Mako Hashimoto, president and CEO of SUMCO, the second global silicon wafer brother, said in an exclusive interview that the production capacity will be full by 2026, and he also bluntly stated that “the shortage of silicon wafers for such a long time has never been seen before.” In addition to the booming industry boom, Universal Crystal (6488-TW) is also optimistic about 2024, the supply and demand of the silicon wafer market is still very healthy; as the big manufacturers continue to sing the market outlook, silicon wafers are expected to usher in several years of industrial prosperity.
According to Japanese media reports, Hashimoto Makoto said that with the surge in data communication and processing volume, manufacturers have built new data centers one after another, and the new crown pneumonia has made home office popular, and silicon wafer production cannot keep up with demand.
Regarding the successive expansion of silicon wafer factories, whether they are worried that it will lead to oversupply, Hashimoto Makoto said that the company’s production capacity will be full by 2026, and customers have accepted price increases. In the past 40 years in the semiconductor industry, the shortage of silicon wafers has continued to be like this. For a long time, it has never been seen before.
Xu Xiulan, chairman of Universal Crystal, also said recently that it has been announced that the demand for silicon wafers in the semiconductor factories under construction is greater than the capacity of silicon wafers under construction. Even if the silicon wafer production capacity is fully opened in 2024, the market supply and demand will still Balance health.
In the annual semiconductor industry silicon wafer shipment forecast report, SEMI also estimated that global silicon wafer shipments will grow by 6.4% this year, reaching 14.896 billion square inches, and shipments will grow in 2023 and 2024 respectively. 4.6%, 2.9%, rewriting new highs every year, which means that the industry will be optimistic all the way up to 2024.