Following successive price surges in memory chips and packaging sectors, the semiconductor industry chain is witnessing a new round of price increases, according to reports.
Foundry services for mature process wafers have become the core segment of this round of price hikes. Quotations for related products are scheduled to rise as early as next month, with an expected increase of approximately 10%, and some products may see even higher growth.
Among relevant manufacturers, Powerchip has implemented gradual price adjustments starting from this quarter, mainly targeting low-margin product lines. Although UMC has not explicitly confirmed price increases, it noted that the current pricing environment is more favorable. Vanguard International Semiconductor has issued price increase notices and plans to adjust prices in April without disclosing specific rates.
China-based JH Integrated has followed suit, announcing an across-the-board 10% price increase for wafers produced from June 1. Samsung has also long planned to raise prices by around 10% for certain mature process technologies.
Industry analysts pointed out that the price adjustment of mature process foundry services is not an isolated move by individual manufacturers, but an inevitable outcome of profound changes in the overall supply-demand structure and cost structure of the semiconductor industry, driven jointly by supply-demand imbalance and rising costs.
Over the past two years, TSMC has allocated more resources to advanced processes, resulting in reduced mature process capacity. Meanwhile, demand from consumer electronics, automotive and industrial control sectors is rebounding, and procurement demand for power management ICs and display driver ICs is also on the rise, leading to tight supply and demand.
In addition, continuous increases in the prices of raw materials, energy and precious metals, coupled with rising labor and logistics costs, have placed unbearable cost pressure on wafer fabs.
In the wake of upstream price hikes, downstream IC design houses have also started to adjust their prices accordingly.
Affected by rising packaging costs driven by higher gold prices, Taiwan-based display driver IC manufacturers have officially launched price increases for some products this quarter after enduring cost pressures for a year.
Two A-share listed IC design companies, Smartsens and Heroic Semi, took the lead in issuing price increase notices in early March. Smartsens implemented a price increase of 10% to 20% for relevant products, while Heroic Semi moderately raised prices for selected products.
(Reprinted from https://news.eccn.com/）