Fab equipment orders show significant rise
1 min read
Semiconductor manufacturing equipment trade body says the book to bill ratio for North American semiconductor equipment companies climbed to 1.17 in September. A number in excess of unity indicates that orders are increasing beyond the current level of equipment being supplied.
According to market analyst Gartner, its latest forecast is for capital spending to increase by 42% in Q3, compared to Q2, and for Q4 spending to increase by a further 18%. It also points to a recent announcement by Texas Instruments that it will be spending $800million this year on fab equipment.
Gartner analyst Bob Johnson noted: "So far, most of the increase in capital spending is targeted at technology improvements, rather than new capacity. Taiwanese memory companies are investing in the tools necessary to enter the sub 45nm range of processes and others in the logic realm are upgrading fabs for initial 32nm production."
But he notes that it is still too early to tell if much of this activity is simply to catch up after five quarters of significant quarter over quarter declines, or it is the beginning of the climb back to longterm sustainable growth. "We are starting to think that it's the latter of these options, as indicated by the recent surprisingly strong surge in semiconductor industry revenue. In any case, the return of quarterly growth is a strong indication that the recovery is finally under way."
