October 11, 2005 – The leading suppliers of silicon wafers forecast year-end wafer shipments for 2005 to be 2% higher than 2004 shipments. According to SEMI’s Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) Consensus Forecast, total wafer shipments will increase by about 7% in 2006. The Consensus Forecast, obtained through surveying SMG members, provides a silicon wafer shipment outlook for 2005 through 2008.

The survey results forecast silicon shipments to reach 6385 million square inches in 2005; 6862 million square inches in 2006; 7287 million square inches in 2007; and 8192 million square inches in 2008.

“While 2004 was a record year for silicon shipments, volumes decreased significantly in the fourth quarter of last year. Now, we are seeing a recovery from that slowdown and we expect to see incremental year-on-year growth continuing to 2007, with anticipated growth in 2008 reaching double digits,” said Makoto Tsukada, chairman of SEMI SMG and GM of Shin-Etsu Handotai Co., Ltd. “This strong growth will be driven by 300mm, which by 2006 could represent 25%of total volume of silicon shipments.”

All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers, and nonpolished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.

The Silicon Manufacturers Group acts as an independent special interest group within the SEMI structure and is open to all SEMI members involved in manufacturing polycrystalline silicon, monocrystalline silicon or silicon wafers (e.g., as cut, polished, epi, etc.), not including reclaimed wafers. The purpose of the group is to facilitate collective efforts on issues related to the silicon industry including the acquisition of market information and statistics about the silicon industry and the semiconductor market.