Date: 10/06/2012

SEMI: Semiconductor fab equipment revenue to grow at 2% in 2012 and 17% in 2013

SEMI has forecasted the semiconductor chip manufacturing equipment spending in 2012 to reach US$ 39.5 billion, a 2% annual growth and is forecasted by SEMI to reach an all-time record high of $46.3 billion or 17% growth from 2012.

Regions planning to spend the most on fab equipment as per SEMI are are: Korea (over $11 billion), Taiwan ($8.5 billion), and the Americas ($8.3 billion). In 2013, the largest spending is expected again in Korea (over $12.5 billion), the Americas (over $11.5 billion), and Taiwan (over $8 billion). All product types are increasing equipment spending in 2012 with the largest increase seen in 2012 for Memory and Foundry.

The other points reported by SEMI:

Construction spending has an improved outlook when compared to just a few months ago, with major announcements from Intel, Samsung, SMIC, TSMC, UMC and others. SEMI has identified about 45 planned projects (including new and on-going) in 2012 and 24 planned in 2013. Fab construction spending will drop now only 6 percent in 2012 to $6.2 billion. Fab construction spending in 2013 is also expected to improve dramatically, with a decline of only about 1 percent to $6.1 billion, close to breaking the 0 percent barrier.

In 2012, 11 new fabs will begin construction. In 2013, however, only 7 new fabs will begin construction, though this picture may change the closer we get to 2013.

The combined planned capacity of all new fabs beginning construction in 2012 will be 900,000 wafers per month (in 200mm equivalents). Memory accounts for 60 percent of this capacity, Foundry 20 percent, and System LSI another 20 percent. The new fabs beginning construction in 2013 have a planned capacity for 550,000 wafers per month.