Taiwan media: Wafer Foundry will raise prices in an all-round way

According to the Taiwan media industry and commerce times, although the problem of chip length and material in the electronic product supply chain has led to delays in shipment and cooling of terminal demand, the shortage of wafer foundry capacity will continue until 2022. After the leading TSMC raised the wafer foundry price by 10-20% in 2022, the original wait-and-see attitude of liandian, leeco and the world's advanced companies, Recently, customers have been informed that the foundry price of wafers will be increased by more than 10% in the first quarter of 2022, and the production capacity has been sold out in the first half of the year, and the order visibility can be seen in the second half of the year.
The novel coronavirus pneumonia epidemic accelerated the digital transformation. Under the leadership of 5G and HPC (mega trend), the global semiconductor capacity in 2021 was in short supply, but it also caused the chip production problem in the electronic production chain. In order to ensure the foundry capacity of wafers, IDM plant and IC design plant expanded their orders to strive for more chips, including liandian, Lizhi and world advanced, which successively increased their prices in 2021, with an average increase of 20 ~ 30%. However, TSMC did not increase its prices in 2021, and the foundry price of wafers remained unchanged from 2020.
Although the global semiconductor plants have increased capital expenditure to expand production capacity, the equipment delivery period has been significantly extended to more than 9 months, resulting in limited expansion of production capacity from 2021 to 2022. In anticipation that the shortage of chips may continue to 2023 to 2024, TSMC decided to increase the foundry price of wafers and the price of mature processes by 15-20% when negotiating a new contract with customers in 2022, The price of advanced process has increased by about 10%, and the new price is applicable to wafer shipment in 2022.
According to IC designers, in the fourth quarter, because the wafer foundry adjusted for the long and short materials on the chip, except that liandian raised the price again, other manufacturers did not adjust the price. After the news that TSMC will increase the wafer foundry price in 2022 came out, other wafer foundries that had not budged have made new moves recently, including liandian, Li Jidian, world advanced and other industries will follow up the price increase in the first quarter, with an average increase of more than 10%, which also shows that the wafer foundry price will be fully increased in 2022.
The wafer foundry pointed out that the capacity has been booked out by customers in the first half of 2022, more than 90% of the capacity has been sold out in the second half of 2022, and the order visibility has been seen in the second half of 2022. As the industry is optimistic that the shortage of chips will continue beyond 2023 after the epidemic slows down and the economy is unsealed, more than half of customers choose to sign 2-3-year-old contracts. The manufacturer explained that the overall price rise of wafer foundry in the first quarter of 2022 is a foregone conclusion. If there is no long-term contract, the price increase will be higher.
The market structure of the technology group said that the demand for semiconductors led by 5G was gradually fermented in the second half of 2019, coupled with the increasingly geopolitical factors, which extended to COVID-19 in 2020 to accelerate the demand for global digital transformation. The epidemic has also led to panic stocking, which has brought about structural changes in semiconductor supply and demand. As a result, the foundry capacity of wafers is seriously in short supply, and the burning has not stopped so far. It is estimated that in 2022, the global foundry's 8-inch average annual production capacity will increase by about 6%, and 12 inch will increase by about 14%, of which more than half of the 12 inch new production capacity is the most scarce mature process. It is expected that the extremely tight shortage of chips at this stage can take a breather.

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Keyword：Wafer foundry   Chip shortage   IDM factory   IC design factory   Semiconductor   Capacity in short supply   Increased price   The epidemic slows down   Economic unblocking   Commax-Tech Electronic