Front-End Fab Equipment Spending To Grow 17% In 2013

By Christian Gregor Dieseldorff
SEMI just released an update to its World Fab Forecast database, which indicates that total fab spending for equipment needed to ramp fabs, upgrade technology nodes, and expand or change wafer size could increase 16.7 percent in 2013 to reach a new record high of $42.7 billion. The estimate includes new equipment, used equipment, or in-house equipment but excludes test assembly and packaging equipment.

The latest edition of the SEMI World Fab Forecast lists over 1,150 facilities (including 300 Opto/LED facilities), with 76 facilities starting production this year and in the near future. The database tracks projected spending on equipment and construction. Since the previous fab database publication in May 2012, SEMI analysts have made over 296 updates to more than 230 facilities (including 52 Opto/LED fabs) in the database.

Semiconductor manufacturing foundries were significant drivers of fab equipment spending in 2012 with over $10 billion combined investment. Their dominance is expected to continue with approximately $10 billion additional equipment spending in 2013.

In 2012, the Americas had the largest percentage of fab construction. From 2010 to 2012, over $6 billion will be spent in the Americas on fab construction projects led by Intel, Globalfoundries, Samsung, and Micron. Most of these construction projects will be completed by the end of 2012. No immediate new fab projects in the Americas are anticipated, resulting in projected investment for 2013 construction to drop below $500 million from almost $3 billion in 2012.

In 2013, most of the fab construction in will occur in Taiwan, China, and Korea. Samsung has begun an aggressive conversion of up to four existing Memory lines to System LSI. A transition from Flash to System LSI is difficult; some drop in capacity in Memory is expected, but the company is expected to compensate by building a new fab for Memory, in Xian, China, with a massive investment of $7 billion. The fab is expected to begin construction mid-September 2012.

The SEMI World Fab Forecast provides additional detail about the phases for ramping this leading-edge Flash fab with huge potential capacity. Other increases in fab construction investment will come from SMIC’s new fab in Beijing, and TSMC and UMC fab projects in Taiwan. Learn more about the SEMI fab databases here and here.

Webinar: Sept. 18 “Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry Outlook”
For more information, attend the upcoming webinar “Semiconductor Manufacturing Industry Outlook” on Tuesday, Sept. 18, 2012 at 10:00am Pacific. The webinar is free to SEMI members and $100 for non-members.

The webinar will focus on semiconductor equipment spending trends in relation to fabs and the semiconductor materials market including packaging materials. Jonathan Davis, president, SEMI Global Semiconductor Business, will moderate the webinar. Presenters include: Christian Gregor Dieseldorf, on “Fab forecast of equipment spending and capacity: Where are we heading in 2012 and 2013?” and Lara Chamness, SEMI senior analyst manager, on “Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Update.”

More information about the webinar is available here:
To register, click here.