SUMCO, the world's largest silicon wafer fab, today announced its third-quarter earnings report, with consolidated revenues reaching 83.4 billion yen, up 25% year-on-year.

According to SUMCO, due to strong demand for automotive, industrial and Internet of Things, 8-inch silicon wafer capacity has been fully loaded, and 12-inch is also stable, driving SUMCO's third-quarter performance. Looking ahead to the next quarter, the price of silicon wafers of various sizes is expected to increase due to the large number of long-term contract orders.

SUMCO said that although the memory sector has slowed down due to delays in customer growth, the demand for logic chips is strong, and the 12-inch price is expected to continue to rise in the future.

In addition, SUMCO stressed that the current silicon wafer inventory consumption is very fast, SUMCO will increase production capacity in the future, and is currently communicating long-term contract with customers for 2021-2023. It is estimated that silicon wafers will continue to be in short supply until 2021.