Fab equipment spending to jump 25% next year

A new SEMI report released today says fab equipment spending will decline by 1% this year, but increase by a whopping 25% in 2014. The report also shows detailed predictions for robust spending in dram and flash by several large companies, including Micron and Samsung. While dram equipment spending dropped by 35% in 2011 and 25% in 2012, the data shows that dram fab equipment spending will increase by 17% in 2013 and at least 30%in 2014. While an increase of about 2 to 3% for installed capacity for dram in 2014 may seem small, it is actually quite remarkable given that the industry has not added any new dram capacity for years, and actually cutback capacity between 2011 and 2013. The sector with largest growth rate for fab equipment spending in 2014 is expected to be flash, with a 40 to 45% increase year on year. Overall fab equipment spending for flash alone is projected to hit a record of almost $8billion in 2014. After flash and dram, mpu is expected to show the next largest growth in 2014, with fab equipment spending growing by over 40% year on year.