As the semiconductor industry gradually enters the down cycle, how can its upstream material-silicon wafer survive? Recently, two major silicon wafer manufacturers have given positive answers.
Global Crystal: The industry faces four major challenges, which will accelerate the expansion of production capacity.
On January 6th, Global Crystal, a semiconductor silicon wafer manufacturer, said that the demand for consumer electronics has slowed down slightly recently due to the influence of the overall economy and inflation. However, the application of semiconductor products has been deeply rooted in daily life, and almost all technologies need to be based on silicon wafers. The future development will be driven by multiple factors. Wireless communication, automotive semiconductors, cloud computing, industry/Internet of Things and other demands will provide long-term kinetic energy for the semiconductor industry.
Looking forward to 2023, Xu Xiulan, chairman of Global Crystal, said earlier that at present, the company’s capacity utilization rate of 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafers continues to be fully loaded, but the environment is facing four challenges, such as weak demand, unpredictable exchange rate, inflation and high electricity cost. However, there are also two good news that the supply chain inventory is gradually declining and the freight rate has dropped sharply. Global Crystal will strive to maintain positive growth.
Soitec: Committed to double the production capacity within five years.
In December last year, Yvon Pastol, executive vice president of Soitec customers, a silicon wafer supplier, said that in the long run, there is no weakness in the semiconductor market and he is very confident in the future market development. The company will continue to expand its investment in production capacity and strive to double its production capacity within five years.
It is reported that Soitec’s production capacity in fiscal year 2021 is 2.3 million wafers, and the company’s planned annual production capacity in 2022, 2023 and 2026 will reach about 2.7 million wafers, 3.4 million wafers and 4.5 million wafers respectively.
Yvon Pastol believes that three major demands, namely, self-driving cars, car electrification and infotainment, still drive the rapid growth of demand for automobile chips. Earlier, Soitec also announced that the expansion project of Pasir Ris Wafer Factory in Singapore had broken ground. It is reported that the factory plans to double the annual production capacity, and the production capacity of SOI wafers with a diameter of 300 mm (12 inches) will reach about 2 million wafers per year.