South Korea will lead in equipment spending in 300mm fabs until 2024, according to SEMI.
The country will invest between US$15 billion to US$19 billion from 2020 to 2024.
Taiwan came in second at between US$14 billion to US$17 billion, followed by China’s US$11 billion to US$13 billion.
Fab spending in 300mm wafer lines will increase by 13% in 2020 compared to a year ago. In 2021, it will grow by 4%, and in 2022 it will drop 2%. It will increase 20% again in 2023 for a total of US$70 billion, SEMI estimated.
Fab spending will be focused in the memory sector. SEMI estimates that 300mm memory fab spending will continue to increase in late single digit rate from 2020 to 2023. In 2024, it will increase by 10%, the association said.
Spending on DRAM and 3D NAND flash will differ year to year.
Spending in logic and microprocessor unit will however increase steadily from 2020 to 2023.
Power semiconductor spending is expected to grow by 200% in 2021 from the year prior. Double digit rate increase is expected in 2022 and 2023 in the sector, SEMI said.
At least 34 new 300mm fabs will be built worldwide between 2020 to 2024, SEMI also said.
In 2024, total fab production rate will exceed 7 million sheets per month. Eleven of the new fabs will be in Taiwan, and eight in China.
In 2024, a total of 161 300mm fabs will be in operation, SEMI estimated.
China is seeing rise in 300mm fab production capacity. In 2015, the country only accounted for 8% of the global total but it will have a production rate of 1.5 million sheets per month by 2024, accounting for 20% of the global total.
China’s national semiconductor company’s local production rate was 43% in 2020 but this will increase to 50% in 2022 and 60% to 2024, SEMI said.
COVID-19 was accelerating digital innovation in multiple industries, SEMI noted, and demand from cloud service, server, PC, games, healthcare, artificial intelligence and 5G will continue to increase fab spending going forward.
