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TAP TIMES -26- APRIL 2022

20% increase in wafer foundry less in nine of those years and by double-
market forecast — IC Insights digit rates in the other nine years (40% in
2004, 20% in 2006, 43% in 2010, 16% in

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — After drop- 2012, 14% in 2013, 13% in 2014, 11% in
ping 2% in 2019, the foundry market 2016, 21% in 2020, and 26% in 2021).
logged a strong 21% rebound in 2020
as application processor and other Boom or bust
telecomm device sales into 5G smart- It appears that, over the past 18 years, it
phones acted as strong drivers. has been either boom or bust (or at least
moderate growth) for the IC foundry mar-
Growth surge in 2021 ket.
The foundry market continued its growth
surge in 2021, registering a 26% jump. Nine of the top-12 foundries in 2021 were
If IC Insights’ 20% increase now forecast based in the Asia-Pacific region. Europe-
for the foundry market in 2022 comes to headquartered specialty foundry X-Fab,
fruition, the 2020-2022 timeperiod would Israel-based Tower (now expected to be
mark the strongest three-year growth acquired by Intel), and U.S.-headquartered
span for the total foundry market since GlobalFoundries were the only non-Asia-
2002-2004. Pacific companies in the top-12 ranking
last year.
Before 2019, the foundry market last de-
clined in 2009 (-11%). IC Insights does In 2020, a 25% increase in sales by SMIC
not expect another pure-play foundry mar- was not enough to prevent a decline of the
ket decline over the next five years. Chinese foundries’ share of the total pure-
play foundry market to 7.6% (Figure 2).
In the past 18 years (2004-2021), the
pure-play foundry market grew 9% or SMIC sales
In 2021,
SMIC’s sales
jumped by 39%
compared to a
total foundry
market increase
of 26%.

Moreover, Hua-
hong Group
saw its sales
growth rate last
year increase at
twice the rate of
the total found-
ry market (52%
for Huahong
Group as com-
pared to 26%
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