Growth in semiconductors

Gartner Dataquest has issued semiconductor capital and equipment spending estimates for 2003 and 2004. The market researcher expects 7.9% growth in capital spending this year, reaching $29.9bn.

Next year, growth is put at 37.4% giving a total of $41bn. For capital equipment spending (excluding test), growth in 2003 and 2004 are set at 11.0% ($20.6bn) and 38.3% ($28.5bn), respectively. Of this, the wafer fab sector will take in $17.6bn and $24.4bn in 2003 and 2004, resulting in growth rates of 8.7% and 38.6%. Packaging and assembly equipment sales are forecast at $3bn and $4bn for growth rates of 26.5% and 36.4%. "On a regional basis, Japanese companies are most aggressively raising spending this year with a possible increase of 25-30% over 2002, funding its newly structured ventures," comments Klaus-Dieter Rinnen of Dataquest. Wafer demand is coming from the consumer and PC sectors, says Gartner Dataquest. A PC upgrade cycle is expected to emerge in the second half of the year, although it may start slowly.