Dec. 15, 2022 /SemiMedia/ -- According to The Elec, global inflation has weakened the demand for IT products, leading to a sharp decline in the operating rate of Korean wafer fabs from the fourth quarter, and it is expected to further decline in the first half of 2023.

The report pointed out that although the demand for advanced nodes of Samsung Electronics is still strong, the operating rate of other foundries, such as DB Hitek, Key foundry, Magnachip, SK Hynix System IC, is declining.

At present, the operating rate of DB Hitek is about 80%, compared with 95% in the third quarter and 97.9% in the first half of 2022. In addition, the operating rate of Key Foundry, Magnachip and SK Hynix system IC also dropped to about 70%~80%.

The weakening demand for consumer electronics has spread to wafer fabs worldwide. TSMC also said recently that the capacity utilization rate of 7nm and 6nm processes will be lower than that of other nodes due to the sharp contraction of chip demand for mobile phones and PCs.