Mature process wafer foundry opens the tide of price increase

The price increase trend of mature process wafer foundry has fully landed,and the industry boom has continued to rise.On September 21,UMC started a new round of wafer OEM price increase,and the quotation of Liji Power was greatly increased by 40%,and the order taking situation of the two major manufacturers continued to improve.UMC predicts that if the market supply and demand pattern remains unchanged,the price adjustment range and coverage of wafer foundry in 2027 will significantly exceed the second half of 2026,and the price increase cycle will continue to deepen.
 

The continuous release of demand-side increments is the core motivation for the shortage of capacity in mature processes.The spillover effect of AI computing power industry is prominent,and AI servers are upgraded to high power consumption and high voltage,which drives the consumption of supporting chips such as power management IC,microcontroller and MOSFET to increase and iterate specifications.Most of these chips adopt 8-inch and 12-inch mature processes,completely reversing the past overcapacity situation.At the same time,the downstream markets such as new energy vehicles,industrial control and Internet of Things have recovered steadily,further expanding the capacity demand gap of GM's mature processes.
 

Supply-side contraction and superimposed structural adjustment make it difficult to quickly alleviate the tight production capacity pattern.Head manufacturers such as TSMC and Samsung concentrated resources on the layout of advanced processes and advanced packaging,and continued to reduce the production capacity of mature processes,causing order spillover.Small and medium-sized factories have also optimized their product structure,shifted their limited production capacity to AI-related high-margin products,compressed the production capacity of low-margin products,and the supply elasticity of mature processes in the industry continued to weaken.The prices of core materials such as silicon wafers,photoresists and special gases are rising,and the cost of superimposed labor,energy,equipment operation and maintenance and production line depreciation is rising.The profit margin of foundry enterprises continues to be under pressure,and the price increase has become an inevitable choice to share costs and repair profits.The high-priced pattern of mature processes in the industry is expected to continue.