Silicon wafer price increases, customers rush to sign long-term contracts to ensure production

Market News Agency IHS Markit recently predicted that the overall wafer area of ​​the semiconductor industry will grow by 4.5% by 2018, NAND SSD will be one of the main sources of growth momentum and the DRAM market is also on the rise. In addition, the automotive and industrial Application is also the current source of growth.

On February 5, Micron announced that it will raise its financial results for the second quarter of fiscal year 2018 (up to March 1, 2018). According to the quotation from Harvest XQ Global Winner System, Micron Technology Co., Ltd. rose 5.95 on March 5 % To close at 52.03 U.S. dollars, hitting a new high since September 22, 2000, up 26.53% so far this year.

Since the beginning of last year, the global silicon wafer industry has seen an upsurge of supply in short supply. The relevant manufacturers have limited capacity expansion. Most of the market estimates that this wave of good conditions will last at least until 2019 or even 2020, including Sumco / Shin-Etsu / LG / Siltronic / Global Crystal and other manufacturers follow the performance of Wang.

March 5, the German silicon wafer maker Siltronic released fourth quarter results for 2017, the company revenue increased 33.2% (6.5%) to 328.1 million euros, earnings per share (EPS) increased 365% (11.8% quarter-on-quarter) to 2.37 euros Siltronic's 2017 revenue rose 26.1% to 1,177.3 million euros.

The earnings report shows that for the fourth quarter of 2017, the 12-inch wafers (USD denominated) and Siltronic's overall product line will have their prices about 30% more than expected. The first quarter of (2018) demand for Siltronic wafers remains strong and currently includes 12-inch and 8-inch wafer production lines are full load; 6-inch or smaller diameter wafer production capacity is also very close to full load.

Siltronic is still forecasting a sharp rise in earnings per share in anticipation of a significant rise in the euro exchange rate in the year of 1988. Siltronic chief executive Christoph von Plotho said silicon wafer quotations are expected to continue to rise higher this year, The rate of increase should be smaller than in 2017. He also mentioned that customers want to secure wafer production ahead of schedule, so Siltronic has long-term contracts on favorable terms.

Semiconductor silicon foundry said that in the first quarter, including Japan's Shin-Etsu, wins high and other major silicon wafer factory price of each further raise 10% to 15%, 12-inch silicon wafer price of 90 US dollars per station .Although slightly higher The market estimated 20% of the original, the industry stressed that prices will rise again in the coming quarters, it is estimated that the annual increase will be over 20%, 12-inch silicon wafer each have the opportunity to stand on the $ 100. He stressed that in addition to 12-inch silicon wafer out of stock, 8-inch short, even with the strong demand for power semiconductors, 6-inch supply is also tight.In the first quarter of 6-inch and 8-inch increase of less than 12 inches strong, but the increase is about 10%, reflecting the overall silicon Wafer supply is tight, major suppliers profit is expected to continue to improve.

The industry estimates that this year's demand for 12-inch silicon wafers is expected to increase by more than 5%. In terms of supply, equipment delivery will take at least one year or more and production capacity will increase slowly, threatening to affect supply and demand gap of 1.5% to 2% from last year Expanded to 3% to 4% this year.