More than 15 wafer fabs were shut down in 2010 and eight more will close in 2011.

According to a report by SEMI the mothballing of wafer fabs is coming as more IDM companies aim to cut costs and become fab-lite and fabless. It predicts that there outsourcing will only get greater in coming years and we can expect more fabs joining the dodo in going extinct.

According to SEMI statistics, 11 of the shuttered fabs were 8-inch fabs and one was a 12-inch facility. For 2010, six 8-inch, three 6-inch, two 5-inch, a 4-inch, a 3-inch and two 2-inch fabs were shut down.

Digitimes reports that 2011 will see one 8-inch, three 6-inch, two five-inch and two 4-inch fabs close down. The winners will be TSMC, UMC, Globalfoundries, SMIC and Samsung Electronics who are likely to be the outsourcing partners and will make a killing out of it.