Global sme spending down 46 percent in 2009

The report reveals that in major segments, wafer fab equipment declined 47%, while back end equipment decreased 40%, as both areas were hit hard by reductions in capital spending. Dean Freeman, research vice president for Gartner's semiconductor manufacturing research group, said: "In the past two years, the semiconductor industry responded to increasingly bad economic news by rapidly stopping all but essential spending in an attempt to preserve cash in uncertain economic times. "In the memory sector, continuing losses resulting from plunging prices drove memory capital spending down 54% from an already depressed 2008 level. Logic and mixed signal spending declined 26% as manufacturers concentrated on technology upgrades to the next line width to position themselves for the recovery. By the end of the year, the major companies resumed spending, with a focus on implanting the latest technology throughout their organisations." Freeman predicts that this trend will continue in 2010, with technology upgrades accounting for the majority of spending, "at least through the first half of the year."