Silicon wafer shipments decline
Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments declined sharply during the first quarter 2009 when compared to the fourth quarter 2008 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry. Total silicon wafer area shipments were 940 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 34 percent decrease from the 1,428 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. The new quarterly total area shipments are 57 percent below first quarter 2008 shipments and at the lowest levels since 2001.
"Clearly, difficult global economic conditions continued to have an impact on wafer shipments in the first quarter of the year,” said Nobuo Katsuoka, chairman of SEMI SMG and director, SOI process Engineering Department for Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd. ”However, market conditions recovered after the bottom observed in the January and February period.”
Quarterly Silicon Area Shipment Trends
Semiconductor Silicon Shipments* - Millions of Square Inches
| Million of | |
| | |
| Square Inches | |
--------------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
| Q1 2008 | Q4 2008 | Q1 2009
--------------------+-----------------+-----------------+---------------
TOTAL | 2,163 | 1,428 | 940
Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications. All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.
