Semiconductor Production Expansion Pushes up Demand for Silicon Wafers Large and Manufacturers Plan to Raise Prices by 30%
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Update time : 2022-06-11 10:07:48
Japanese semiconductor material manufacturers are raising prices due to strong demand and tight supply. Among them, SUMCO, a large semiconductor silicon wafer manufacturer, plans to increase the long-term contract price of chip manufacturers by about 30% between 2022 and 2024.
Mayuki Hashimoto, chairman and CEO of SUMCO, said: "we can't meet the demand." The company also decided to invest 350 billion yen ($2.6 billion) to build new factories in Japan and Taiwan to increase production capacity.
Silicon wafer is the most important raw material for wafer factories. At present, most of the world's chip manufacturers, including TSMC, Intel, Samsung, micron and other large semiconductor manufacturers, are expanding their production capacity and launching transnational factory building plans, thus driving the demand for silicon wafer. Since the end of 2021, the spot price of semiconductor silicon wafer has been rising. Atsushi Ikeda, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, said that semiconductor manufacturers "give priority to ensuring quantity rather than price, especially for silicon wafers", which also led to the continued rise in prices.
Leading manufacturers have stated that they will build new capacity. However, it is expected that the construction and commissioning of the plant will be completed by about 2024. Before that, the tension between supply and demand will be difficult to ease, and prices will have further upward pressure. As SUMCO said earlier, "although the demand of customers who need long-term supply is strong, and the company has done its best to optimize its existing production line, it is simply unable to expand production this year."
According to semi data, by the end of 2021, a total of 19 high-capacity wafer factories in the world had entered the construction period, another 10 wafer factories would start construction in 2022, and the silicon wafer consumption would also rise sharply.
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