Last year, as the semiconductor materials market also shrank due to a decline in fab operating rates, our country was revealed to be the largest.

According to a report tracked by SEMI, an industry association representing the global electronics industry supply chain, the global semiconductor materials market is expected to reach $66.7 billion in 2023, down 8.2% from its all-time high of $72.7 billion in 2022.

Sales of wafer materials in 2023 are expected to decrease by 7.0% to $41.5 billion, while sales of packaging materials during the same period are expected to decrease by 10.1% to $25.2 billion.

Sectors such as silicon, photoresist, and CMP showed the largest declines in the wafer materials market. The organic substrate segment accounted for the majority of the shrinking packaging materials market.

Last year, as we began to reduce excess inventory, we experienced lower fab utilization rates and a decline in material consumption.


By region, all regions except China saw a decline in semiconductor material purchases.

With sales of $19.2 billion, Taiwan has been the world's largest consumer of semiconductor materials for 14 consecutive years.

China ranked second in 2023 with sales of $13.1 billion.

South Korea ranked third in purchasing power in the world with sales of $10.6 billion. On the other hand, it had the largest decline in the world last year, with an 18% decrease compared to the previous year.

Meanwhile, SEMI's latest Semiconductor Materials Market Data Subscription (MMDS) report provides seven years of historical data and two-year outlook for semiconductor materials market sales, including quarterly sales by segment for seven regions (Taiwan, Korea, China, Japan, North America, Europe, and Rest of the World).

The report also provides data on silicon shipments, photoresists, photoresist auxiliaries, semiconductor gases and leadframes.