by David Manners
TAIPEI, TAIWAN—8-inch and 12-inch wafers will be in tight supply into 2020, says Doris Hsu, chairperson of the third largest wafer vendor GlobalWafers, reports Digitimes.
Prices are likely to rise in 2019 particularly for eight inch float zone (FZ) and SOI wafers.
8 and 12 inch wafers account for 80-90% of the company’s existing capacities.
The US has put a 10% tariff on imports of wafers from China, and plans to raise the rate to 25% on January 1, 2019, but only 3% of the company’s wafers are made in China.
Hsu said the US-China trade war has affected capacity expansion plans by silicon wafer suppliers, with some hesitant about raising new expansion plans and some scaling down or scrapping of increases, said Hsu.