According to Digitimes, many IC designers are conservative about vying for 8-inch foundry capacities in the second half of 2018, especially for processing LCD driver ICs and MOSFET chips involving comparatively lower gross margins.

The reason is that customer order visibility remains unclear and analogue IC suppliers are uncertain if terminal market demand will pick up significantly until the upcoming shopping season in China.

The suppliers said if the sales numbers for the two periods fail to hit new highs, chipmakers would surely slow down the replenishment of their chip inventories in the fourth quarter of the year.

So far eight-inch foundry fabs in Taiwan and China have been running at full capacity, but chipmakers now have seen sufficient inventories, and many smartphone vendors have also adjusted downward their shipment goals for 2018 in response to weak market demand.