The Global Market for Equipment and Materials for IC Manufacturing report, recently published by Pennsylvania-based market research company The Information Network, has revealed that macroeconomics will negatively affect not only the semiconductor and semiconductor equipment markets, but also the semiconductor materials and chemicals market.
Dr. Robert N. Castellano, The Information Network’s President, reported that the silicon wafer sector could weigh down the materials and chemicals market between 2011 and 2012. The silicon wafer sector also held back the overall market from filing a gain in 2011.
Silicon wafers dropped 4.3% in the first half of this year on an area basis, to 4,480 MSI in 2011 from 4,680 MSI in 2011. Revenues dropped 14.7% in the same period, marking a price drop of 10.4% for the period.
Dr. Castellano added that semiconductor manufacturers are requesting price drops. Buyers studied about the steep fall in photovoltaic polysilicon prices in the previous years and the proposed drop of 48% in 2012, and anticipate semiconductor wafer producers to cut down prices in view of decreased raw material costs.
In the market for CMP slurries, there will be a snap back from the accelerated growth of copper slurries which shifted into the memory market in the last two years. Since there is a slowdown in the memory device area, there will be a drop in expensive copper slurry consumption.