Fab equipment spending to exceed US$70 billion in 2022
Spending in 2021 to reach US$66 billion, according to SEMI
Wafer fab equipment spending is expected to exceed US$70 billion in 2022, hitting an all time high from high demand for semiconductors, SEMI director Clark Tseng said.
The fab equipment spending will reach US$66 billion this year, double that of US$30 billion in 2012.
Spending will increase in wafer fab, semiconductor materials, testing and packaging, Tseng said.
Equipment spending will be the highest for foundry and logics this year. In 2022, US$35 billion is expected to be spent on the sectors.
Spending in equipment for NAND flash and DRAM is expected to be US$22 billion. High demand for memory from 5G, data center, server, artificial intelligence, high performance computing and autonomous driving are expected.
Testing equipment spending reached US$5.8 billion in 2020 but will grow to US$6.8 billion in 2021. Testing equipment for 5G and high performance computing will be high, SEMI said.
Spending for assembly and packaging equipment increased 30% on-year in 2020 to US$3.8 billion. Spending will increase 8% this year to reach US$4 billion. It will reach US$4.2 billion in 2022. Next-generation packaging technology and evolution of wire bonding technology will increase demand for new equipment, the organization said.
Wafer fab materials spending will reach US$5.6 billion in 2021 and US$5.8 billion in 2022. Demand for photomask, wet chemical, photoresist and ancillaries were on a steady rise, SEMI noted.
Spending in substrates will increase 8% on-year this year to US$8.3 billion. This is from substrates used for next-generation materials for 5G and HPC applications.
Flip chip ball grid array (FC-BGA), chip-on-wafer-on-substrate (CoWoS) of TSMC, fan-out-chip-on-substrate (FOCoS) of ASE and substrate-SWIFT of Amkor will lead to larger spending.
Taiwan will be the highest spender for the next two years, SEMI said. The country will spend US$19.9 billion this year and US$21.2 billion in 2022. South Korea will spend US$18.9 billion this year and US$20.7 billion in 2022.
On the worldwide chip shortage, Tseng said 200mm foundry production will be tight up to the second quarter this year.