Worldwide monthly shipments of 300mm silicon wafers were estimated at 860,000 units in March 2005 and were forecast to reach 1M units in December. In practice, shipments may not reach this level, however, because the start-up of production at some Taiwanese plants has been delayed. Monthly production capacity for 300mm wafers is estimated at 915,000 units at the end of 2004 (Table 2), a 74 percent year-on-year increase from 525,000 units a month at the end of 2003. All leading producers - Shinetsu Semiconductors, Mitsubishi Sumitomo Silicon, MEMC, Siltronics and Komatsu Electronic Metals - plan to increase capacity. Total capacity is forecast to exceed 2M units a month by the end of 2007.
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