Recycled wafer processing volume hits new high, with the scale expected to reach US$633 million in 2021

The Semiconductor Industry Association (SEMI) today (14) released the "2018 Recycled Silicon Wafer Forecast Analysis Report", pointing out that due to the record number of recycled wafers processed, the recycled silicon wafer market grew strongly for the second consecutive year in 2018, but it is believed that the growth rate will decrease in the future, and it is estimated that the market size will only expand to US$633 million in 2021.

       SEMI added that the overall market grew by 19% to $603 million last year, following an 18% increase in 2017 to $510 million. In addition, in terms of past figures, the market size in 2018 is still far below the high of $703 million in 2007. SEMI expects that the growth rate of the overall recycled wafer market will slow down in the future. However, RS Technologies, a global recycled wafer manufacturer, recently pointed out that the unit price of wafers will decline this year, but is optimistic about the improvement of wafer yield in mainland China.

       SEMI revealed that Japanese suppliers continue to dominate the recycled wafer market, with the highest share of 8-inch, 12-inch and other large-size recycled wafer production capacity. However, Japan's share of global large-size recycled wafer production capacity fell by 2 percentage points to 53% last year. The share of recycled wafer suppliers in the Asia-Pacific region in global large-size production capacity grew to 31%, better than the 30% in the previous year. The relative capacity share of European and North American companies remained at 16%.

       RS recently pointed out that it plans to invest approximately 2.1 billion yen between 2019 and 2021 to expand the production capacity of 12-inch recycled wafers in Japan and Taiwan, both of which are expected to be put into use gradually starting this year; in addition, for its mainland factory, RS plans to invest 16 billion yen by 2020 to expand the production capacity of 8-inch production wafers.

       RS is the world's top semiconductor recycled wafer factory, with clients including TSMC, UMC, Sony, Toshiba, Sharp, Intel, IBM, Micron, Samsung, LG, etc., and a global market share of about 30%. The company expects to increase production of 12-inch recycled wafer products in 2019 and expand supply to the Japanese, Taiwanese, European and American markets.

       SEMI said that there are currently 22 recycled wafer suppliers being tracked, of which 9 are based in Japan, 7 are located in the Asia-Pacific region, and the other 6 are from North America and Europe. Advanced Energy Technology Solution, a Korean 12-inch recycled wafer supplier, has been included in the tracking since 2017; Advanced Silicon Technology, a mainland 8-inch recycled silicon wafer supplier, was added in 2018.