Global sand shortage! Will silicon wafers increase in price?
On March 7, China Business News quoted CNBC as saying that the world is facing a sand shortage crisis. Coincidentally, the world's largest silicon wafer supplier, Japan's Shin-Etsu Chemical, also announced a 10-20% price increase for all silicon products.
Image source: China Business News Weibo
Image source : Shin-Etsu Chemical official website
The two pieces of news together sparked heated discussions online. The news pointed out that sand is running out, silicon wafer prices will rise again, and the chip shortage will worsen . The news pointed out that since sand is the raw material used to produce silicon wafers , which is the raw material for most semiconductor products, the prosperity of global high-tech is described as being built on "sand". Therefore, the shortage of sand will affect the normal supply of silicon wafers, and the chip shortage will worsen.
So, will the shortage of sand further exacerbate the chip supply dilemma? Is there an inevitable connection between sand and silicon wafer price increases?
It is understood that the main component of sand is silicon dioxide (SiO₂), which is a substance with a relatively high content in the earth's crust. The element silicon contained in sand is the second largest component of the earth's crust, accounting for about 25% of the total mass of the earth's crust. There are two main types of sand: natural sand and machine-made sand. Natural sand can be divided into river sand, sea sand and mountain sand; machine-made sand refers to rock particles with a particle size of less than 4.75mm after mechanical crushing.
Before we understand the depletion of sand resources and whether there is a logic for the price increase of silicon wafers, we must first know what kind of sand is currently in short supply. CNBC reported that global sand use has tripled in the past 20 years, partly due to the rapid development of urbanization. According to the United Nations, global sand use is 10 times that of cement. In other words, in terms of construction alone, the world consumes about 40 billion to 50 billion tons of sand each year. The amount of sand consumed far exceeds the natural growth rate of sand.
From the information revealed in the report, it can be seen that the situation of sand supply exceeding demand is most likely to occur in the construction industry, because there are certain standards for construction sand. Mountain sand or sea sand generally do not meet the requirements, only river sand is suitable.
So what kind of sand is the basic material for making silicon wafers? In fact, the main components of various types of sand are basically the same, mainly silicon dioxide, but only high-purity single-crystal silicon (purity of 99.999% ) can be used as silicon wafer production materials, and the uses of various types of sand vary due to differences in silicon content, silicon extraction process, and use costs. Specifically, the "sand" used in semiconductors does not come from river sand, but from various silicon-containing sand ores, such as vein quartz and quartz stone, so the depletion of river sand resources reported in the report will not affect the supply of silicon wafers. Regarding the refining of semiconductor raw materials, Xin Shiye's previous translation "Zero Bad Reviews! BBC Masterpiece: How Semiconductors Change the World" also mentioned it.