The May 2012 edition of the World Fab Forecast, FabFutures, World Fab Watch, Opto/LED Fab Watch, and the Opto/LED Fab Forecast databases have been published. Here are a few highlights from Semis World Fab Forecast database:
Key Points
- Since the February 2012 report, the number of fab construction projects has increased: 45 in 2012 (up from 39) and 24 in 2013 (up from 21).
- Fab construction spending will decline now only -6% in 2012 to US$6.2B. This is a big improvement from the -28% decline forecasted in February.
- Expect year-over-year fab construction spending in 2013 to improve drastically to about -1% ($6.1B), which improved from -39% decline forecasted in February.
- Fab equipment spending for 2012 is expected to increase to US$39.5B or about 2% growth from the US$38.8B and 0% growth rate reported in February.
- In 2013, fab equipment spending could reach over US$46.3B or 17% growth. This will be an all-time record for fab equipment spending.
- Current capacity growth in 2012 is slower than reported in February: from 16M (equivalent 200mm wafers per month) to 15.87M or from 5.3% to 3.6% growth. 2013 is expected to increase about 7% to 17M.
- Capacity growth by product type in 2012: Logic (with System LSI) is leading with over 6% followed by Foundries with 5%. Memory is at about 3%.
Summary of Changes
- Since February 28, 2012 we have made 343 updates on 227 facilities including 58 changes on Opto & LED facilities.
- We added 17 new facilities: 2 LEDs, 4 Foundries, 4 MEMS, and 7 Discretes including one for Power
- We removed 9 facilities: 5 were closed, 2 were cancelled projects and 2 were merged.
- The report lists a total of 1166 facilities with 73 facilities starting volume production in 2012 or later. This includes about 28 LED fabs
