200mm Fabs Add 600,000 Wafers Per Month – Is There an End in Sight?

Tracking toward even stronger growth than forecast last year, 200mm fabs worldwide are gearing up to add more than 600,000 wafers per month from 2017 through 2022, an 11 percent growth rate that will lead to a new high of 6 million wafers per month by the end of 2022, according to the SEMI Industry Research and Statistics group in its fourth update of the Global 200mm Fab Outlook report. See chart below.

All told, 56 older and newer facilities will add capacity, with the MEMS, power, logic and foundry segments contributing the most. To help meet rising demand, new fabs are under construction. Only six facilities plan to reduce capacity.

The global 200mm fab count will increase from the 2017 level of the 194 fabs covered in the report to 203 by 2022. See chart. During the five-year forecast period, China, at 44 percent, is expected to account for the greatest growth, followed by Southeast Asia (19 percent), Taiwan (10 percent) and the Americas (8 percent).

However, with strong demand for new 200mm fab equipment, the used 200mm fab equipment market has pretty much dried up. What’s more, the availability of key tools and spare parts has become a primary concern for many device makers.

These headwinds notwithstanding, many companies remain bullish with plans to add more capacity. The forecast growth of 600,000 wafers per month may ultimately be a conservative estimate.

SEMI’s Global 200mm Fab Outlook report lists more than 300 facilities and lines managed by more than 150 companies, providing details on product type, investment, technology and capacity plans by companies and fabs.

The fourth update of the Global 200mm Fab Outlook report covers data and predictions from 2011 through the end of 2022, including milestones, detailed investments by quarter, product types, technology nodes and capacities down to fab and project level.

Click here for the Global 200mm Fab Outlook Sample Report. Learn more about other SEMI fab databases at www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/FabDatabase.

Christian G. Dieseldorff is director of Industry Research and Statistics, SEMI, Milpitas, CA.