Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturing Industries (SEMI), San Jose, Calif., reports that after two years of decline, fab equipment spending for Front End facilities in 2014 is expected to increase by 24% in 2014 (US$35.7 billion). In terms of equipment spending, 2015 may reach or even surpass the historic record year 2011 (about US$39.8 billion). For the May 2014 SEMI World Fab Forecast publication, SEMI tracked more than 200 major projects involving equipment spending for new equipment or upgrades, as well as projects to build new facilities or refurbish existing facilities.
In 2014, the three largest regions for fab equipment spending will be Taiwan with over US$10.3 billion, the Americas with over US$6.8 billion, and Korea with over US$6.3 billion. In 2015, these same regions will lead in spending: Taiwan will spend over US$11 billion, Korea over US$8 billion, and the Americas almost US$7 billion. Although sixth in regional equipment spending this year, the Europe/Mideast region will show the strongest rate of growth, about about 20%.
Worldwide installed capacity is very low for both 2014 and 2015 and the SEMI data does not suggest that this will change over the next four years. Because of the increased complexity of leading-edge nodes, such as more process steps and multiple patterning, fabs experience a decline in capacity as the same fab space produces less. Worldwide, installed capacity grew by less than 2% in 2013 and is expected to grow just 2.5% in 2014 and 3% in 2015.
SEMI’s detailed data predict that Foundry capacity continues to grow at 8-10% yearly (a steady pace since 2012) and Flash is up 3 to 4% for 2014. Although DRAM equipment spending is expected to grow by 40% in 2014 as many fabs upgrade to a leading-edge process, installed capacity for DRAM is expected to stay flat or even drop by 2% percent.
