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According to a report from Nikkei Asia on June 9, market sources said that large Japanese semiconductor material companies have begun to increase prices. Japan's largest silicon wafer manufacturer, SUMCO, will increase the price of silicon wafers as substrate materials by 30% by 2024, and Showa Denko has increased the price of high-purity gases used in circuit formation by 20%.

According to reports, SUMCO plans to increase the chip maker's long-term contract prices by about 30% between 2022 and 2024. "We cannot meet the demand," said Mayuki Hashimoto, the company's chairman and chief executive. The company also decided to invest a total of 350 billion yen ($2.6 billion) in new factories in Japan and Taiwan to increase production capacity.

Since the end of 2021, the spot price of silicon wafers has been rising, and SUMCO has decided to increase the price of long-term contracts. According to the report in May this year, SUMCO’s operating income in the first quarter was 100.449 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 32.3%; operating profit was 23.452 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 150.3%; net profit was 15.202 billion yen, a year-on-year increase of 106.1%.

In recent years, the price of semiconductor materials has been rising steadily. Under the tide of fab expansion, silicon wafers have continued to be in short supply, and prices have continued to rise. As early as 21Q2, Japan's Shin-Etsu increased prices by 10-20%. At the same time, SUMCO, Universal Crystal, etc. /8-inch contract price increased by 10%, 12-inch by 15%. Sembcorp and Taiwan Hejing saw double-digit growth in 1Q22. Prices are expected to increase quarter by quarter in a single quarter this year, and the annual increase is expected to exceed 20%. At present, the ASP of 12-inch light-doped polished wafer is about 90-100 US dollars, the ASP of light-doped epitaxial wafer is about 100-140 US dollars, and the ASP of heavy-doped epitaxial wafer is about 180-240 US dollars.

According to SUMCO's forecast, the global demand for 12-inch silicon wafers is expected to exceed 10 million pieces per month in 2026, and the supply of silicon wafers will remain in short supply in 22-26. The main reasons are: (1) The expansion of silicon wafer factories lags behind that of wafer factories, and It will take 2-3 years for the new plant to be put into production. SUMCO and Siltronic announced large-scale production expansion in 21H2, and it is expected to be put into production in 23H2, and it will take 25 years for full production. (2) The demand for silicon wafer equipment has greatly increased, and the delivery period has been extended to one year, which has delayed the progress of production expansion to a certain extent.

A securities company said that the silicon wafer industry will still be in short supply in the next three years. In recent years, domestic companies have initially achieved the localization of silicon wafers of 6 inches and below, and 12-inch silicon wafers have broken the domestic blank situation. The silicon wafer market in mainland China The global share is expected to continue to increase.