Silicon Wafer maker plan 20% price increase for 2018

First there was a DRAM shortage, now there is a silicon shortage

| Source: PCGAMESN Author: Mark Campbell

Silicon Wafer maker plan 20% price increase for 2018

2017 wasn't a great year for PC builders, starting with DRAM and NAND price increases and ending with GPU shortages. Silicon is in high demand, so much so that the supply of Silicon wafers is now constrained.



The Taiwanese Silicon Manufacturer GlobalWafers has confirmed that silicon prices will increase by 20% in 2018, having a knock-on effect on every PC component from NAND to DRAM and even CPUs, GPUs and every other chip imaginable. The Japanese wafer manufacturer SUMCO has already revealed similar price increases.



These shortages are coming first from 300mm wafers, the most common wafers that are used when manufacturing modern CPUs, GPUs and RAM chips. This demand is driven by growing demand for DRAM, NAND and both consumer CPUs in the server, desktop and mobile markets, as well as increased demand in other markets like cryptocurrency mining ASICs.



GlobalWafers has plans to increase their production capacity, though this is not expected to increase their supply of chips by over 7%. More significant changes in production capacity are planned, but they cannot b implemented in the short term.



These changes in pricing will affect the pricing of all major PC components, pouring salt into the wound that is already high component pricing.



You can join the discussion on increases to Silicon Wafer pricing on the OC3D Forums.

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