The semiconductor industry had a record year in 2021 as the continued challenges of Covid-19 had a large impact on the ways that we work, shop, attend school and entertain ourselves. All of these changes have a positive impact on semiconductor demand as they drive demand for the electronic devices that keep us connected. The result of the increased connectivity is that the amount of silicon processed, as measured in millions of square inches (MSI), to produce semiconductors grew by 14% year over year for 2021 in comparison to 2020. This was on top of another excellent growth year of 6% in 2020.
Based on this tremendous growth in semiconductor demand, the market for electronic specialty gases increased by more than $500m to $4.4bn in 2021. Once again, the semiconductor industry was the largest consumer of electronic specialty gases as it outgrew the other key consuming segments of flat panel displays, solar photovoltaics and compound semiconductor devices. Key segments driving the demand for electronic specialty gases, on a dollar basis, are illustrated below:
The key consuming region for electronic specialty gases continues to be Asia, which accounts for almost 90% of all demand. The leading consuming country in Asia remains Korea followed by China and Taiwan. The Korean market is driven increasingly by the growth in silicon semiconductor production from both Samsung and SKHynix. At the same time, the local production of flat panel displays in Korea has plateaued as much of the new capacity for large area displays has been built in China. Chinese demand for electronic specialty gases is benefitting by a continued build out of all four consuming segments. Silicon semiconductor capacity continues to increase with the Chinese drive to be more self-sufficient in this key enabling technology. China also has leading positions and subsequent large production bases for flat panel displays, compound semiconductors, and photovoltaic devices, which all continue to show strong growth trends. Continued large-scale semiconductor fab build outs for logic devices along with continued strength in flat panel displays is driving continued growth in in Taiwan.
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