January 16, 2012 -- Taiwan became the region with the largest share of installed wafer capacity in 2011, according to IC Insights' Global Wafer Capacity 2011-12 report. This is the first time Taiwan has led the global wafer capacity rankings, with 21% of total in mid-2011.
Each regional number is the total installed monthly capacity of semiconductor fabs in that region, regardless of the headquarters location for the companies that own the fabs.
Top 5 regions, installed wafer processing capacity:
- Taiwan: 21%
- Japan: 19.7%
- Korea: 16.8%
- The Americas: 14.7%
- China: 8.9%
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Figure. Installed wafer fab capacity (K w/m) in global regions (based on where the capacity is installed, not where the parent company is headquartered), July 2011. Note: Rest of world (ROW) is primarily Singapore, Israel, Malaysia, also including Russia, Belarus, India, South Africa, and Australia. |
Taiwan is not only the largest wafer processing region, but it also has the largest share of 300mm capacity. In 2011, Taiwan held 25.4% share of worldwide 300mm wafer capacity, 18.7% of 200mm wafer capacity, and 11.4% of 150mm wafer capacity. 300mm wafers represent 64.6% of the country's installed capacity; 200mm wafers are 29.2%; 150mm wafers accounted for 6.1%.
Taiwan also leads the industry with capacity dedicated to "not so leading-edge" 40nm-60nm process geometries. Taiwan focuses on providing foundry services to various fabless IC suppliers, fab-lite IDMs, and electronic system producers.
Taiwan re-elected its leader Ma Ying-jeou of the Kuomintang (KMT) for a second term this week. Ma is not expected to make any major economic and regulatory reforms, according to the US-Taiwan Business Council.
IC Insights also notes in the research that China accounts for more wafer capacity than all of Europe. Nearly all of the installed wafer fab capacity (80%+) is in the top 5 regions.
Also read: Semiconductor fab capex forecast for 2012
Detailed analysis and a forecast of the IC industry's wafer fab capacity through 2016 is provided in the 2011-12 edition of IC Insights' Global Wafer Capacity report.
Published in November 2011, the Global Wafer Capacity 2011-2012 report features IC wafer capacity analyses and forecasts through 2016. View http://www.icinsights.com/services/global-wafer-capacity/ for more information. IC Insights Inc. provides high-quality, cost-effective market research for the semiconductor industry.
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