Rising demand for network semiconductors and the effect of economic recovery
Next year, the foundry market is expected to generate the largest sales ever. This year, 23.7% growth is expected compared to last year. It is the largest growth in the last 10 years.
On the 30th, the market research firm Trend Force predicted that next year’s foundry sales will grow 6% from this year to 88.6 billion dollars (about 97.637.1 billion won). It is believed that the market for electronic products such as laptops and TVs and commercialization of 5G are driving foundry sales. Foundry sales this year were expected to grow 23.7% from the previous year to $84.6 billion (about 91.900 billion won). It was assessed that foundry sales surged as non-face-to-face demand increased due to the spread of Corona 19, and inventory procurement by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) continued.
Trend Force predicted that “next year, the demand for network-related semiconductors from online economic activities will continue and the global economic recovery effect will continue, and the foundry sales will record a record high.”
The foundry market is currently in short supply compared to demand. The 200mm (8-inch) foundry market globally lacks factory production capacity. DB HiTek has not been able to handle incoming orders even if it operates 100% of its plant since last year.
The same is true for the 300mm (12-inch) foundry market. Demand has increased due to the commercialization of 5G. However, there are only two companies that can perform microprocessing below 10 nanometers, TSMC and Samsung Electronics. The two companies received orders from Apple, AMD, MediaTek, NVIDIA, and Qualcomm for 7nm and 5nm processes this year. With this quantity alone, the production line is full. Trend Force explained, “TSMC and Samsung Electronics are expanding their 5nm production in response to high-performance computing (HPC) market demand from the second half of this year, and a supply shortage is appearing.”
Looking at the entire foundry market, Chinese SMIC, which was added to the US trade blacklist, is a variable. Trend Force believes that normal production will be possible for the next six months, considering the stock of semiconductor materials held by SMIC. However, if US sanctions continue until next year, products assigned to SMIC are likely to move elsewhere.
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