The global semiconductor industry is expected to recover in 2024, with semiconductor demand expected to increase and semiconductor sales in the first quarter of 2024 expected to increase year-on-year.

The global semiconductor manufacturing industry is expected to recover in the fourth quarter of 2023, with sales of electronic products and integrated circuits (ICs) increasing, according to the latest data from the Semiconductor Manufacturing Monitor (SMM), published by SEMI, an industry association representing the global electronics industry supply chain, in collaboration with semiconductor research firm TechInsights, and this trend is expected to expand further this year.

Electronics sales in the fourth quarter of 2023 are expected to rise 1% year-on-year, the first increase since the second half of 2022, and are expected to rise 3% year-on-year in the first quarter of this year.

Additionally, as semiconductor demand improves and inventory normalization begins, integrated circuit (IC) sales in the third quarter of 2023 are expected to increase 10% year-on-year.

This is expected to grow further, with an 18% increase in the first quarter of this year.

We expect facility investment and fab utilization rates to decline significantly in the second half of 2023 before gradually recovering from the first quarter of this year.

It is expected that the memory sector's capital investment in the first quarter of this year will increase by 9% compared to the previous quarter and 10% compared to the same period last year.

The non-memory sector's facility investment amount was 1 compared to the previous quarter.It is expected to increase by 6%, but it is still expected to be lower than the first quarter of 2023, the same period last year.

Fab utilization is expected to improve from 66% in the fourth quarter of 2023 to 70% in the first quarter of 2024.

Fab capacity is expected to increase by 1.3% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and expand similarly in the first quarter of this year.

Equipment investment in 2023 is expected to exceed expectations, but equipment investment in the first half of the year is expected to decrease significantly as equipment purchases are usually made in the second half of the year.

“The electronics and integrated circuit (IC) markets are recovering from a slump in 2023,” said Clark Cheung, SEMI’s senior director. “Factory utilization rates are currently low, but we expect them to gradually improve this year.”

“Semiconductor demand is recovering steadily,” said Boris Metodiev, director of TechInsights. “While the overall integrated circuit (IC) market is growing this year, the analog semiconductor market is being constrained by slowing growth in automotive and industrial semiconductors. However, AI technology will be a huge catalyst to drive demand for cutting-edge semiconductors.”