SEMI: Global Fab Equipment Spending Poised To Log Three Straight Years Of Record Highs
Publish Date :2021/03/17
Fueled by surging pandemic-inspired demand for electronics devices, the
global semiconductor industry is on track to register a rare three consecutive
years of record highs in fab equipment spending with a 16% increase in 2020
followed by forecast gains of 15.5% this year and 12% in 2022, SEMI highlighted
in its quarterly World Fab Forecast report on March 16th.
Fabs worldwide will
add about $10 billion worth of equipment in each of the three years as spending
climbs to top $80 billion at the end of the forecast period. Explosive demand
for electronics that are the backbone of communications, computing, healthcare
and online services – sectors that mounted robust responses to the COVID-19
outbreak as the world rallied to curb the coronavirus’s spread – account for
much of the spending.
Fab equipment spending has historically been cyclical, with one or two years
of growth typically followed by a downtrend of roughly equal length. The
semiconductor industry last saw three straight years of fab equipment investment
growth in a run that started in 2016. It was nearly 20 years before that streak
that the industry recorded an expansion of at least three years. In the
mid-1990s, the chip industry boasted a four-year period of growth.
The bulk of fab investments in 2021 and 2022 will be seen in the foundry and
the memory sectors. Driven by leading edge investment, foundry spending is
expected to grow 23% in 2021, reach $32 billion and flatten in 2022. Overall
memory spending will increase in the single digits to reach $28 billion in 2021
while DRAM will surpass NAND Flash, and then surge by 26% in 2022 on the
strength of both DRAM and 3D NAND investment.
The power and MPU segment will also see strong spending growth over the
forecast period. Power is forecast to show strong investment growth of 46% and
26%, respectively, in 2021 and 2022 driven by strong demand for power
semiconductor devices. MPU will add to the momentum with 40% growth in 2022 as
microprocessor investments increase.
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