South Korea had the second-largest monthly capacity of 200-millimeter-equivalent wafers last year behind Taiwan, a report showed Wednesday.

The country, home to major chipmakers like Samsung Electronics Co. and SK hynix Inc., had a capacity of 4.25 million wafers per month, accounting for 20.4 percent of global wafer capacity as of December 2020, according to market researcher IC Insights.

Taiwan was the capacity leader at 200mm or 8-inch wafers, taking 21.4 percent of the global capacity. The country, represented by the world's No. 1 foundry firm Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. (TSMC), has been staying atop since 2015.

"Taiwan is expected to remain the largest region for wafer capacity through 2025," IC Insights said. "The country is forecast to add nearly 1.4 million wafers (200mm-equivalent) in monthly fab capacity between 2020 and 2025."

Japan came in third with 15.8 percent, followed by China with 15.3 percent, IC Insights' report showed. The data counted the monthly capacity of fabs in the country regardless of locations of chipmakers' headquarters.

But when it comes to 300mm wafers, IC Insights data showed South Korea was the leader followed closely by Taiwan.

"Samsung and SK hynix continue to aggressively expand their fabs in South Korea to support their high-volume DRAM and NAND flash businesses," it said. (Yonhap)