According to the newly published report by Semiconductor International Capacity Statistics (SICAS), the wafer foundry capacity utilization in Asia-Pacific district in 1Q2008 has reached 93.7%, higher than that of the overall semiconductor industry. As currently the wafer foundry is in low season, leading foundries including TSMC, SMIC and so on all hold a conservative attitude toward the production expansion and the prices, enabling the industry in Asia-Pacific district to stay in a balanced situation for supply and demand in short-term.

SMIC indicated that the company has no plan for the expansion of its 12-inch fab currently, and future movements will be decided according to the condition in the market. For the moment, the company is focusing on the transfer of its 12-inch capacity from previous standard DRAM to logic IC. Although difficulties exist in the capital part and transference technology, currently the progress is quite smooth.

Similarly, TSMC and UMC also hold conservative attitude to the production expansion of their 12-inch fab. They had rather maintained high capacity utilization than to expand the capacity.

As TSMC actively implement strategies to stabilize the price, and other wafer foundries are rational in their capacity expansion, the supply and demand relationship will be balanced in the whole wafer foundry industry.