CCID: Waferfoundry service market expected to double by 2011

Global foundry market scale from 2007 to 2011 Click to view image.

The global wafer foundry service market will hit Rs.163,734.68 crore ($40.48 billion) by 2011 as it continues to grow rapidly at an annual growth rate of 12.4 per cent, forecasts market analyst CCID Consulting in its latest report. This market scale nearly doubles the sector's revenue in 2006 at Rs.94.14 crore ($23.274).

In terms of the growth of manufacturers, the sales volume of pure-play foundries will maintain 13.4 per cent growth rate and the business scale would reach Rs.1,44,424.66 crore ($35.706 billions) by 2011. For non pure-play foundries, the annual growth rate of the sales volume will be 6.3 per cent and the business scale would reach Rs.19,323.36 crore ($4.773 billions) by 2011.

Sales volume of global foundry service providers from 2007-2011 Click to view image.

Rising market scale
Over the last few years, the global wafer foundry service market has been growing fast. From 2002 to 2006, the market has an average CAGR of 19.8 per cent, which is higher than that of the global semiconductor market, said CCID.

At present, pure-play foundries such as TSMC and UMC, are leading the market, said CCID. Both companies account for about 85 per cent of the overall market and their sale volume growth averages 22.2 per cent y-o-y. Meanwhile, nonpure-play foundries such as IBM and Toshiba have a much slower growth in the foundry service. From 2002 to 2006, the annual growth rate of the sales volume for non pure-play foundries was only 9.7 per cent and their market share dropped from 21.7 per cent in 2002 to 15.3 per cent in 2006.

Global foundry production line sales value by size (2002-2006) Click to view image.

Regarding the distribution of chip production lines for wafer foundry services, the sales volume for 200mm and 300mm production lines has been growing fast. From 2002 to 2006, the sales volume of the production lines of 200mm and 300mm grew by 26.4 per cent and 28.2 per cent, respectively and took 56.7 per cent and 19.9 per cent of the overall wafer foundry service market in 2006. Meanwhile, 150mm production lines are in a downward trend per year. From 2002 to 2006, the annual growth rate of the sales volume of 150mm production lines was only 2.8 per cent and the market share dropped from 31.1 per cent in 2002 to 13.5 per cent in 2006.

In terms of sales volume for the line width of the production line, the 0.35-0.11?m has become the mainstream line, according to CCID. Although its market share dropped in recent years along with the maturity and application of the 90nm or less process, it still held three quarters of the overall market by 2006.

While the share of the 90nm or less production lines rose from 4.4 per cent in 2003 to 18.7 per cent in 2006. The share of 0.5?m or more process is shrinking year by year and was only at 4.5 per cent by 2006.

Expanding capacity
Along with the rapid growth of the market demand, the productive capacity of the global wafer foundry service market is also growing fast. From 2002 to 2006, the global wafer foundry productive capacity rose by 60 per cent, reaching 23.56 crore pieces a year (converted with 200mm silicon wafers), reported CCID.

Regarding the productive capacity structure, the 200mm production lines are still dominating the wafer foundry service market. In 2006, the 65 per cent of the productive capacity was generated by 200mm production lines. Meanwhile, the productive capacity of 300mm production lines has been increasing year by year and reached 17 per cent of the gross productive capacity by 2006.

Correspondingly, the share of the 1,500mm production lines has been falling year by year and accounted for 18 per cent of the overall market by 2006.

Utilization rate of foundry production lines by size from 2002-2006 Click to view image.

In terms of the utilisation rate of the productive capacity, the average utilisation rate of productive capacity of the 150mm, 200mm and 300mm production lines remained the same from 2002 to 2006?at 87.2 per cent, 85.5 per cent and 86.6 per cent, respectively. But during these years, the utilisation rate of the 300mm production lines became stable, while that of 150mm and 200mm production lines fluctuated greatly.

As to the line width of the wafer foundry production lines, the 0.35-0.11?m process dominated the market, whose share in the overall productive capacity was 66.4 per cent in 2006. The 90nm process and below has been increasing fast and its market share grew from 2.4 per cent in 2003 to 14.5 per cent in 2006. Comparatively speaking, the share of the 150mm production lines dropped from 30.5 per cent in 2002 to 17.3 per cent in 2006.