News Briefing 
Samsung Electronics is temporarily halting new procurement orders and asking multiple suppliers to delay or reduce shipments of components and parts for several weeks due to swelling inventories and global inflation concerns. The notification by the South Korean tech titan announced in mid-June that it will suspend external procurement before the end of July, applies to panels, ICs, and mobile phone components, among others, and the suspended purchases will be in effect from now until the end of July, a move that has shocked the entire Taiwanese supply chain.

Impact Analysis
Due to the sluggish buying sentiment in the global consumer electronics market in the second quarter, the inventory level of Samsung has kept soaring. As viewed from the financial statement for the first quarter, the inventory amount has reached as high as 47.6 trillion Won, a quarterly increase of 15% and an increase of 55% as compared to that of the same period last year. Even more, inventory in the second quarter is likely to increase unabated. As such, Jong-hee Han, the chief executive officer of the consumer electronics business under Samsung Electronics, has personally ordered the suspension of all component purchases.

Being the largest enterprise group in South Korea, Samsung is the largest manufacturer of consumer electronic products and electronic components, and also the largest IT (information technology) company in the world. As we study its trends and developments, we can partly perceive the trend of the global market. As observed from the latest supply chain list (2021) released by Samsung, there are a total of 100 manufacturers, of which local Korean manufacturers are selected most often, reaching 40, followed by Japanese factories, totaling 22, while 6 Taiwanese plants are being chosen. In terms of the PCB supply, 8 manufacturers have been embraced by the Samsung supply chain list, of which 4 are Korean factories, 2 are Taiwanese factories, and 2 are Japanese factories. Overall, Samsung's move to suspend the purchase of goods has exerted a rather minimal impact on Taiwan's PCB industry, but it does indicate the pessimistic view of brand manufacturers towards the terminal market. On the other hand, it is now the optimal time for Apple’s stocking period, another major player, for novel consumer products. As such, various manufacturers of the trade are hoping that the shipments of new iPhones in the third quarter can boost operating performance, and they also regard it as an indicator of confidence for the terminal market in the second half of the year.