Global demand for 12-inch silicon wafers soared

The global demand for 12-inch wafer foundry capacity including high-end processes, 3D NAND Flash, and mainland semiconductor manufacturers has greatly increased, resulting in the continued expansion of silicon wafer supply gaps. Recently, the world’s three largest silicon wafer fabs Shin-Etsu and Sumco Both Siltronic and German Siltronic have reported that prices for 12-inch silicon wafers in the first quarter of 2017 have increased by about 10% to 20%. Semiconductor manufacturers including TSMC, UMC, and Micron have all been forced to pay. Faced with the biggest wave of upward spiral in the semiconductor silicon wafer industry in the past 16 years, the industry is concerned about the follow-up price trend of silicon wafers.

Global semiconductor plant launches 12-inch wafer production capacity competition. The demand for 12-inch silicon wafers is rapidly rising. However, the annual growth rate of global semiconductor silicon wafer production capacity is only 2% in the next few years (excluding non-polished silicon wafers and recycling. Wafers) The recent shipment of Siltronic's 12-inch silicon wafers from Germany has used safety stocks to show that silicon wafer supplies have started to alarm.

Semiconductor companies pointed out that the recent three major silicon fabs, Shin-Etsu, Sumco and Siltronic, have successfully increased the price of 12-inch silicon wafers in the first quarter of 2017 to semiconductor customers, which is an increase of approximately 10% to 20%, exceeding the industry's expectations. Although TSMC purchased a large number of silicon wafers, it used to enjoy a more favorable price than other customers. However, given that this wave of 12-inch silicon wafers is too tight, TSMC has also been forced to reduce the discount rate, which is equivalent to a disguised price increase; UMC reported that the price of silicon wafers rose by about 10% to 20%.

Micron is preparing to invest heavily in 3D NAND Flash expansion. In addition, its sub-subsystem, Huayak, has also spurred its 20-nm DRAM production capacity. In order to prepare enough 12-inch silicon wafers, it has recently announced that it has received adjustments from suppliers of silicon wafers. Prices rose by 2017, up to 20%.

According to the semiconductor industry, the demand for 12-inch semiconductor silicon wafers in the world is about 5.1 million pieces in a single month, and the proportion of silicon wafers in the overall semiconductor market continues to decline. From 2000 up to 10%, all the way down to 2.5% in 2016, mainly Due to the rapid and miniaturization of the process, the wafer value increased, the proportion of silicon wafers was significantly diluted, and the large-scale expansion of the silicon wafer industry in the past made the global wafer wafer production capacity extremely highly-enriched.

Although silicon wafer fabs have also raised prices for customers in the past, they usually stopped after rising prices in a single season. The main reason is that foundry customers hold absolute dominant power. Nowadays, the characteristics of the semiconductor industry are very different. DRAM After the industry has been consolidated, there are three remaining oligopolistic markets and 3D NAND technology transition generations, as well as global wafer foundry giants such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Samsung Electronics, and Intel High-End Process Competition, plus Continental Semiconductor. With the rapid rise of the industry, the demand for silicon wafers has soared and silicon wafer fabs have more bargaining chips.

Among them, global semiconductor giants continue to expand high-end process capacity, including TSMC's investment in 7/10/16/28 nm process, Intel's investment in 14/22 nm process, and capital expenditures in the past three years are as high as 8 billion to 11 billion U.S. dollars. UMC, Samsung and GlobalFoundries have also expanded their 28- and 14-nanometer manufacturing capacity.

Recent NAND Flash camps, including Samsung, SK Hynix, Intel/Micros, Toshiba, etc., devoted their efforts to 3D NAND expansion in response to Apple's iPhone, Solid State Drive (SSD), eMMC/eMCP With various applications requiring 3D NAND chips, the industry expects that the global 3D NAND output value will exceed the traditional 2D NAND value for the first time in the fourth quarter of 2017, with a golden cross.

The large-scale expansion of mainland semiconductor companies is an undeniable force. The combined production capacity of 12-inch plants in the mainland totals about 460,000 units, and the production capacity in China is about 630,000 units. In the future, the monthly production capacity of 12-inch Chinese factories will reach 1.09 million. , including SMIC and other Mainland companies in the new 12-inch plants in Shanghai, Shenzhen and other places, and TSMC Nanjing plant, UMC Xiamen Lianxin, Hualiwei 2nd plant, plus Fujian Quanzhou DRAM Factory, Wuhan Xinxin 3D NAND factory And so on, the scale of capacity increase is considerable.

In fact, the mainland has promoted the semiconductor industry without losing the silicon wafer layout. The industry has reported that the mainland intends to bid for the acquisition of Siltronic. Although the German and US governments are bound to strongly oppose, if the acquisition comes true, the overall supply and demand of the silicon wafer industry will be threatened. situation. In addition, the industry has also previously reported that Shanghai Capital Corporation of the Mainland intends to make an offer to Okmetic, a Finnish silicon fab.

Source: Digitimes