Disco's record 42.7% margin meets the rival its 2019 squeeze created
Hanmi Semiconductor says the package-cutting machines it built to replace Disco saws it could not get in 2019 now hold the No.1 global share, with eight months of 2026 already outselling all of 2025. Disco reports on 6 October at a record 42.7 percent operating margin, with two broker target cuts already on the board.
Vincent Jiang · 3 min read
Hanmi Semiconductor said on 30 September that sales of its MSVP line, the micro saw and vision placement machine that dices packaged chips and then washes, inspects, sorts and stacks them, had passed in eight months what the product earned in all of 2025. More than 200 units ship this year, more than double 2025, and around 350 are targeted for 2027. The newest model, MSVP 6.0 Griffin, carries more than 207 patented technologies by the company's own count 12.
The No.1 claim covers a category Hanmi defined
Hanmi says the MSVP now holds the world's top share. That is a company claim about a combined cutting-and-handling category Hanmi itself created, not an independent ranking of the dicing-saw market 12. What is verifiable is velocity: a 7.87 billion won ($5.79 million) order from the Thai unit of UTAC, an outsourced chip assembly and test firm, disclosed on 29 September and worth 1.37 percent of Hanmi's 2025 revenue, its second order from that customer 1. A US subsidiary, Hanmi USA, opens this month 2.
The saw Hanmi could not buy
The origin is the point. Hanmi shipped its first Vision Placement in 1998, with the saw inside bought from Japan's Disco. The 2019 boom squeezed that supply, so Hanmi built its own and in 2021 fielded Korea's first domestic micro saw, fusing saw and handling into one machine 13. A rationed customer turned competitor in HBM, panel-level packaging and glass substrates, the same frontier where Disco earns its record margin 13.
Record margins, guided higher
Disco's June quarter, its fiscal first, delivered revenue of 114.3 billion yen, up 27.1 percent, on operating profit of 48.8 billion yen, up 42.2 percent: a 42.7 percent margin against 38.4 percent a year earlier. Its first-half outlook implies a September margin just above 43 percent, and the company guides only one quarter ahead, citing volatile customer investment 4.
Disco's operating margin set a record in June, and the outlook points higher
- Operating margin
- Estimate
Data
| Operating margin | |
|---|---|
| Apr-Jun 2025 | 38.4% |
| Apr-Jun 2026 | 42.7% |
| Jul-Sep 2026 guided (estimate) | 43.7% |
Brokers kept the rating faith but not the price: a 25 September note held Overweight and cut the target to 67,000 yen, and SMBC Nikko upgraded on 28 September while cutting to 68,000 yen from 81,000. The shares sat at 57,010 yen on 30 September against a 52-week high of 91,680, a 6.2 trillion yen company already discounting something 4.
Two target cuts still leave brokers well above Disco's share price
Data
| Yen per share | |
|---|---|
| SMBC Nikko prior target | ¥81,000 |
| SMBC Nikko target, 28 Sep | ¥68,000 |
| 25 Sep note target | ¥67,000 |
| Share price, 30 Sep | ¥57,010 |
Substitution cuts both ways
Hanmi is small: 576.6 billion won of 2025 revenue, and a first quarter of 2026 that fell 65.5 percent while HBM4 equipment spending paused 5. In its core TC bonder line, Hanmi is the incumbent being displaced. SK hynix, its only HBM customer from 2016 to 2024, added ASMPT and Hanwha Semitech, and Lumen Alpha forecasts see Hanmi's share of those purchases falling to 20 to 30 percent this year 5.
What 6 October prices
No disclosed number measures what Hanmi's 350-unit ambition takes from Disco's order book or its pricing; that gap is the position. A 42.7 percent margin is what a bottleneck charges, and Hanmi is what a rationed customer builds. Disco's second-quarter report lands on 6 October, the call on 22 October, and Hanmi USA's first order book opens the same month 41.
Deepdive
AI-generated from this story and its cited sources. Not investment advice.
