Taiwanese media: 8-inch wafer foundry will increase by at least 20% next year, and urgent orders may even increase by 40%

According to digitimes, the semiconductor supply chain said that except for TSMC and Samsung Electronics, other wafer manufacturers have raised their 8-inch foundry quotations, with the increase in 2021 reaching at least 20%, and urgent orders even increasing by 40%.

As for the reason for the price increase, digitimes pointed out that the epidemic has stimulated the demand for remote work and education. Coupled with the popularization of 5G and the recent order transfer effect of SMIC, the global 8-inch wafer foundry capacity is tight, and the supply and demand situation is expected to continue until the second half of next year.

The report said that the demand for terminal consumer electronic products has grown against the trend, and the content of 5G mobile phone chips has increased by more than 30% compared with the previous generation. The use of chips such as power management, MOSFET, under-screen fingerprint recognition, ToF, and sensors has significantly doubled.

However, since many chips only require mature processes to produce, the 8-inch wafer foundry is in short supply and has been in short supply since the third quarter. At that time, there were rumors in the market that wafer foundries would raise their quotations.

Semiconductor manufacturers pointed out that due to the insufficient 8-inch production capacity and the difficulty in expanding it in the short term, chip manufacturers have increased prices to buy production capacity, thus establishing the trend of wafer foundry price increases. In the fourth quarter, wafer foundry quotations increased by about 10~15%.