Average capacity utilization rate of chip wafer foundries fall below 80% in 2024

TrendForce reports that the wafer foundry market is expected to see a recovery in 2025, with an estimated annual growth of 20%—up from 16% in 2024. This positive outlook comes despite the weak end-market demand for consumer products, which has led component manufacturers to adopt a conservative stocking strategy and made the average capacity utilization rate of wafer foundries fall below 80% in 2024. Only advanced processes, such as 5/4/3nm nodes used for HPC products and flagship smartphones, have managed to maintain full capacity, and this situation is expected to persist into 2025. However, the visibility in the consumer end market remains low for 2025. In contrast, the automotive and industrial control supply chains are beginning to recover from inventory corrections starting in the second half of 2024, with gradual restocking expected to resume in 2025. Coupled with the increase in wafer consumption per unit driven by edge AI and the continued expansion of cloud AI infrastructure, these factors are projected to drive a 20% annual growth in the wafer foundry market value in 2025. TrendForce indicates that advanced processes and packaging will propel TSMC’s revenue growth rate beyond the industry average in 2025. Although the growth momentum of non-TSMC foundries is still restrained by consumer end-demand, it is expected that revenue growth in 2025 will reach nearly 1...