Global silicon wafer shipments and revenue fall in 2023
Worldwide silicon wafer shipments in 2023 decreased 14.3% to 12,602 million square inches while wafer revenue contracted 10.9% to USD 12.3 billion over the same period, reports SEMI.
The decline, a sharp departure from the previous three years of consecutive growth, stemmed from a slowdown in end-demand, coupled with a broad-based inventory correction. Softening memory and logic sector demand led to a decline in orders for 12-inch wafers, while weakening foundry and analog uptake accounted for a drop in shipments of 8-inch wafers.
"Shipments of 12-inch polished and epi wafers contracted 13% and 5% in 2023, respectively,” said Lee Chungwei, Chairman of SEMI SMG and Vice President and Chief Auditor at GlobalWafers in a press release. “Total shipments of all wafer sizes slipped 9% in the second half of 2023 relative to the first half of the year.”
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | |
| Area shipments (MSI) | 11,810 | 12,407 | 14,165 | 14,713 | 12,602 |
| Revenue (USD Billion) | 11.2 | 11.2 | 12.6 | 13.8 | 12.3 |
*Data include polished silicon wafers, including those used as virgin test wafers, as well as epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to end users. Shipments are for semiconductor applications only and do not include solar applications.
