The SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) reported that global silicon wafer shipments declined by 5.4% quarter-over-quarter to 2,834 million square inches in the first quarter of 2024. This represents a 13.2% decrease compared to the 3,265 million square inches recorded in the same quarter of the previous year.
Lee Chungwei, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Vice President and Chief Auditor at GlobalWafers, stated that the decrease in utilization of integrated circuit fabrication facilities and the adjustment of inventory resulted in negative growth for all wafer sizes in the first quarter of 2024. Polished wafer shipments experienced a slightly greater decline compared to EPI wafer shipments when comparing year-over-year figures.
Significantly, several semiconductor manufacturing facilities experienced their lowest level of usage in the fourth quarter of 2023 due to the increasing acceptance of artificial intelligence, which led to a higher demand for technologically superior logic products and memory for data centers.
Silicon wafers serve as the primary foundational material for most semiconductors, which are essential constituents of all electrical devices. The meticulously designed slender disks are manufactured with a maximum diameter of 12 inches and function as the foundational material on which the majority of semiconductors are created.
The SMG is a sub-committee of the SEMI Electronic Materials Group (EMG) and is accessible to SEMI members engaged in the production of polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon, or silicon wafers (such as cut, polished, epi). The SMG supports collaborative endeavors concerning the silicon industry, encompassing the generation of market data and statistics pertaining to the silicon industry and the semiconductor market.
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