Taiwan retains lead in global IC wafer capacity

 

Taiwan led all regions with 21.8 percent share, an increase from 21.3 percent in 2017
 

 

Installed wafer capacity at December 2018 by geography in 200mm wafer monthly equivalents. Source: IC Insights.

 

As shown, Taiwan led all regions/countries in wafer capacity in 2018 with 21.8% share, a slight increase from 21.3 percent in 2017. South Korea accounted for 21.3 percent of global wafer capacity in 2018. TSMC held 67 percent of Taiwan’s capacity while Samsung and SK Hynix represented 94 percent of the installed IC wafer capacity in South Korea at the end of 2018. Japan retained third place with just over 16.8 percent of global wafer fab capacity. 

 

China's global wafer capacity share was 10.8 percent in 2017 and rose to 12.5 percent in 2018 close behind that of North America, which scored 12.8 percent.

 

China’s percentage gain came mostly at the expense of ROW and North America. The share of capacity in the ROW region slipped 0.8 percentage points from 9.5 percent in 2017 to 8.7 percent in 2018. North America’s share of capacity declined 0.4 percentage points in 2018.