Supply of 300mm wafers about to get tighter, prices already 50% higher

Recently the PC market suffered from high NAND and DRAM prices and now there are reports that silicon wafers are in short supply too. Industry sources told DigiTimes that the global supply of 300mm wafers is expected to further tighten the next two years as several new Chinese chip production plants are set to come online.

The site points out the pricing of blank 300mm wafers has increased by up to 50 percent since the start of the year. More price hikes are expected as the demand & supply situation is expected to get even more out of whack:

With new 12-inch wafer fabs in China set to become operational, the already tight supply of 12-inch silicon wafers will become more severe in 2018 and 2019, the sources indicated. Chipmakers will be vying for more available 12-inch silicon wafers to ramp their new fabs.

On the supply side, just a few silicon wafer suppliers intend to expand substantially production capacity for 12-inch wafers though the suppliers are aware of their short supply and anticipate the shortage will expand, the sources noted.

DigiTimes notes silicon wafer makers are hesitant to increase production capacity as they still remember what happened in 2006-2007. Back then, the industry invested in expansion but the end result was a long period of oversupply.