Apple Foldable Debut Lifts Samsung, LG Component Makers

* Editor's note: AI PRISM (Personalized Report & Insight Summarizing Media) is an artificial intelligence-based personalized news recommendation and summary service developed with support from the Korea Press Foundation. It selects and provides six news items tailored to each reader type.

1. Samsung and LG Smile on Apple's First Foldable

Key points: Samsung Display is the exclusive supplier of both the inner and outer display panels for the foldable iPhone, with supply prices reportedly set about 20% higher than for Galaxy foldable phones. LG Innotek has won 55% to 60% of camera orders for the new iPhone series, and camera module prices for the foldable iPhone rose further with the addition of a variable aperture function. Samsung Electronics and SK hynix supply 70% of the LPDDR5 DRAM for the foldable iPhone (Samsung 37%, SK 33%) and 45% of the NAND. Brokerages project this year's revenue at 32.5 trillion won for Samsung Display and 21.544 trillion won for LG Innotek's optical solutions division, raising expectations for earnings improvement at component makers.

2. Foreigners, Institutions and Retail Alike: The KOSPI Nobody Is Buying

Key points: Through the 4th of this month, retail investors, foreign investors and institutions all net sold KOSPI shares at the same time in an unprecedented market, leaving the index moving sideways between 6,500 and 6,900. Retail investors, whose holdings are concentrated between 7,000 and 8,500, are unloading shares to break even, and investor deposits have fallen below 100 trillion won, leaving little firepower. Among institutions, pension funds and mutual aid associations have already exceeded their allocation limits for domestic equities, effectively exhausting their capacity for further buying. Shinhan Securities (008670) said stable oil prices and interest rates and confirmation of improving industry conditions must come first before foreign investors turn buyers, and forecast that the current supply-demand imbalance will persist until the middle of next month, when the Samsung Electronics and SK hynix buybacks end.

3. Completing a U.S. Steel Supply Chain Beyond 50% Tariffs

Key points: Hyundai Steel, Hyundai Motor, Kia and POSCO held a groundbreaking ceremony for HPLS, an electric arc furnace steel mill in Louisiana in which they are investing $5.8 billion (about 8 trillion won), and will have annual capacity of 2.7 million tons from 2029. The strategy sidesteps the Trump administration's second-term 50% steel tariffs and anti-dumping duties through local production, targeting U.S. demand for imported high-value specialty steel of about 10 million tons a year. HPLS sits close to the production bases of automakers including Hyundai Motor in Alabama, Kia in Georgia, GM, Volkswagen and Honda, securing a logistics advantage, and Hyundai Motor President Jose Munoz said steel supply talks are under way with other automakers as well. Hyundai Steel, with a 50% stake, is seen as the biggest beneficiary, while POSCO (20%) and Hyundai Motor and Kia (15% each) can also expect medium- to long-term cost savings and supply chain stability, analysts said.

4. "6,500 to 7,000 Is the Floor — Buy in Stages"

Key points: Lim Tae-hyuk, senior managing director of the ETF management division at Samsung Asset Management, said the 6,500 to 7,000 range on the KOSPI will act as downside support and raised the possibility of the index reaching 10,000 in the second half. Based on Bloomberg data, Korean stocks trade at a 12-month forward price-to-earnings ratio of less than five times, below levels seen during the global financial crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting valuation appeal against the U.S. at 20 times and Japan at 16 times. Earnings at KOSPI companies excluding Samsung Electronics and SK hynix are also expected to grow about 50% this year from a year earlier, indicating a solid earnings base. Lim recommended that with the index now lower, investors take a phased approach centered on benchmark index ETFs such as the KOSPI 200 rather than specific sectors.

5. Korea-U.S. Chip Competition to Intensify in Three Years

Key points: Once SK hynix's semiconductor packaging plant in Indiana completes its clean room in 2028 and begins full operation in the second half of 2029, it will compete with Micron in supplying HBM inside the United States. Samsung Electronics is expanding its influence in the U.S. foundry market, starting operations this year at its first Taylor, Texas foundry plant, which will produce Tesla's AI5 chip, and breaking ground on a second plant at year-end for mass production in 2030. The Trump administration's clear tilt toward supporting U.S. companies first — taking a 9.9% stake in Intel and pressing for Nvidia and Apple chips to be made at Intel — could pose a medium- to long-term risk for Korean chipmakers, observers said. Analysts say allocating production between Korean and U.S. facilities and realigning supply chains is essential to ease tariff risk.

6. Retirement Pension ETF Purchases Blocked by 70% Risk Asset Cap

Key points: Automatic ETF purchase services for IRP and DC retirement pension accounts offered by major brokerages are repeatedly failing to work properly because of the 70% cap on risk asset investment. When the cap is exceeded, automatic buying stops and investors must rebalance their portfolios themselves, sharply reducing convenience, and filling the remaining 30% with time deposits yielding about 3.30% a year clearly limits returns. Many investors are currently using bond-mixed ETFs to fill the 30% safe asset quota, raising their effective equity exposure to 85%. The financial investment industry is calling for a further easing of the risk asset cap, and financial authorities and the Ministry of Employment and Labor are reviewing the matter, but no conclusion has been reached.

d