Slower Economic Recovery Could Hamper Wafer Shipments Growth: Semi

Global silicon wafer shipments are expected to reach 16.04 billion square inches in 2024, with growth in area terms of more than 37% from 2019, reported Semi Monday. It’s projecting 2021 shipments will approach 14 billion square inches, for 13.9% year-over-year growth from 2020. The logic, foundry and memory sectors are contributing most to the 2021 silicon shipment expansion, it said. Strong “secular demand” for semiconductors across “multiple end markets” is driving the significant increase in wafer shipments, said analyst Inna Skvortsova. She cautioned that growth after 2022 “could be tempered by the slowing pace of the macroeconomic recovery and timing of the wafer manufacturing capacity additions needed to meet growing demand.”