
On the back of its more bullish IC and capital expenditure forecast revisions, Gartner has upwardly revised silicon semiconductor wafer demand. The market research firm now expects demand will only decline by 18.2%, to 6,872 million square inches in 2009, down from its March forecast that was projecting demand declining by 35.3%.
Wafer demand has seen double digit growth in Q2 and Q309. In Q3, demand increased by 17%, compared with the previous quarter. Gartner expects demand to continue to grow in Q4, but seasonally down in Q1 before recovering throughout 2010.
Although Gartner expects quarterly growth moderate, the annual increase in demand for silicon wafers is forecasted to increase 23.4% in 2010.