According to the latest survey report by IC Insights, the production capacity of IC fabs in Taiwan, China, reached 4.126million wafers per month, accounting for 21.8% of the global total and ranking first in the world. China's mainland saw the largest increase in monthly energy production.

      The chart above shows the monthly capacity of IC fabs in the region as of December 2018. China's Taiwan fab capacity jumped to no. 1 in 2015 for the first time, with Taiwan accounting for 21.8 percent of global fab capacity in 2018, up slightly from 21.3 percent in 2017 and slightly ahead of South Korea's 21.3 percent, with a monthly capacity of 4.033 million wafers, according to the data. Among them, TSMC, samsung and SK hynix have the largest proportion in each region, and are also the top three manufacturers in the world. In 2018, TSMC accounted for 67 per cent of Taiwan's fabs, while samsung and SK hynix accounted for 94 per cent of South Korea's fabs.

Japan ranks third, accounting for 16.8 percent of total wafer fabrication capacity, with 3.168 million wafers per month, or about 8 inches. As a result of micron's acquisition of elpida a few years ago and other recent major changes in Japanese manufacturing strategies, including panasonic's spinoff of some of its fabs into separate companies, Toshiba and renesas together account for 62% of Japan's total fab capacity.

      China's share of global fab capacity rose the most in 2018, from 10.8 percent in 2017 to 12.5 percent in 2018. The growth rate was 1.7 percentage points, ranking fifth. In 2018, thanks to a boom in Chinese startups and their new fabs, as well as other global companies expanding their manufacturing operations in mainland China last year, their fabs' monthly capacity rose significantly to 2.361 million wafers (200mm, 8 inches). It is also close to catching up with America's fourth-biggest fabs (12.8% of global capacity).

      IC Insights' wafer capacity is calculated by location, not by country. South Korea's samsung electronics, for example, is producing more wafers in America than in North America.