I understand the global semiconductor material market situation

1 Global semiconductor materials market

1.1 2017 Global Semiconductor Materials Market

According to data released by the International Semiconductor Equipment Materials Association (SEMI), the global semiconductor materials market in 2017 was US$46.93 billion, an increase of 9.6% over 2016. It is expected that the global semiconductor materials market will further expand to US$49.65 billion in 2018, a 5.8% increase over 2017.

The sales scale and growth rate of the global semiconductor materials market in 2005-2017 are shown in Figure 1 [1].

In 2015, the global semiconductor materials market experienced a negative growth of -1.0%. The reason can be attributed to the global semiconductor market downturn, and the semiconductor market in most regions of the world is growing slowly or even shrinking. In 2016, the global semiconductor market recovered and the global semiconductor materials market saw a 2.4% increase. In 2017, the global semiconductor market grew by more than 20%, and the global semiconductor materials market grew by 9.6%.

1.2 Regional distribution of the global semiconductor materials market in 2017

The regional distribution of the global semiconductor materials market from 2016 to 2017 is shown in Table 1. In 2017, the global semiconductor materials market in each region accounted for the global semiconductor materials market share as shown in Figure 2. In 2017, Taiwan was still the world's largest semiconductor materials market, accounting for 21.9% of the global semiconductor materials market, followed by South Korea, accounting for 16.0%. This is related to the world's first and second wafer production capacity in the two regions. In recent years, with the continuous and rapid development of the integrated circuit industry in mainland China, the semiconductor materials market in mainland China has seen the fastest growth, with growth of 7.3% and 12% in 2016 and 2017, respectively.

1.3 2017 global semiconductor material market segment

Semiconductor materials are mainly divided into two parts: wafer manufacturing materials and semiconductor packaging materials. In 2017, sales of wafer fabrication materials and semiconductor packaging materials accounted for 56% and 44%, respectively. Among wafer fabrication materials, silicon wafers and silicon-based materials account for the highest proportion, about 31%, followed by photomasks 14%, electron gas 14%, photoresist and its supporting reagents 12%, CMP polishing materials. 7%, target 3%, and 13% of other materials.

Among semiconductor packaging materials, package substrates account for the highest proportion, reaching 40%. Next, the lead frame is 15%, the bonding wire is 15%, the encapsulating material is 13%, the ceramic substrate is 11%, the chip bonding material is 4%, and other packaging materials are 2%.

一文看懂全球半导体材料市场状况

2 Global Silicon Wafer (Silicon) Market

According to SEMI's statistics and forecast report on global silicon wafers (referred to as silicon wafers) shipments, global wafer shipments in 2017 were 11 448 MSI (million square inches), creating global silicon wafer shipments. A record high (see Table 2), compared with an increase of 8.2% in 2016, looking forward to 2018 and 2019, global wafer shipments will continue to increase to 11 814 MSI and 12 235 MSI, up 3.2% and 3.6% respectively. Continue to create a new record.

From the global sales of silicon wafers in recent years, the sales of global wafers in 2015 and 2016 were only US$7.2 billion and US$8 billion, respectively, and surged to US$8.7 billion in 2017. The reason is not only the increase in wafer shipments, but more importantly, tight supply has caused prices to rise.

2.1 The global production capacity of silicon materials is slow, the contradiction between supply and demand is increasingly prominent, and prices are rising.

Since the second half of 2016, the global semiconductor industry has continued to rise, the global silicon material production capacity has been slowed down, the contradiction between supply and demand has become increasingly prominent, and prices have continued to rise.

The shipments of the global wafer market from 2010 to 2018 are shown in Figure 4. In 2009, due to the impact of the global economic crisis, the global semiconductor market and the wafer market declined sharply. After the rebound in 2010, the global silicon wafer market declined slightly in 2011-2013 due to the decline in the manufacturing cost per unit area of ​​silicon wafers due to the popularity of 12-inch wafers and the downturn in the global semiconductor market. After 2014, driven by the demand for mobile intelligent terminals and the Internet of Things, global silicon wafer shipments began to pick up slightly.

Since the second half of 2016, as the global semiconductor market continues to improve, large-size silicon wafers are in short supply. The rapid growth in demand for 12-inch silicon is mainly driven by memory (including DRAM and NAND Flash), logic chips such as CPU/GPU, and smartphone baseband chips and application processors (APUs). 8-inch wafers have benefited from a significant increase in the chip market for IoT, automotive electronics, fingerprinting, wearables and CIS (CMOS image sensor), and supply of 8-inch wafers has been tight since the second half of 2016.

In short, the current global supply of silicon wafers is mainly due to the following four main factors.

First, global wafer manufacturing companies, such as TSMC, Samsung, Grofund, Intel, and UMC, have entered high-level process competition. The high capital expenditures of various manufacturers ($6 billion to US$12 billion) are mainly used for high-end processes. Expansion of wafer capacity.

Second, Samsung, SK Hynix, Micron/Intel, Toshiba and Western Digital/SanDisk and other storage giants are accelerating the expansion of 3D NAND Flash and DRAM, which is driving the demand for 12-inch silicon.

Third, the market for chips such as the Internet of Things, automotive electronics, CIS (CMOS image sensor) and intelligent manufacturing control is booming, driving the rapid growth of the 8-inch wafer market.

Fourth, the expansion of new 12-inch wafer production lines and 8-inch production lines in mainland China.

Figure 5 shows the market trends for 12-inch, 8-inch, and 6-inch wafers worldwide from 2005 to 2020.

From the supply side of the global wafer market, the need for polysilicon with a purity of up to 11 9 (11 N) and increasing the yield of large-size silicon wafers are the two key technologies for manufacturing large-scale silicon wafers. Although the global wafer market has recovered significantly since the second half of 2016, the global production capacity of large-size wafers has not changed much.

According to SEMI and Japanese wafer manufacturer SUMCO, the global 12-inch wafer capacity at the end of 2015 was 5.1 million wafers/month, and the global demand for 12-inch wafers in the second half of 2016 has reached 5.2 million. More than a month. By 2017 and 2018, the global demand for 12-inch wafers has increased to 5.5 million wafers per month and 5.7 million wafers per month, while the corresponding capacity for 12-inch wafers is only 5.25 million wafers per month and 540. 10,000 pieces / month. It can be seen that it will be normal for wafers to be in short supply in the next two to three years. After 2020, with the release of new 12-inch wafer capacity, the global large-size wafer market is expected to ease.

At the same time, as can be seen from Figure 5, the 12-inch silicon wafers accounted for 63% of the global wafer market in 2016, and it is expected that this proportion will further increase to over 68% by 2020. At the same time, the proportion of 8-inch wafers in the overall wafer market decreased from 28.3% in 2016 to 25.3% in 2020. However, in fact, shipments of 8-inch wafers will continue to increase during this period, but the market growth rate will not be able to keep up with the 12-inch wafer. Shipments of silicon wafers of 6 inches and below are relatively stable, and the proportion of the wafer market is gradually decreasing.

2.2 The global wafer market presents a monopoly pattern

In recent years, the global wafer market has been dominated by Shin Etsu, Japan, SUSCO, Siltronic, Sun Edision (formerly MEMC), South Korea's LG Silitron, and Taiwan's World Wafers. ) The monopoly of six silicon giants. More than half of the world's silicon wafer production capacity is concentrated in Japan. And the larger the size of the silicon wafer, the more serious the monopoly. For example, in 2015, the six silicon vendors not only controlled 92% of global wafer shipments (see Figure 6), but also included 97.8% of global 12-inch wafer sales.

In September 2016, Taiwan's Global Wafer acquired US SunEdision (formerly MEMC) for US$683 million, making it the third-largest supplier of silicon wafers in the world. In May 2017, Global Wafer acquired Topsil, a Danish silicon material company, for RMB 320 million. In early 2017, SK Hynix of South Korea acquired LG Siliton and changed its name to SK Silitron. By the end of 2017, the market share of the top 5 semiconductor wafer suppliers in the world is shown in Figure 7.

Shin-Etsu Chemical Industry Co., Ltd. (Shin Etsu). Japan Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Shin-Etsu) is one of the largest chemical companies in Japan. Founded in 2006, it currently employs 18,000 people worldwide. It has R&D centers and manufacturing plants in many countries and regions in Asia, Europe, North America and South America. Shin-Etsu currently includes six business divisions: semiconductor silicon materials business (the world's first); electronic functional materials business (rare earth, packaging materials, LED coatings, photoresists and supporting reagents, photomasks, synthetic quartz, oxides) Monocrystalline, etc., the world's second); silicone business (fourth in the world); specialty chemicals business (cellulose derivatives, metal silicon, polyvinyl alcohol, etc., the world's second); PVC / chlor-alkali business (the world's first) And diversified business operations. In 2015, Shin-Etsu's operating income was 1,279.8 billion yen, and silicon materials accounted for about 19% of its total revenue. In 2017, its semiconductor wafer business unit revenue was 380.4 billion yen, an increase of 22.1% over 2016. Operating profit was 93 billion yen, a 66.0% increase from 2016. From the beginning of 2017, supply 10 nm and The following silicon wafers will bring better performance to Shin-Etsu.

Japan Shenggao Company (SUMCO). Established in 2005, Japan Shenggao Company (hereinafter referred to as Shenggao) was formed by the merger of Sumitomo Metal Industries' Silicon Manufacturing Division, United Silicon Manufacturing Company and Mitsubishi Silicon Materials. Shenggao's main business is the manufacture and sale of semiconductor wafers. The main product types include high-purity single crystal silicon ingots, high-quality silicon wafers, AW high-temperature annealed wafers, EW epitaxial wafers, JIW junction isolation wafers, and SOI insulators. Monocrystalline silicon wafer, RPW regenerated polished silicon wafer, etc. Among them, high-purity silicon polishing sheets, annealed wafers and epitaxial wafers can provide 300 mm large silicon wafers, and SOI silicon wafers are only 200 mm size products.

In 2017, Shenggao's operating income was 260.6 billion yen, up 23.3% from 2016; operating profit was 42.1 billion yen, up 200% from 2016; net profit was 32.2 billion yen, up 310 from 2016. %. At the same time, in order to cope with the global shortage of silicon wafers, on August 8, 2017, Shenggao announced that its Imari plant will invest 43.6 billion yen to expand production, with the goal of 12 of the factory in the first half of 2019. The monthly production capacity of inch wafers has increased by 110,000.

Global Wafers, Taiwan, China. The predecessor of China Taiwan Universal Wafer Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Global Wafer) is the semiconductor business unit of Sino-US Silicon Crystal Products Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as Sino-US Silicon Crystal). Founded in 1981 in Hsinchu Science Park, Taiwan, Sino-US Silicon Crystal is the largest supplier of 12-inch semiconductor wafers in Taiwan. In October 2011, Sino-US Silicon Crystal completed the independent division of the corporate system and officially established the Semiconductor Division as a global wafer.

After the establishment of Global Wafer, a number of corporate mergers and acquisitions were held. In June 2014, Global Wafer acquired Japan's Covalent Silicon Company, which was ranked 6th in the world at the time. In January 2013, it was renamed Global Wafer Japan. In June 2016, Global Wafer acquired 100% of the Danish Topsil semiconductor business group for DKK 320 million (approximately RMB 316 million). In December 2016, Global Wafer acquired the world's fourth largest silicon chip maker, SunEdision Semiconductor (formerly MEMC), for $683 million. As a result, Global Wafer jumped to become the world's third largest supplier of semiconductor wafers.

Global Wafer has a number of complete semiconductor wafer production lines, which can provide silicon wafers, silicon diffusion wafers, silicon epitaxial wafers, annealed wafers and epitaxial wafers. In 2017, global wafer revenues rose to NT$46.2 billion, an increase of 151% from 2016. Operating profit was NT$7.4 billion, an increase of 438% over 2016 and a net profit of NT$5.3 billion. In 2016, it grew by 464%.

In 2017, Global Wafer announced two investment plans to expand its two plants in Japan's GWJ with a total investment of 8.5 billion yen.

The former company of Siltronic was founded in 1968 by Wacker, Germany. In 1994, it was renamed Wacker Siltronic Gmbh. In 2004, it was renamed Siltronic AG. Siltronic is the world's first company to introduce 300 mm silicon wafers. Siltronic's production sites are located in Burghausen, Franberg, Germany, Portland and Singapore.

In January 2014, Siltronic established a joint venture with South Korea's Samsung to operate the world's largest 200 mm (230,000/month) and 300 mm (325,000/month) wafer production plants in Singapore. In 2017, Siltronic's operating income was 1.18 billion euros, a 26% increase from 2016, and a net profit of 190 million euros, a 21-fold increase over 2016.

SK Siltron. SK Siltron's predecessor was South Korea's LG Siltron, which was the only local semiconductor wafer manufacturer in Korea and was founded in 1993. Around 1995, SK Siltron merged the wafer business unit of Lucky Advanced Material in Korea and the wafer manufacturing department of Dongyang Electronic Metals in Korea. In 1996 and 2000, SK Siltron introduced commercially available 200 mm and 300 mm wafers. In 2014, SK Siltron also introduced 450 mm (18 in) silicon wafers.

In 2017, SK Siltron's operating income was KRW 900 billion, an increase of 8.0% from 2016.

3 Conclusion

The global semiconductor market is recovering. In recent years, with the continuous and rapid development of the integrated circuit industry in mainland China, the semiconductor materials market in mainland China has risen the fastest. Since 2017, the global silicon wafer (silicon wafer) market supply tension and giant monopoly has become the most prominent problem in the global semiconductor materials market. In recent years, the global wafer market has shown the following characteristics. Since the second half of 2016, the global semiconductor industry has continued to rise, the global silicon material production capacity has been slowed down, the contradiction between supply and demand has become increasingly prominent, and prices have continued to rise. The global wafer market is dominated by a monopoly.