By Gabby Chen

(JW Insights) Mar 28 -- Semi released its latest global 12-inch fab capacity report and showed China's global share will grow from 22% in 2022 to 25% in 2026, reaching 2.4 million wafers per month.

The Semi report, released on March 27, noted that the Chinese mainland will continue to focus government investments on mature technology to lead in 12-inch front-end fab capacity due to the US export controls.

Semiconductor manufacturers worldwide are forecast to increase 12-inch fab capacity to an all-time high of 9.6 million wafers per month (wpm) in 2026, SEMI said on March 27 in its 12-inch Fab Outlook to 2026 report.

Meanwhile, after strong growth in 2021 and 2022, the 12-inch capacity expansion is expected to slow this year due to soft demand for memory and logic devices.

Ajit Manocha, president and CEO of SEMI, said, "While the pace of the global 12-inch fab capacity expansion is moderating, the industry remains squarely focused on growing capacity to meet robust secular demand for semiconductors. The foundry, memory and power sectors will be major drivers of the new record capacity increase expected in 2026."

The report also shows analog and power leading other sectors in capacity growth at a 30% compound annual growth rate (CAGR)from 2022 to 2026, followed by foundry at 12%, opto at 6% and memory at 4%.

Meanwhile, chipmakers expected to increase 12-inch fab capacity during the 2022 to 2026 forecast period to meet growth in demand include GlobalFoundries, Hua Hong Semiconductor, Infineon, Intel, Kioxia, Micron, Samsung, SK Hynix, SMIC, STMicroelectronics, Texas Instruments, TSMC and UMC. The companies are planning 82 new facilities and lines to start operations from 2023 to 2026, said the report.

Powered by strong demand in the automotive segment and government investment, the Americas and Europe & Mideast are expected to see 12-inch fab capacity share growth from 2022 to 2026. The Americas' global share is forecast to rise 0.2% to nearly 9% by 2026, while Europe & Mideast is projected to increase its capacity share from 6% to 7% and Southeast Asia is expected to maintain its 4% share of 12-inch front-end fab capacity during the same period.

In addition, Korea's worldwide 12-inch fab capacity share is expected to slip from 25% to 23% from 2022 to 2026 on weak demand in the memory market. The Taiwan region is to see a slight dip in share from 22% to 21% during the same period, while Japan's share of worldwide 12-inch fab capacity is also expected to edge down, from 13% last year to 12% in 2026, as competition with other regions increases, according to SEMI.