February 16, 2010 – After two months of punishing declines, worldwide silicon wafer shipments rebounded through most of 2010, though in terms of sales there’s still a lot of ground to make up, according to new numbers from SEMI.

Wafer shipments in 4Q09 finished at 2109 millions of sq. in. (MSI), up about 7% from 3Q09 and nearly 50% from 4Q08 — which was the first of two quarters of ~-35% declines in shipments. For the full year, wafer shipments totaled 6707 MSI, about 18% below FY08. Since 1Q09’s seven-year low of 940 MSI, the industry has more than doubled its shipments, an encouraging trend, noted Takashi Yamada, chairman of SEMI SMG and GM of SUMCO, in a statement.

While shipments have roared back, wafer pricing hasn’t fared as well. Revenues plunged >41% in 2009, after about a -6% decline in 2008, according to SEMI. That’s back to levels not seen since 2003.

The data includes polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users. The silicon is for semiconductor applications only.