Jinghe Integration up 10%, World Advanced up 15%, will Huahong follow suit?

On March 13, news reports indicated that after the mature process wafer foundry giant GlobalWafers announced a 10% increase in wafer manufacturing prices, new information has revealed that another mature process wafer foundry—VIS (World Advanced)—has also sent price increase notices to its customers, announcing a price hike starting April 2026.

World Advanced stated that since 2025, in response to the significant growth in customer demand, it has greatly increased capacity investments. However, with the continuous rise in semiconductor equipment procurement, raw materials, energy, precious metals, and other costs, as well as labor and transportation expenses, the company must seek customer understanding and support to jointly absorb the rising costs and maintain healthy operations to meet future capacity needs for sustained growth.

Although World Advanced has not disclosed specific price increase percentages, Taiwan’s Economic Daily reported last month that the company’s capacity remains fully booked, and it plans to raise some product prices starting April this year, with increases of up to 15%.

Industry analysts suggest that the recent series of price hikes by mature process wafer foundries mainly stems from structural contraction on the supply side and explosive growth on the demand side:

1. Leading wafer foundries strategically exiting 8-inch and 6-inch lines. As semiconductor processes advance, top-tier wafer foundries are accelerating the shift of capital expenditure and production focus to 12-inch wafers, advanced processes, and advanced packaging.

TSMC explicitly stated at its Q1 2026 earnings call that it will gradually phase out 6-inch and 8-inch lines and guide customers using mature processes (such as 22, 28, and 40nm) toward more advanced processes, or gradually transfer orders to World Advanced.

Additionally, Samsung Electronics plans to close its 80,000-piece-per-month S7 plant (mainly producing CMOS image sensors and display driver ICs) in the second half of 2026, converting the facility for advanced process and packaging use.

2. Global 8-inch capacity faces rare “negative growth.” Although Chinese foundries like SMIC and Huahong still have expansion plans, their added capacity cannot compensate for the significant gaps left by TSMC and Samsung’s reductions.

According to TrendForce, the global 8-inch wafer foundry market is expected to see a rare annual capacity decline of 2.4% in 2026. This indicates that in the next 1-2 years, supply of mature process wafers will be under absolute tightness.

3. The wave of AI data center construction not only drives demand for high-performance computing and advanced memory chips based on advanced processes but also promotes upgrades in power management architectures, significantly increasing the use of mature process power management ICs (PMICs) and power components. These components are evolving toward higher voltage tolerance and greater reliability, further boosting market demand for mature processes.

Under the dual pressures of “shrinking supply and surging demand,” the pricing power in the mature process wafer foundry market has gradually shifted to the “seller’s market.” Therefore, it is not surprising that foundries like GlobalWafers and World Advanced have announced price increases.

It is worth noting that another mature process wafer foundry, Huahong Semiconductor, also maintains full capacity, with utilization rates reaching 103.8% in Q4 last year. Morgan Stanley reports that Huahong Semiconductor may raise wafer prices by 10% in the second half of the year.