GlobalWafers Co (環球晶圓), the world’s No. 3 silicon wafer supplier, on Monday said that it is to raise its prices next year as 5G-related applications and the stay-at-home economy have boosted semiconductor demand during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to supply constraints.
With limited new supply worldwide, demand is expected to rise to the peak hit in 2018, the Hsinchu-based company said.
GlobalWafers expects to produce an additional 170,000 wafers a month next year as its new 12-inch fab in South Korea is increasing production.
Photo: Lisa Wang, Taipei Times
“We expect the new South Korea fab to reach full capacity next year. We fear we will not be able to supply as many [wafers] as customers have requested,” chairwoman Doris Hsu (徐秀蘭) told reporters at a media gathering in Taipei.
All of the company’s production lines are approaching full capacity and will remain so in the first half of next year, she said.
GlobalWafers is to raise the prices of all its wafers, with 12-inch wafers seeing the highest increases, she added.
The price increases would help hold the average selling price steady next year as some long-term contracts expire, Hsu said, adding that the multi-year contracts usually carry a higher average selling price.
The company is also increasing prices to help absorb volatility on the foreign exchange market, she said, as a strong New Taiwan dollar has eroded profits so far this year.
GlobalWafers expects strong demand to bring its annual revenue next year close to 2018’s record high of NT$59.06 billion (US$2.07 billion).
That forecast does not factor in the acquisition of Siltronic AG. The deal is expected to add NT$45 billion per year to revenue upon completion of the transaction in the second half of next year at the earliest.
“This year is quite a good year for us. As we estimated earlier this year, [revenue] has grown each quarter on a quarterly basis,” Hsu said. “Next year will be better than this year.”
Revenue growth should be expected in each quarter next year, she said.
The pandemic has increased demand for networking equipment, remote education, videoconferencing and online gaming, as well as 5G-enabled smartphones, Hsu said, adding that a global move online has accelerated because of the pandemic.
Accelerating uptake of 5G technology for autonomous vehicles and other devices would make “2022 an even better year,” Hsu said.
POTENTIAL SETBACK: Although Chinese chip designers and foundry firms already have US EDA software, they might be unable to update those programs under new US rules The US’ latest ban on advanced electronic design automation (EDA) software exports to China might hinder Chinese chip companies from accessing advanced semiconductor technology, as they attempt to upgrade to 3-nanometer processes in the next three to five years, market researcher TrendForce Corp (集邦科技) said yesterday. The US Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security on Friday announced bans on EDA tools for gate-all-around field-effect transistors (GAAFET), a new-generation semiconductor technology that US chipmaker Intel Corp and Samsung Electronics Co from South Korea are adopting to make 4-nanometer and 3-nanometer chips. The bureau in a statement said that gate-all-around field-effect transistor
WIDENING THE FIELD: Human resources managers must drop prejudices regarding gender, appearance and age to find the best candidates, Micro Technology said The job market for Taiwan’s semiconductor industry remained tight this quarter, as hiring activity slowed from a record high last quarter, a survey released yesterday by online human resource firm 104 Job Bank (104人力銀行) showed. Ongoing labor shortages have prompted local semiconductor firms to recruit more women and foreigners in Taiwan and in Southeast Asia, the job bank said. The talent gap in the first quarter reached 35,000 people per month, a surge of 39.8 percent from the same period last year, as the contactless economy and digital transformation shore up demand for semiconductors, 104 Job Bank said in its annual report
POSITIVE CULTURE: Pursuing 12-inch wafers earlier than peers helped TSMC lead the industry, said a former executive, whose main regret was working for SMIC in China Corporate culture at Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) is what made the chipmaker a leading player in the global industry, a former executive said in an interview with California’s Computer History Museum. “One of the really important reasons that TSMC succeeded” is the culture at the firm, where “if equipment went down at two o’clock in the morning, we just called an equipment engineer,” and the worker would not complain, said former TSMC joint chief operating officer Chiang Shan-yi (蔣尚義). “We didn’t really do anything special, anything great, but we didn’t make any major mistakes,” when compared with competitors, such
Cloud computing equipment company Wiwynn Corp (緯穎科技), which counts Meta Platforms Inc as one of its key customers, is boosting capacity expansion in Malaysia through a new investment of about NT$1.94 billion (US$64.7 million), it said yesterday in a statement filed with the Taiwan Stock Exchange. The investment, which aims to help the company with business development and strategic arrangements, would be made through subsidiary Wiwynn Technology Services Malaysia Sdn Bhd to build a new factory, Wiwynn said in the filing. The announcement came about one-and-a-half months after the company started phase II of its new server printed circuit board assembly (PCBA)
RSS