In 2017, the global semiconductor market handed over satisfactory answers. Although the out-of-stock tide and the outbreak of price surges have caused global semiconductors to rise, the semiconductor industry is still full of challenges, but the rise of smartphones, wireless charging, Internet of Things, smart cars, artificial intelligence, 5G and other markets continues to be hot. Let the semiconductor industry have a fat year. Looking forward to 2018, will the opportunities and challenges of the past continue? How will the semiconductor industry ushered in?
Market growth is not expected
In 2017, due to insufficient production capacity, the semiconductor industry has seen a shortage of supply in recent years due to the outbreak of market demand. Many companies have performed very well.
According to WSTS data, the integrated circuit market accounted for 81.6% of the total semiconductor market in 2016. Therefore, the integrated circuit market has an important impact on the performance of the entire semiconductor market. After almost negligible growth in 2016, the 2017 IC market is expected to grow by 22.9%.
Lu Zhiqiang, vice president of sales for Vishay China & Hong Kong, said: "2017 is an unusual year for the semiconductor industry, not only because of the surge in demand in some new markets and existing end markets, but also because of certain key product categories. The limited supply has led to a strong demand for certain semiconductor products. For Vishay, demand in most end markets has grown significantly, especially in the automotive and industrial markets. Overall, customers are still confident."
Microchip's President and Chief Operating Officer, Ganesh Moorthy, also said: "In 2017, the semiconductor industry has developed strongly and achieved double-digit growth in many aspects. Microchip has also maintained a strong momentum, even growing faster than the industry average, all products Lines, all regions of the world and all final markets continue to grow."
Liu Zongjin, Director of Product Application, Shanghai Core Conductor Technology Co., Ltd. said: "Our performance has also achieved rapid growth this year, with a growth rate of 70%."
For 2018, Moorthy believes that there are still many growth drivers in the semiconductor industry in 2018, but the growth rate will be lower than 2017.
However, Gartner recently estimated that global semiconductor revenue is expected to reach $451 billion in 2018, up 7.5% from $419 billion in 2017, which is equivalent to twice the Gartner's previously estimated 4% growth rate of 2018.
IC Insights' forecast is more optimistic: semiconductor product shipments will increase by 9% in 2018, or will exceed 1 trillion units for the first time, climbing to 107.5 billion.
In response to the shortage of goods, the global expansion of production
Out-of-stock and price hikes are the main theme of the semiconductor industry in 2017, and it has become a commonplace topic, and many readers are no longer interested.
The data shows that the price of silicon wafers was very stable from 2012 to 2016, but by 10% in the first quarter of 2017, the price of silicon wafers continued to rise in the second quarter, and the cumulative increase has exceeded 20%. The price hikes of other semiconductor products continue to receive the impact of rising raw material prices since 2016. By 2017, the outbreak of demand-side has caused price surges and serious shortages in the memory and capacitor products.
Qorvo Asia Pacific Sales Director Charles Wong said: "The current price increase of semiconductors is mainly due to the formation of global wafer demand and supply of "scissors difference" in 2016-2017. It is also affected by the industry chain materials, labor costs. In such a large environment, how to ensure production capacity, ensure supply, and optimize the cost structure become an important factor in the future market competition."
Liu Zongjin said: "In 2017, the entire semiconductor market is in a state of tight stock shortage. We do have some customers who are still out of stock."
For this phenomenon, Hou Guowei, sales director of Shenzhen Foster Semiconductor Co., Ltd., exclaimed: "Out of stock is very headache. Semiconductor products have a certain period of production, such as the customer development cycle takes a while, so when the product passes When customer verification can be imported into mass production, it is very headache to suddenly appear out of stock. The loss is not only business, but also loss of credibility."
Hou Guowei believes that it is objective to say that this year's shortage of goods is global. In the power supply field, the shortage of medium and high power MOSFETs is now more serious, and the shortage of goods in the short term may continue for some time.
According to the statistics of the market, the shortage of semiconductor silicon wafers will not be alleviated until 2021. Among them, the global demand for 12-inch silicon wafers is even stronger. In the five years to 2021, the annual compound growth rate is about 7.1%. As for the 8-inch wafer annual compound growth rate of about 2.1%.
In response to the shortage of goods, semiconductor companies have adopted various methods.
Liu Zongjin revealed: "We will certainly maintain the normal operation of our customers' production, and we will not let customers' production breaks. We are going ahead of the upstream resource chain to make layouts. The upstream resource chain is our big advantage, chip design, production. Packaging, packaging and testing are all done by ourselves. Now we have upgraded the entire industry chain. Next year we will launch eight-inch line products, so that our chip production capacity will be greatly improved, and the product supply will be very good next year. improve."
Hou Guowei said that Foster is solving the problem of out of stock from two aspects. First of all, "then we have to do is to ensure that the existing customers have a stable cooperation, and can not let the existing customers have production disconnection problems. As for the newly developed market, we can only proceed cautiously. If the capacity does not expand, we try our best Don't promote new customers."
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