It is estimated that size of global semiconductor markets of this year will surpass the size of global semiconductor markets of last year. It is also likely that amount of investments for semiconductor equipment and purchasing price of materials will also be the highest ever.
Senior Director Dan Tracy of SEMI’s Industry Research & Statistics presented such predictions during a press conference at ‘SEMICON Korea 2018’ on the 31st.
Semiconductor markets had truly enjoyed booming that was unheard of due to increase in price of memories in 2017. Amount of sales surpassed $400 billion for the first time. Samsung Electronics, which produces memory semiconductors as one of its major products, surpassed Intel, which had been the number one in this market for very long time, for the first time in annual sales. Amount of its investment into semiconductor equipment recorded $55.93 billion, which is whopping 35.6% increase from previous year.
This year’s forecast is also very bright. According to predictions of major market research companies, it seems that semiconductor markets will grow between 7 and 8% from last year to this year. WSTS (World Semiconductor Trade Statistics, 7.0%), IHS Market (7.4%), Gartner (7.5%), VLSI Research (7.7%), and IC Insights (8.0%) put out similar predictions.
SEMI is estimating that size of semiconductor equipment markets of this year will be worth $60.1 billion, which is 7.4% increase from last year. Due to increase in amount of outputs, size of markets for materials that are used during front-end and back-end semiconductor processes is estimated to be worth $48.9 billion this year which is 3.3% increase from last year.
Many semiconductor businesses are expected to make significant amount of investments this year. As for NAND Flash memories, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are planning to extend their PyeongTaek 1 Factory and the second floor of M14 line in Icheon respectively. Micron is also planning to extend its factory in Utah and fab 10X factory in Singapore. Toshiba is planning to invest into its fab 2 and fab 6 and new R&D center; Intel is planning to carry out second stage of investment for its fab 68 factory in China.
In a field of DRAM, Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are planning to extend their Pyeongtaek 1 Factory and 15 line in Hwasung and M14 line respectively. Micron and is planning to extend its fab 15 and fab 16 located in Hiroshima that used to be LPD factories.
In a field of foundry, TSMC and Samsung Electronics are extending their fab 12, fab 14, and fab 15 and S3 line respectively. SMIC, which is the biggest Chinese foundry business, is going to extend its 300mm fabs in Shanghai and Shenzhen while UMC is going to extend its factories in Xiamen, China and Taiwan.
“Fujian Jinhua and others from China are starting to invest into DRAM this year and size of their experiments will be even bigger starting from 2019.” said Senior Director Tracy. “Amount of investments for semiconductor equipment will be the biggest in South Korea just like last year.” He also added that Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix are expected to make huge amount of investments this year just like last year. Actually SK Hynix announced that amount of its investments in 2018 will be bigger than that of its investments in 2017. Although Samsung Electronics announced that amount of its investments in 2018 will be smaller than that of its investments in 2017, industries are still predicting that it will invest the most out of global semiconductor industries.
“In a long-term, high-performance computing and data center fields for AI (Artificial Intelligence), VR (Virtual Reality), and AR (Augmented Reality) will lead growth of semiconductor markets.”’ said Senior Director Tracy. “Automotive industries, IoT (Internet of Things) industries, and sensor network industries will also become huge buyers of semiconductors.”
Staff Reporter Han, Juyeop | powerusr@etnews.com