News Article
Silicon Wafers Will Depress Semiconductor Materials Market
Macroeconomics, which will negatively impact both the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment markets, will also negatively impact the semiconductor chemicals and materials market.
This is according to the report, "The Global Market for Equipment and Materials for IC Manufacturing", recently published by The Information Network. "The chemicals and materials market could drop in the double digits between 2011 and 2012, weighed down by the silicon wafer sector," noted Dr. Robert N. Castellano, president of The Information Network. "In 2011, the silicon wafer sector also kept the overall market from registering a gain."
Silicon wafers on an area basis only decreased 4.3% in the first half of 2012, from 4,680 million square inches (MSI) in 2011 to 4,480 MSI in 2011. Revenues decreased 14.7% in the same period, indicating a price decrease of 10.4% for the period. Prices decreased across all wafer sizes.
"Semiconductor manufacturers are demanding price drops," added Dr. Castellano. "Buyers read about the precipitous drop in photovoltaic polysilicon prices in the past few years and a projected drop of 48% in 2012 and expect semiconductor wafer manufacturers to reduce prices because of reduced raw material costs."
In the CMP slurry market, the market research firm expects to see a snap back from the rapid growth of copper slurries that moved into the memory market in the last two years. With the slowdown of the memory device sector, there will be a concomitant drop in high priced copper slurry consumption.
