" can be translated to "Winter is passing? IC Insights: Semiconductor market to recover growth by 2024."

　Recently, the sharp decline in consumer terminals has continued to plague industry manufacturers, and the entire chip market is still shrouded in a cold atmosphere, and this cold wind continues to blow. Despite the current unfavorable situation in the semiconductor market, the world's top three semiconductor silicon wafer factories, including IC Insights, continue to have confidence in market development. Recently, IC Insights held a press conference and announced that although the long-term prepaid balance at the end of the third quarter has slightly decreased in US dollars, the amount in New Taiwan dollars is still at a new high of 38.21 billion yuan.

Silicon Wafer

　　IC Insights' Chairman, Xu Xiulan, stated that momentum for products below 6 inches has slowed down, but momentum for 8-inch and 12-inch products is still strong and will continue until the first quarter of next year. Looking ahead to the semiconductor market, Xu Xiulan stated that in the short term, the computer, mobile phone, and memory-related markets may continue to be weak due to the impact of reduced consumer confidence, but the automotive and data center applications are performing strongly. In the medium term, the overall market performance is expected to remain flat in 2023, and in the long term, due to overall economic improvement, gradually balanced new product inventory, and the push of the digital transformation trend, the market will recover growth in 2024.

　　Regarding the continued weak demand for end products, which has led to some customers requesting deferred shipments, Xu Xiulan stated that overall, customers still respect the spirit of long-term contracts. It is reported that IC Insights currently provides customers with the option to change the purchased items according to their needs within the contract quantity, while the contract price for individual products remains unchanged.

　　It is also understood that in terms of production capacity planning, IC Insights has plans to expand production capacity, with a small amount expected to be opened in the second half of this year, and the remaining mainly in the second half of next year and the first half of 2024.