'Spending on semicon equipment to rise in H2'

The worldwide spending on semiconductor capital equipment will return to the growth path in the second half of 2009 with a 47.3 per cent rise in spending, according to analyst firm Gartner. However, owing to the steep declines in spending in the first half of this year, the market is expected to decline 47.9 per cent, it added.

The report also said that the semiconductor capital equipment spending will rebound in 2010, when revenue forecast is expected to increase 34.3 per cent to touch $30.7 billion. All segments of the market including wafer fab equipment, packaging and assembly equipment and automated test equipment at expected to grow at a healthy space in 2010, the report added.

“Equipment purchases for the remainder of 2009 and the first half of 2010 will be mostly technology buys, as memory companies get ready for copper implementation, and double patterning for critical geometries in the 5x nm and 4x nm generations,” said Dean Freeman, research vice president at Gartner.

According to the report, worldwide wafer fab equipment (WFE) spending is expected to decrease 48.8 per cent in 2009. For 2010, parallelling anticipated growth in capital spending, WFE spending is expected to increase 38.3 per cent. Similarly, the packaging and assembly equipment (PAE) spending which is expected to decline 43.1 per cent in 2009, will bounce back in 2010 with an increase of 40.5 per cent. The recovery for PAE began in the second quarter of this year as the market bounced off its sharp correction in the fourth quarter of 2008 through the first quarter of 2009, the report added.

“Capacity will begin to ramp in the second half of 2010 as businesses and consumers begin to open up their pocket books to purchase electronic goods, and more consistent semiconductor growth should be occurring worldwide,” added Freeman.