Xu Xiulan, chairman of Global Crystal, said today that the semiconductor silicon wafer market is currently oversupplied by about 5% to 10%, and the demand in the mature process market is weak. The demand for 12-inch silicon wafers is relatively stro...
Xu Xiulan, chairman of Global Crystal, said today that the semiconductor silicon wafer market is currently oversupplied by about 5% to 10%, and the demand in the mature process market is weak. The demand for 12-inch silicon wafers is relatively strong, and the capacity utilization rate exceeds 95%.
Global Crystal held an online corporate briefing to announce its third quarter operating results. Due to some customers purchasing goods in advance of the second quarter and the impact of exchange rate factors, Global Crystal's third-quarter revenue fell to NT$14.493 billion, a quarter-on-quarter decrease of 9.5%.
Affected by rising energy costs and increased expenses caused by trial production of new factories in the United States, Italy and Japan, Global Crystal's gross profit margin fell to 18.4% in the third quarter, down 7.4 percentage points from the second quarter. Operating net profit was 1.23 billion yuan, a quarterly decrease of 49.6%. With the support of non-industry income, the after-tax net profit was 1.969 billion yuan, a quarterly increase of 17.1%, and net profit per share was 4.12 yuan.
Global Crystal’s cumulative revenue in the first three quarters was 46.096 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 0.4%, and its gross profit margin was 23.6%, down 8.6 percentage points from the same period last year. Its after-tax net profit was 5.107 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 45.5%, and its net profit per share was 10.68 yuan.
Xu Xiulan said that the semiconductor silicon wafer market is oversupplied by about 5% to 10%. The capacity utilization rate of 12-inch silicon wafers exceeds 95%, the capacity utilization rate of 8-inch silicon wafers is less than 80%, and the capacity utilization rate of 6-inch silicon wafers is less than 70%.
Regarding compound silicon wafers, Xu Xiulan said that the capacity utilization rate of 6/8-inch silicon carbide (SiC) wafers is less than 50%. However, seeing some signs of recovery, the market situation is expected to improve in 2026. The gallium nitride (GaN) wafer market situation is relatively positive, production capacity is in short supply, and production is being expanded.
According to Global Crystal’s statistics, advance receipts in the third quarter were approximately US$870 million, a decrease of 6.45% from the second quarter. Xu Xiulan said that the current inventory has returned to a healthy level, and the US market will be the main driving force for Global Crystal's mid- to long-term operational growth.
