Semi Manufacturing Equipment Spending Down 11.5% in 2013
STAMFORD, CT – Worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending totaled $33.8 billion in 2013, an 11.5% decline year-over-year, says Gartner.
Wafer-level manufacturing equipment demand performed above the market, with strength in lithography and associated processes, while backend manufacturing segments fared significantly worse than average, the firm says.
Applied Materials held onto the No. 1 spot based on its relative strength in deposition and etch. Relative strength in lithography – albeit with limited sales in extreme ultraviolet – helped ASML to retain the No. 2 position. Lam Research moved into the No. 3 spot as a result of its strong performance in etch and deposition. Tokyo Electron, like other companies headquartered in Japan, was impacted by the significant decline in the yen-to-US-dollar exchange rate, as well as unfavorable customer buying patterns, says Gartner.
Notable is the further rise of the sales share of the top 10 vendors, now at 70%, compared with 68% in 2012. The top five vendors command nearly 57% of the total market, up 5 points from the prior year.
Wafer-level manufacturing outperformed the market in 2013, on relative strength in dry etch, lithography, manufacturing automation and deposition. Spending was selective, focused on upgrades and latest-technology buys with little addition of capacity. Logic spending focused on preparing for 20nm/14nm production. Only a few subsegments managed to expand — most notably, steppers in lithography, nontube chemical vapor deposition, conductor etch, rapid thermal processing and furnaces, and select process control segments, according to the research firm.
In the backend segments, all major categories experienced significant declines. The fourth quarter of 2013 was particularly slow, as major semiconductor assembly and test services vendors pushed out orders because of market uncertainty.
