According to the latest statistical report of SEMI International Semiconductor Association, the global semiconductor materials market sales in 2023 will be US$66.7 billion, down 8.2% from US$72.7 billion in 2022. With the global semiconductor materials market sales declining, mainland China is the only growing market.

The report stated that the global semiconductor materials market will show a downward trend in all products throughout 2023. Among them, sales of wafer manufacturing materials fell 7% to US$41.5 billion. The most significant decline in this part is silicon, photoresist auxiliary materials, wet chemicals, CMP materials, etc. As for materials used for chip packaging, the decline was even greater, reaching 10.1%, with the amount reaching US$25.2 billion. This was mainly due to the decrease in the organic substrate industry.

The report stated that the reduction in the sales amount of the semiconductor materials market is actually due to the weakening demand in the semiconductor market in 2023, coupled with manufacturers' active inventory adjustments, resulting in underutilization of manufacturing facilities, which directly affects the consumption of semiconductor materials. Simply put, reduced capacity utilization at these facilities is a major factor in the reduction in semiconductor material usage.

In addition, from a regional perspective, Taiwan, China, has become the largest consumer market for semiconductor materials for the 14th consecutive year, with a value of US$19.2 billion. That's because Taiwan's TSMC produces the most advanced chips for technology companies around the world, including tech giants Apple, AMD, Intel and Huida. After Taiwan, Mainland China maintained its position as the second largest semiconductor materials consumer market due to growing demand, reaching a sales volume of US$13.1 billion.

South Korea ranked third with sales of US$10.6 billion, because most of the 3D NAND and DRAM memories of Korean semiconductor companies including Samsung and SK Hynix are produced in South Korea. Semiconductor materials sales in other regions have experienced significant declines. Most notably, the North American chip materials market shrank by 11.4% in 2023, reaching US$5.561 billion. As for Europe, the semiconductor market size in 2023 will be US$4.319 billion, a decrease of 5.7% from 2022.

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