TCB Equipment: Sales Are Slowing Down?
However, just as the industry was pouring boundless enthusiasm into the advanced packaging track, a financial report from a South Korean company sent an unusual warning signal. 9%, respectively. 2% decline. 3 billion KRW. 8 billion KRW. 6 billion KRW.
Per-article narration is paused while we focus on the 9 daily compilation episodes. Listen to today's Tech daily brief — the story below is covered there alongside the rest of the day's reads. The full article text is below — read along while we ramp narration back up.
However, just as the industry was pouring boundless enthusiasm into the advanced packaging track, a financial report from a South Korean company sent an unusual warning signal.
In the first quarter of 2026, South Korean semiconductor equipment giant Hanmi Semiconductor delivered a performance that could be described as a “major miss”: consolidated revenue of 50.9 billion KRW and operating profit of just 8.45 billion KRW, representing sharp year-over-year declines of 65.5% and 87.9%, respectively. Net profit also fell from 54.7 billion KRW in the same period last year to 19 billion KRW, a 65.2% decline.
It is reported that Hanmi Semiconductor’s profitability momentum has continued to weaken since peaking in the second quarter of last year, when revenue reached 180 billion KRW and operating profit hit 86.3 billion KRW. In the third quarter, revenue fell 7.7% quarter-over-quarter to approximately 166.2 billion KRW, while operating profit dropped 21.4% to 67.8 billion KRW. In the fourth quarter, revenue plunged roughly 50% quarter-over-quarter to 83 billion KRW, and operating profit decreased 59.3% to 27.6 billion KRW.
By the first quarter of this year, the company had experienced three consecutive quarters of significant profit declines. Following the earnings release, Hanmi Semiconductor’s stock price plunged more than 20% in a single day.
The market’s surprise was not without reason.
The core reason behind Hanmi Semiconductor’s “earnings bomb” points directly to a cliff-like decline in sales of its flagship product — TCB (Thermal Compression Bonding) equipment.
It is worth noting that TCB equipment is an irreplaceable core tool for high-end HBM packaging. It directly determines HBM yield, cost, and delivery capability, and was once regarded as the “money-printing machine” of the AI computing era. As a leading player in HBM TCB equipment, Hanmi Semiconductor’s sharp downturn stands in stark contrast to the industry’s red-hot expectations.
What exactly caused a leading company that dominates the HBM TCB equipment market to suffer a cliff-like decline at a time when the industry appears to be booming? Is the TCB equipment, long hailed as the critical “chokepoint” technology in HBM packaging, losing steam? Or are deeper structural changes hidden beneath the surface of industry dynamics?