The chip crisis will not ease until 2024
Despite the fact that various voices assure that the chip shortage crisis will begin to subside in 2023, and some even claim that an improvement will be noticed as early as the end of 2022, new voices, including Volkswagen, claim that it will not end until 2024, the year in which several wafer factories are scheduled to open and begin operating, an essential component for the manufacture of chips and components.
The consultancy firm Techcet has warned that demand for silicon wafers will exceed available supply until the end of 2023, delaying the development of some chips and potentially driving up the pricing of various components. Wafers are the bases on which chips are placed for the fabrication of components, and they cannot be constructed without them.
According to the expert, the current manufacturing of 300-millimeter wafers can barely meet demand, and this demand is expected to rise in the coming months. Many of the owners of the facilities that make them have opted to raise production, but they won't be able to do so until their manufacturing capacity is increased, which won't happen until 2024.
According to a director of the firm, this will result in "pricing rising due to the precarious balance between supply and demand, as well as suppliers asking for higher prices in contracts to pay for additional investments." Furthermore, in the short term, energy and raw material costs are growing, which is adding to the price pressure on silicon wafers.
Since 2020, there has been a significant demand for silicon wafers, and wafer vendors have invested very little in new operations to produce the wafers required to assemble semiconductors. They only revealed plans to invest in new plants in the last six months or so, despite the fact that it will take around two years to produce for the semiconductor business."
Due to the price rise, Techcet expects that revenue from the sale of silicon wafers would be 15.5 billion dollars, 14.8 percent higher than in 2021. SEMI, the industry's primary consortium, has underlined, on the other hand, that manufacturers around the world are increasing their 200-millimeter wafer production capacity to meet demand. Their monthly production capacity will increase to 6.9 million wafers by 2024, up from 1.2 million wafers by the end of 2020.
Everything points to wafer manufacturers adding approximately 25 new 200-millimeter wafer manufacturing lines over the next five years, mostly to meet demand in areas such as 5G, the automotive industry, and the Internet of Things. Similarly, SEMI notes that this boost in output will be used mostly for the creation of low-cost chips, such as analog and energy management chips, as well as screen circuits.
