SEMI, Milpitas, Calif., has released the group’s World Fab Forecast, reporting that global fabricator equipment spending will increase 14 percent this year to $62.8 billion, and is expected to rise 7.5 percent to $67.5 billion in 2019, marking the fourth consecutive year of spending growth and the highest investment year for fab equipment in the history of the industry. Investments in new fab construction are also nearing a record with a fourth consecutive year of growth predicted and capital outlays next year approaching $17 billion.
Investments for fab technology and product upgrades, as well as for additional capacity, will grow as the emergence of numerous new fabs significantly increases equipment demand, the forecast shows. The World Fab Forecast Report currently tracks 78 new fabs and lines that have or will start construction between 2017 and 2020 (with various probabilities), and will eventually require more than $220 billion in fab equipment. Construction spending for these fabs and lines is expected to reach $53 billion during this period.
Korea is projected to lead other regions in fab equipment investments with $63 billion, $1 billion more than second-place China. Taiwan is expected to claim the third spot at $40 billon, followed by Japan at $22 billion and the Americas at $15 billion. Europe and Southeast Asia will share sixth place, with investments totaling $8 billion each. Fully 60 percent of these fabs will serve the Memory sector (the lion’s share will be 3D NAND), and a third will go to Foundry.
While the $220 billion estimate is based on current insights of known and announced fab plans, total spending could exceed this level as many companies continue to announce plans for new fabs. Since the last quarterly publication of the report, 18 new records – all new fabs – have been added to the forecast. Up-to-date and detailed analysis, with a bottoms-up approach, is available by subscribing to SEMI’s World Fab Forecast Report.
www.semi.org/en/MarketInfo/FabDatabase
www.youtube.com/user/SEMImktstats.
