Samsung

Global fab equipment spending promises to crawl out of a gloomy 2019 and see a modest recovery this year before a sharp uptick drives record investments in 2021 in a vivid display of the decades-old cyclicality playing out in the semiconductor industry.

Compared to the first half of 2019, the second half smacks of a recovery, with fab equipment spending revised upward to show a stronger 2019 overall in the latest update of the World Fab Forecast report, published by SEMI.

The photomask market has seen exceptional growth of 13% and 8% in 2017 and 2018, respectively. The upsurge is striking given that, in the early to mid-2000s, the photomask market averaged less than 4 percent annual growth. And the gap between the past two years and the previous ten is remarkable.

For the semiconductor industry, 2018 was nothing if not incredible. Chip revenue shot up to $469 billion, trouncing the record-setting $412 billion reached in 2017 to reach a new high. Both semiconductor equipment and materials hit record revenues of $65 billion and $52 billion, respectively.

The December 2018 edition of the World Fab Forecast Report published by SEMI reveals a downward revision of total fab equipment spending growth for 2018 to 10% from the 14% forecast in August. Spending in 2019 is now projected to drop 8%, a reversal from the previously expected increase of 7%.