Xu Xiulan, chairman of Global Crystal, the world's third largest semiconductor silicon wafer factory, said yesterday that inflation and other issues have not affected customers' willingness to continue to sign long-term contracts, and the price of long-term contracts continues to be bullish. At present, some long-term contracts have been signed in 2028, and even the long-term contracts are still under negotiation for 2031. In the next few years, Global Crystal has almost no spot supply.
Recently, foreign capital reports warned that the wave of semiconductor inventory adjustment may lead to the market of silicon wafers, which was originally the most optimistic in the market, facing pressure at the same time, and have lowered the evaluation of relevant manufacturers. Xu Xiulan emphasized that its 8-inch and 12-inch silicon wafer production capacity remains full, and the yen continues to depreciate, which is also a big benefit for Global Crystal, which has multiple factories in Japan.
Xu Xiulan believes that so far, Global Crystal's operation has performed well, and everyone is worried that factors such as inflation will affect terminal consumption willingness. However, with the current 12-inch silicon wafer, no customer mentioned that it has lost production capacity. Even if some downstream applications are weak, the client only adjusts the product portfolio and shows no signs of loose orders. Demand below 6 inches is indeed not as strong as before, but Global Crystal only has one related factory area that is not fully loaded.
In the revenue structure of Global Crystal, silicon wafers below 6 inches account for less than 10%, 8 inches and 12 inches account for more than 90%, and 12 inches are higher than 8 inches. Xu Xiulan mentioned earlier that most of the production capacity has been sold out by 2024.
Global Crystal has accumulated 33.1 billion yuan in customer advance payments by the end of the first quarter of this year. Xu Xiulan evaluated that the peak period for prepayment collected for signing a long-term contract will fall at the end of this year or the beginning of next year, and will gradually decrease in the second half of next year, and new production capacity will begin to ship.
In terms of silicon wafer prices, Xu Xiulan also mentioned that the quantity left for spot stock by Global Crystal is very small. After the signing of the long-term contract, although there is the right to correct the cost fluctuations, if there is no big change, there will basically be no discussion on changes. The price trend of
long-term contract is probably the higher the average price in the following years, and the recent signing of a long-term contract quote is higher than that of a month ago
