Sub-fab EquipmentUNISEM's move beyond the home fabs
Sub-fab Equipment
UNISEM's move beyond the home fabs
In August 2009, in the year its revenue hit a cycle low, UNISEM, a Korean scrubber-and-chiller maker built around Samsung's fabs, set up a subsidiary in Shanghai and a branch in Taiwan. Sixteen years later, exports reached 36.3% of FY2025 revenue, yet the largest customer still took 52.8% of H1 2026 revenue. This case follows the move through the filings to June 2026. No valuation and no price target.
Industrial pipework of the kind that fills a chip plant's sub-fab, the floor beneath the cleanroom where scrubbers and chillers run behind the tools they serve.
本研究简报以英文发布。
Small markets, one large customer
UNISEM makes two kinds of sub-fab equipment for chip and display plants. A point-of-use scrubber sits behind a tool's vacuum pump and destroys the toxic, flammable or high-warming gases that deposition and etch steps exhaust. A chiller holds a process chamber at a set temperature and is matched one-to-one with chambers, so demand tracks the etch chambers a fab installs. Four estimates put semiconductor abatement at US$1.1–1.8bn on a 2024–25 base, and three put chillers at US$0.73–1.21bn.
Korea accounted for 16.6% of global chiller demand in 2025, so most of the market sits abroad. A few global suppliers hold most of it, and they have bought into Korea: Atlas Copco, Edwards' parent, acquired the Korean abatement maker CSK in 2016. UNISEM's FY2025 Annual Report says Korean equipment makers are "vertically aligned under each chipmaker, with low cross-purchasing between groups".
Founded in 1988, UNISEM describes itself as the first Korean company to develop a scrubber. From 1998 it also laid vacuum piping in Samsung fabs, and it still signs annual unit-price supply contracts with Samsung Electronics and SK hynix. Revenue fell from ₩85.3bn in 2007 to ₩66.0bn in 2008 and ₩50.2bn in 2009, and operating profit from ₩6.2bn to ₩0.3bn. One foothold abroad already existed: UNISEM America, set up in September 2000 near Samsung's Austin fab.
Samsung Electronics' share of revenue, Q1 2010
68%
The earliest customer split found, from months after the August 2009 move. Overseas customers took 11% of Q1 2010 revenue, as reported by the press.
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UNISEM's filings show exports by product line, segment margins and an unnamed largest customer. They do not show whether new buyers or the anchor customer's own fabs abroad took the FY2025 exports, how fabs qualify and dual-source a scrubber or chiller vendor, why service earns about three times the equipment margin, or how fab build phases sequence sub-fab orders. Those answers sit with the people who specify, buy and make this equipment, and reaching them compliantly is what we do.
韩国首家专家网络 — 首尔，2013年至今
我们会请谁到场
Memory-fab facility & ESH
Several former facility, utility and ESH engineers from Samsung Electronics and SK hynix fabs, the people who specify and buy scrubbers and chillers; they speak to how fabs qualify and dual-source vendors, how build-outs and emissions rules drive abatement demand, and service-contract economics.
Abatement & vacuum makers
A handful of former engineers and program managers from abatement and vacuum makers, including Edwards; they speak to how sub-fab abatement is specified, priced and serviced, global versus Korean supplier competition, and technology shifts such as plasma versus burn-wet.
Memory makers (broad)
Several hundred former Samsung Electronics and SK hynix staff across process, equipment and R&D; they give context on capex timing and fab build schedules.
UNISEM moved at the bottom of the cycle. On 31 August 2009 it set up UNISEM China in Shanghai. The same year it opened a Taiwan branch, run through Parrion Technology, the Hsinchu distributor it had signed in September 2006. BOE, a Chinese display maker, had bought both product lines since 2005.
No 2009 statement of intent appears in the filings or press NRG consulted. The only stated purpose for the China unit is the one in the subsidiary table: "semiconductor/LCD equipment maintenance and trade". NRG reads the 2009 units as a push beyond Samsung's fabs, toward chip and display makers such as BOE. UNISEM Xian, set up on 27 August 2014, three months after Samsung's Xi'an NAND fab began full operation, followed the anchor customer, as the US unit had.
UNISEM also tried to diversify beyond chip equipment, with CCTV and car dashcams, a smart-ID subsidiary in 2013 and an IoT department in 2016. The board closed the IoT business on 31 January 2023, citing "limited market entry".
A cleanroom. The scrubbers and chillers that serve a chip plant's tools sit on the floor below, in the sub-fab.
Who bought, and where the units went
On the company's own split, overseas customers were 37% of 2018 revenue and display applications 32%. BOE was the second-largest customer at 18.0%, and Toshiba Memory, now Kioxia, took 9.0%. Samsung's Korean chip fabs took 38.9%, against 68% for Samsung Electronics in Q1 2010, though the bases differ. Applied Materials took 3.5% and named UNISEM a 2023 Best Supplier in February 2024.
At the end of 2018 UNISEM counted 10,435 scrubbers and 15,532 chillers in the field, about a quarter of them outside Korea. China and Taiwan, the markets of the 2009 move, held most of the scrubbers abroad. Most chillers abroad were in the US and China, which NRG reads as consistent with Samsung's Austin fab and with chillers shipped inside tools. In the company's 2019 presentation, 370 of 630 staff worked in service, and 247 served abroad, counting agents.
Later figures sit lower. Exports were 26.9% of revenue in FY2023 and 26.1% in FY2024 on DART's basis, below the 2018 overseas-customer share, though that share is measured differently. No display split exists after 2018, so any link to Chinese panel makers' spending cannot be tested.
A rival from the same city went abroad more widely. GST, founded in 2001 and based in Hwaseong like UNISEM, set up nine overseas subsidiaries between 2006 and 2024, including units in Texas, Xi'an, Singapore, Europe and Japan. Its reported customers include Micron, YMTC and CXMT. By FY2024 its revenue was about 1.6 times UNISEM's, at more than three times the operating margin.
Measure
UNISEM
GST
First overseas subsidiary
US, Sep 2000
US, Jul 2006
Overseas subsidiaries, 2025
3
9
Export award, Dec 2021
US$70m
US$100m
Revenue FY2022 / FY2023 / FY2024, ₩bn
253.2 / 232.1 / 218.2
312.8 / 279.2 / 346.2
Operating margin FY2022 / FY2023 / FY2024
11.5% / 7.5% / 4.6%
18.2% / 15.2% / 17.1%
UNISEM and GST compared on first overseas subsidiary, number of overseas subsidiaries in 2025, export award in December 2021, and consolidated revenue (₩bn) and operating margin for FY2022, FY2023 and FY2024. GST FY2025 is left out because the sources conflict. Source: UNISEM Annual Reports FY2022–FY2025 and company presentation (2019); GST IR presentation (2025-02); KIRS GST report (2026-02-23).
What the filings show to June 2026
Revenue still follows the memory cycle. It fell by about a quarter from its FY2021 peak to FY2024 and recovered 25.3% in FY2025, to ₩273.3bn. The recovery came at a 4.0% operating margin, the lowest of the seven years from FY2019.
Revenue recovered in FY2025; the operating margin did not.UNISEM consolidated revenue in ₩bn (bars) and operating margin (line), FY2019–FY2025. H1 2026: revenue ₩155.0bn, operating margin 6.8%. Source: UNISEM Annual Reports FY2021–FY2025; Half-Year Report 2026 (DART).
Exports supplied most of the FY2025 recovery. They rose by ₩42.3bn to 36.3% of revenue, near the 2018 overseas-customer share, though on a different basis. Chillers drove the jump in FY2025. In H1 2026 scrubbers took the lead, and scrubber exports of ₩23.7bn already exceeded the FY2025 total of ₩21.3bn.
Exports, ₩bn
FY2024
FY2025
H1 2025
H1 2026
Scrubbers
10.2
21.3
13.8
23.7
Chillers
28.6
58.2
32.4
18.9
Service and other
18.0
19.7
9.7
12.8
Total exports
56.9
99.2
55.9
55.5
Share of revenue
26.1%
36.3%
Margins moved the other way. Equipment revenue grew 39% in FY2025, but its operating margin fell to 2.4%, and service carried 65% of operating profit. The filings give no reason for the thin equipment margin. Export pricing, warranty terms, demo units and coolant are all candidates. Coolant was 17.5% of FY2025 raw-material purchases.
Segment
FY2024
FY2025
H1 2025
H1 2026
Equipment revenue, ₩bn
130.4
180.8
96.9
104.6
Equipment operating margin
4.4%
2.4%
3.5%
4.0%
Service revenue, ₩bn
87.8
92.4
43.6
50.2
Service operating margin
5.0%
7.7%
8.5%
12.9%
Service share of operating profit
44%
65%
The largest customer's share has fallen from 58.5% of FY2024 revenue but remains above half. Customers outside the top two supplied ₩33.4bn of the ₩55.2bn revenue gain in FY2025. The filings do not name the largest customer, but the segment notes name the counterparty as "Samsung Electronics and others", so NRG reads it as Samsung.
Largest customer (not named), share of H1 2026 revenue
52.8%
Down from 58.5% in FY2024; 52.1% in FY2025 and 49.2% in H1 2025.
The subsidiaries stayed small. UNISEM China, the 2009 unit, reported ₩6.4bn of its own revenue in FY2025, and the US and Xi'an units ₩11.7bn together. Set against ₩99.2bn of exports, most equipment sold abroad appears to ship straight from Korea. The company's own estimates of its home share also fell in 2025, to 40% in scrubbers from 50% and to 30% in chillers from 40%. No filing explains the drop.
Backlog more than tripled in the first half of 2026, and chillers drove the jump. It is not split by destination or customer. Samsung's P4 and SK hynix's M15X are being readied for high-bandwidth memory, and Samsung's Taylor fab entered its equipment phase in 2026.
Order backlog, 30 June 2026
₩111.2bn
Up from ₩34.1bn at 31 December 2025. Chillers made up ₩76.2bn and scrubbers ₩35.0bn.
Rooftop cooling towers. A process chiller in a chip fab does a narrower job, holding one chamber or wafer holder at a set temperature, and deeper 3D NAND has pushed some etch steps toward low-temperature and cryogenic units.
What transfers
Five lessons carry over to other suppliers built around one customer. Following the anchor abroad keeps the anchor: the US and Xi'an units sat next to Samsung fabs, and the largest customer still took over half of H1 2026 revenue. Revenue won on one end-market wave may leave with it, though with no display split after 2018 that link is NRG's reading.
A part that ships inside another company's tool may travel further, because the supplier may skip fab-by-fab qualification. Whether tool makers drove the FY2025 chiller exports is still open. The installed base pays through service, which has carried most of UNISEM's operating profit since 2025 and depends on service staff where the units are. Home share can also slip while attention is abroad. UNISEM's own estimates fell ten points in both lines in 2025, and the filings do not say why.
“The only customer list that names foreign buyers, for 2018, ranks BOE second and Kioxia fourth. Whether the FY2025 export wave repeats that, or came from the anchor customer's own fabs abroad, is the question the filings leave open.”
— Nathan Research Group, Korea Case Series N° 05
The full 21-page case is available to download with this article. It covers the market ranges, the 2009 decision and its alternatives, the 2018 customer list and installed base, the GST comparison, the filings through June 2026, and six open questions mapped to NRG's network.
1范围界定
把您的投资逻辑，转成具体的专家画像和问题清单，对准您需要落定的那几个决定。
2寻访与核实
每一位专家在访谈前都要过一遍：课题相关性、经验的时效性，以及有没有利益冲突。
3组织与归纳
按您的时间安排访谈；需要的话，另附一份按问题逐条对应的书面归纳。
如果您的团队正在评估 UNISEM、the Korean sub-fab equipment market，乃至范围更大的 memory build-out，请告诉我们您眼下要做的是什么决定。
本文仅依据公开信息写成。Nathan Research Group 不索取、也不代为传递重大非公开信息，每一个项目都按书面化的合规流程执行。
39.7%
35.8%
UNISEM exports by product line in ₩bn (scrubbers; chillers; service and other), total exports, and exports as a share of revenue, for FY2024, FY2025, the first half of 2025 and the first half of 2026. Totals as filed; components are rounded. Source: UNISEM Annual Report FY2025; Half-Year Reports 2025 and 2026 (DART).
54%
62%
UNISEM segment results: equipment and service revenue (₩bn) and operating margin, and service's share of consolidated operating profit, for FY2024, FY2025, the first half of 2025 and the first half of 2026. Segment notes, consolidated. Source: UNISEM Annual Report FY2025; Half-Year Report 2026 (DART).
