Global Wafer announced that it will build a new 12-inch semiconductor wafer fab in Sherman, Texas (USA).

The new plant will be built in phases according to the number of long-term customer contracts, and equipment will be moved in one after another. Upon completion of all projects, the maximum capacity will be 1.2 million wafers per month, and the capacity will be opened in 2025.

Currently, the global semiconductor wafer market is highly concentrated, with leading wafer manufacturers monopolizing more than 90% of the global market share, dominated by Asian companies such as Shin-Etsu, SUMCO, GlobalWafers, Siltronic, and SK Siltron. The semiconductor industry is highly dependent on imported semiconductor wafers.

In recent years, TSMC, Microchip, Intel, Samsung, Texas Instruments and other major international manufacturers have announced the expansion of production in the United States, and the demand for semiconductor wafers in the United States has further increased. Now, with Global Wafer's 12-inch silicon wafer plant located in the United States, it will also further fill the critical gap in the semiconductor supply chain.

Wafer foundry capacity has increased significantly, domestic manufacturers to open the 12-inch silicon wafer expansion wave

SEMI expects that from 2020 to 2024, the world will add more than 30 new 300mm chip manufacturing plants, of which Taiwan will add 11, China will add 8, China's 300mm chip manufacturing capacity in the world will increase from 8% in 2015 to 20% in 2024.

Meanwhile, thanks to the large-scale application of 5G communications, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, cloud computing, big data and other technologies, smart phones, portable devices, Internet of Things products, cloud infrastructure, automotive electronics and other end products chip demand is growing rapidly, the level of demand for semiconductor silicon wafers has also been rising. In fact, in addition to the United States, mainland China also relies heavily on imports for its demand for semiconductor silicon wafers.

In response to the goal of semiconductor localization, domestic silicon wafer manufacturers have opened the expansion mode. To 12-inch silicon wafers, for example, at present, the Chinese mainland has 12-inch silicon wafer production line of enterprises are mainly Shanghai Silicon Industry, Central shares and Leon Micro.

According to the latest disclosure of Shanghai Silicon Industry, its fund-raising project "300mm high-end silicon wafer R & D and advanced manufacturing project for integrated circuit manufacturing" with subsidiary Shanghai Sunrise as the main implementation body, will further add 300,000 wafers/month capacity on the basis of the previous 300,000 wafers/month capacity.

According to the annual report of Zhonghuan, it has formed a 12-inch 170,000 wafers/month capacity by the end of 2021, and intends to build a 600,000 wafers/month capacity target by the end of 2023.

According to LION Micro's annual report, its Quzhou base 12-inch wafer has reached a monthly capacity of 150,000 wafers by the end of 2021, with a monthly capacity of 100,000 wafers under construction.

Undoubtedly, in the context of the production of global 300mm chip manufacturing enterprises and the gradual increase in the proportion of domestic production capacity, domestic semiconductor wafer manufacturing enterprises will usher in a good market opportunity.