The Chinese mainland’s semiconductor material market reached a record high, ranking as the 2nd largest after the Taiwan region

By Greg Gao

The semiconductor materials market in the Chinese mainland in 2021 reached $11.93 billion, a 21.9%  year-on-year increase, according to the statistics from SEMI, the global semiconductor industry association.

"The global semiconductor materials market saw exceptional growth in 2021 on the strength of robust secular demand for chips and the industry's expansion of production capacity," said Ajit Manocha, president, and CEO of SEMI. "All regions registered double-digit or high single-digit growth last year to meet historic demand for electronics as digital transformation continues apace."

The Chinese mainland registered the strongest absolute year-over-year semiconductor materials market growth in 2021, ranking as the second-largest consumer of semiconductor materials after the Taiwan region, while Korea remained the third position, SEMI’s data shows.

The global semiconductor materials market grew 15.9% to $64.3 billion in revenue in 2021, surpassing the previous market high of $55.5 billion set in 2020, SEMI reported.

Wafer fabrication materials and packaging materials revenues in 2021 totaled $40.4 billion and $23.9 billion, respectively, for year-over-year increases of 15.5% and 16.5%. The silicon, wet chemicals, chemical-mechanical planarization (CMP), and photomask segments showed the strongest growth in the wafer fabrication materials market, while packaging materials market growth was largely driven by the organic substrates, leadframes, and bonding wire segments, Yahoo concluded based on SEMI’s data.