SEMI Sees 21% Increase in Chip Equipment Spending for 2014

Mid-year Forecast for Chip Equipment Industry Shows Improving Outlook

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. — July 8, 2013 â€” SEMI forecasts semiconductor equipment sales will reach $43.98 billion in 2014, a 21 percent increase over estimated 2013 equipment spending, according to the mid-year edition of the SEMI Capital Equipment Forecast, released here today at the annual SEMICON West exposition.

Following two years of conservative capital investments by major chip manufacturers, semiconductor equipment spending is forecast to grow to $43.98 billion in 2014, up from $36.29 billion projected this year.  Key drivers for equipment spending are significant NAND Flash fab investments by Samsung in China and Toshiba/Sandisk in Japan, and investments by Intel, including its fabs in Ireland.  Most major regions of the world will see significant equipment spending increases.  Front-end wafer processing equipment will grow 24 percent in 2014 to $35.59 billion, up from $28.70 billion in 2013.  Test equipment and assembly and packaging equipment will also experience growth next year, rising to $3.18 billion (+6 percent) and $2.9 billion (+14 percent), respectively. The forecast indicates that next year will be the second largest spending year ever, surpassed only by $47.7 billion spent in 2000.

"Continued strong demand by consumers for smart phones and tablet computers is driving chip manufacturers to expand capacity for memory, logic and wireless devices,” said Denny McGuirk, president and CEO of SEMI. “To meet the pent-up demand for capacity, particularly for leading-edge devices, we expect capital spending to increase throughout the remainder of this year and continue through 2014 — to post one of the highest rates of global investment for semiconductor manufacturing ever.”

Growth is forecasted in China (82 percent), Europe (79 percent), South Korea (31 percent), Japan (21 percent), North America (9 percent), and Taiwan (2 percent). Taiwan will continue to be the world’s largest spender with $10.62 billion estimated for 2014, followed by North America at $8.75 billion and Korea with $8.74 billion. The following results are given in terms of market size in billions of U.S. dollars and percentage growth over the prior year:

Visit www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo.  For more information or to subscribe, please contact SEMI customer service at 1.877.746.7788 (toll free in the U.S.) or 1.408.943.6901 (International Callers).

SEMICON West 2013 (July 9-11) has three premier sponsors: Advantest, Applied Materials, and KLA-Tencor.

About SEMI

SEMI is the global industry association serving the nano- and micro-electronic manufacturing supply chains. Our 1,900 member companies are the engine of the future, enabling smarter, faster and more economical products that improve our lives. Since 1970, SEMI has been committed to helping members grow more profitably, create new markets and meet common industry challenges. SEMI maintains offices in Bangalore, Beijing, Berlin, Brussels, Grenoble, Hsinchu, Moscow, San Jose, Seoul, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Washington, D.C. For more information, visit www.semi.org.