According to the latest report of Topology Industry Research Institute, the global wafer foundry output value in 2017 was estimated to be 57.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 7.1% from 2016, driven by the demand for high computing capacity terminal devices and data centers. For the fifth consecutive year, the wafer foundry output has been growing at an annual rate of over 5%, of which, SMIC has revenue of US $ 3,099 million and an annual increase of 6.3%, ranking the fourth among pure foundries (Samsung is IDM vendor).
Looking at the top ten foundries in the world in 2017, the overall rankings are the same as in 2016. TSMC, GLOBALFOUNDRIES and UMC separate into the top three. Among them, TSMC has a large production capacity plus a year above the global average Growth rate, market share of 55.9%, continued to widen the distance with competitors; global No. 2 Grosvenor benefit from the new capacity and capacity utilization rate of increase in revenue in 2017 showed an annual increase of 8.2 % Of the relatively high growth performance.Unified production 14nm this year, but only about 1% of revenue for the year, however, in the overall capacity and product mix led by real conversion, the actual annual growth rate of 6.8% Third in the foundry market; Samsung, which is also a 10nm process technology pioneer with TSMC, ranked No. 4 in growth due to limited growth due to the adoption of Qualcomm, Although the core continues to expand capital expenditures, however, the bottlenecks limited by the limited production capacity and 28nm yield that were actually released in 2017 have not led to a growth rate below the global average.
TowerJazz and Huahong Grace will deliver more than 10% annual growth thanks to the expansion of production capacity and continued demand for the 8-inch fab in the market. Powerchip will deliver a high growth rate due to the increase of its foundry business volume single.
From the field of application, Topology Industry Research Institute pointed out that the application of high computing volume continued to drive the semiconductor industry demand for advanced manufacturing process, 10nm process node in 2017 began to heavy volume, estimated in 2017 10nm node revenue will account for wafer generation 6.5% of the overall market, while more than 95% of the growth momentum of semiconductor output in 2017 was attributable to the sales contribution of 10nm, showing that the launch of 10nm process is the most important factor for the growth of the foundry output in 2017 engine.
On the other hand, under the impetus of 5G and electric vehicles, foundries have been actively engaged in the development of third-generation semiconductor materials such as GaN and SiC. For example, TSMC provides GaN foundry services and X-Fab announced SiC crystal The circular foundry business will contribute revenues in the fourth quarter of 2017.
Looking forward to 2018, Tuo Industry Research Institute believes that in addition to the 7nm advanced process node will drive the overall output value, in 2018 for the 5G test operation important observation year, the third generation of semiconductor foundry services brought about by the industrial ecology Changes in the chain, with the market is worth the focus of attention.