salary” and instead allocating 10% of annual operating profit into the bonus pool.

Storage Chip Price Surge Spreads

As a key sector in the current semiconductor cycle, storage chips face significant shortages. Since 2026, wafer fab capacity has become tighter, especially with increased utilization of 8-inch wafer foundries. TrendForce predicts that in 2026, the global average capacity utilization rate of 8-inch wafer foundries will reach 85%-90%, significantly higher than last year’s 75%-80%.

The price hike trend at mature process fabs is now spreading, with many companies planning to raise prices soon. Media reports suggest that UMC, GlobalFoundries, Powerchip, and others may raise prices in April, with increases potentially exceeding 10%. GlobalFoundries stated in a price increase letter that due to rising costs of semiconductor equipment, raw materials, and energy, the company plans to adjust foundry prices starting April, though the exact increase was not disclosed.

Everbright Securities pointed out that historically, storage chip giants often expanded capacity massively to gain market share, which eventually led to oversupply. The current semiconductor cycle is still ongoing, and the price hike trend is spreading to more parts of the industry chain. However, industry giants’ “capacity expansion” plans remain relatively conservative. In response to this AI-driven storage chip price surge, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are maintaining calm and restraint, avoiding large-scale capacity expansion, which may lead to a more sustained boom cycle.

In the A-share market, driven by multiple favorable factors, storage chip concept stocks have recently been hotly pursued by funds, with stock prices rising accordingly. According to Choice data from Eastmoney, since the beginning of the year, storage chip concept stocks have seen a net financing inflow of 7.778 billion yuan, with the latest financing balance reaching 132.9 billion yuan, an increase of over 6% from the start of the year. As of the midday trading on March 18, nearly 80% of storage chip concept stocks have increased in price this year, with a median rise of 22.07%.