2011 semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales should be the second highest in the industry’s history, says SEMI. The highest was 2000.
2011 sales should reach $44.33bn a 12.1% increase over 2010 which was a 148% growth year.
‘While the outlook remains positive, there may be a very brief interval of lower equipment sales, as some device manufacturers temporarily postpone orders due to worldwide financial uncertainty,’ says SEMI.
In the face of some weakness in IC sales, some foundries are currently experiencing lower utilisation rates and some memory makers are a bit wary of adding capacity
TSMC and UMC posted declines in sales for several consecutive months due to weaker global demand. TSMC cut capex from $7.8m to $ 7.4bn.
Year-to-date billings for semiconductor equipment reached about $24bn globally through June, while the three-month average bookings remained relatively stable, around $3.8bn over the first six months of the year.
Driving equipment investments are primarily technology upgrades, with incremental investments in capacity expansions at existing facilities.
Nine companies spent over one billion dollars in 2010; only four device manufacturers spent over a billion dollars in 2009. Eight companies are expected to spend over a billion dollars in 2011, compared to the 17 that spent over a billion dollars in 2007.
Wafer Processing equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is expected to increase 19% in 2011 to $35.1 billion.
Test and Assembly equipment will contract in 2011, with semiconductor Test equipment forecasted to decline by almost 6% (to $3.9bn).
Assembly and Packaging is forecasted to decline by 18% (to $3.2 billion).
Taiwan is expected to be the largest market for equipment spending in both 2011 and 2012. In 2011.
North America will be the second largest market in equipment spending ($9.3 billion), with an almost 61% increase in spending over the previous year.
Forecasted spending increases in 2011 will be particularly dramatic in North America and Europe owing to Intel’s and GlobalFoundries’ aggressive capex plans.
Additional projects driving the North American market include IBM Microelectronics investments in Building 323, while Micron/IM Flash Lehi and Manassas fabs and Samsung’s Austin’s fabs are all equipping this year.
In addition, ST Micro is investing in Crolles 2, France. Korea will be the third largest market in terms of equipment spending ($8bn) due to significant investments by Samsung and Hynix.
In 2012, the new equipment market is expected to experience a slight decrease of about 1%, with Wafer Processing equipment spending declining 2%. However, low single-digit growth in both the Test and Assembly equipment markets is expected