Upstream Silicon Wafer Trap Notched Downstream

Under the influence of the Great East Japan Earthquake on March 11th, Shin-Etsu Chemical, a subsidiary of Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of Shin-Etsu, was shut down due to a power outage on the same day immediately after the Shinitsu White River factory in Fukushima Prefecture. Shin-Etsu supply includes wafer foundry and the source of blank wafers upstream from memory manufacturers. Is there a crisis in the safety of Taiwan-based manufacturers' inventory or a future cost increase due to the possibility of quotations of wafer exotic goods in the future? It is not unlikely that short-term supply gaps in the face of the disaster after the disaster, the Taiwan wafer foundry / memory fear will be rushed to prepare response.

In fact, the world’s top two semiconductor wafer fabs are all located in Japan. Shin-Etsu is the largest one. According to Gartner’s statistics, the global market share of Shinetsu Semiconductor’s wafers used in 2009 was 32.45%, and the revenue was US$2.346 billion. The second largest company, Sumco, has a global market share of 29% and revenue of 2.097 billion U.S. dollars, while Sumco's production centers are in Kyushu, Iino, and Chitose, and are not directly affected by the earthquake. The two companies mainly provide large Size 8 inch and 12 inch semiconductor silicon wafer products.

Shin-Etsu is close to the quake-stricken wafer fab. The supply of semiconductor wafers is bound to be affected in the short term, and it is expected that the offer will rebound. In addition to its local competitor Sumco, it has monthly production capacity of 1.4 million wafers. In addition, Sumco's subsidiary, Taiwan Seiken (3532), also has a 12-inch wafer capacity of 160,000 wafers per month. Other competitors such as Germany's Siltronic, South Korea's LG Siltron and U.S.-based MEMC are also expected to make changes. Single benefited performance.

In addition, Taiwan and semiconductor wafer wafer related parties also include semiconductor material access business Chong Yue (5434), which is the largest distributor of Shineway in Taiwan, customers are mainly domestic foundries, including 8 inches and 12 Inch wafer products have a very high market share in China and are still evaluating their status.

The research and development agency believes that in addition to the damage to some of the production lines, Xinyue and Sumco can only temporarily suspend work due to power outages, and the traffic in the east of Kanto in Japan is also affected. For the Japanese semiconductor industry, The supply of wafers will be tight. This will cause the global semiconductor industry other than Japan to have the effect of rushing materials. In addition, Japanese memory makers such as Elpida (916665) and Toshiba will have goods delivered to Shin-Etsu, which are currently in Japan. Semiconductor manufacturers are still assessing the extent of the impact, the future market price of memory may be the case that prices have risen.

In the small-to-medium size sector, domestic small and medium-sized wafer manufacturers include Sino-American Crystal (5483), Hejing (6182) and Shangzhi (3579) due to its dominant 3, 4, 5, and 6-inch products and Shin-Etsu, Sumco and other main 8 and 12-inch silicon wafers are not directly competing products, so there is no so-called "single transfer effect."

On the other hand, if Japanese customers stop working due to earthquakes or power outages, they may affect the kinetic energy of pulling goods upstream. Sino-American Crystal pointed out that Japan accounted for more than 20% of the revenue of Sinochip Semiconductor's revenue. We are also worried that if customers have a work stoppage due to a disaster, they will have an impact on future operations.