Amkor Technology, the US-based semiconductor packaging and testing company, said it will close its Hakodate plant in northern Japan by December 2027, citing weak demand stemming from a slowdown in the global electric vehicle (EV) market. The factory, located in the town of Nanae in Hokkaido, specializes in packaging chips used in automobiles

Canon said on January 13 that it has developed a new wafer planarization technology designed to uniformly smooth surface irregularities during semiconductor manufacturing. The process applies resin materials using inkjet printing and then presses a glass plate onto the surface, using a stamping-like method to achieve planarization

Taiwan-based passive component maker Yageo said Japan's Shibaura Electronics was officially delisted from the Tokyo Stock Exchange on January 13. Following the completion of the share consolidation, Yageo now holds 100% of the voting rights in Shibaura Electronics as of January 15

South Korean industry and government officials are monitoring a new trade agreement between the US and Taiwan that links semiconductor investment to import duty exemptions, with officials in Seoul saying that any future US-South Korea talks should not leave Korea worse off than Taiwan. Officials view the terms as a potential benchmark for future US-South Korea trade negotiations

As the global memory market enters a prolonged upcycle, South Korea's two leading memory chipmakers, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix, are expected to post record operating profits in 2026. Combined operating profit could exceed KRW300 trillion (approx. US$210 billion), roughly double the level recorded in 2025