Global fab equipment spending promises to rebound from its 2019 downturn and see a modest recovery this year before a sharp uptick drives record investments in 2021, SEMI said in its recent report.
The report shows a slow recovery in 2020 - 3% year-over-year (YoY) growth to US$57.8 billion - owing in large part to an 18% expected slump in the first half of 2020 from the second half of 2019. The picture should brighten in the second half of this year as a recovery starts to take hold, SEMI indicated.
The coronavirus outbreak has eroded fab equipment spending in China in 2020, prompting SEMI to revise its overall growth forecast this year. China equipment spending will grow about 5% on year to over US$12 billion in 2020, and surge 22% or US$15 billion in 2021. Investments by Samsung, SK Hynix, SMIC and YMTC will drive the growth, SEMI said.
Powered by TSMC and Micron investments, Taiwan will be the top region in spending in 2020 with nearly US$14 billion in equipment investments but drop to third in 2021 with over US$13 billion in spending, a 5% decline, SEMI said.
In 2020, Korea will rank second in fab equipment spending on the strength of investments by Samsung and SK Hynix, logging 31% growth, to US$13 billion, before jumping to the top with a 26% advance, to US$17 billion, in 2021, according to SEMI.
Southeast Asia (mainly Singapore) will also register robust growth (33% on year to US$2.2 billion) in 2020 and 26% in 2021, SEMI said.
Of all regions, Europe/Mideast will show the strongest equipment spending growth with a surge of more than 50%, to US$3.7 billion, in 2020 and match that gain in 2021 on the back of investments by Intel, STMicroelectronics and Infineon, SEMI indicated.
In Japan, fab equipment spending growth will be negligible at almost 2% in 2020 and bump up to nearly 4% in 2021, with investments by Kioxia/Western Digital, Sony and Micron leading the way, SEMI said.
Lagging the pack, the Americas will spend less in 2020 than in 2019, with fab equipment investments plunging 24% to US$6.2 billion, and extend the downturn with a 4% decline in 2021, SEMI disclosed.
