SEMI認(rèn)為由于后道設(shè)備的定單增加和日韓的產(chǎn)量增加,2003年半導(dǎo)體設(shè)備市場(chǎng)將有6％－7％的增加。
Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI) held its Q3 market statistics briefing late Nov. Dan Tracy, SEMI''s director of industry research, presented more evidence that a recovery is under way for process equipment vendors, and that the front end is finally catching up with the backend.
Year-to-date spending through September on overall capital equipment in 2003 of $15 .6 billion is still well behind that of 2002, which hit the $19.8 billion mark in September of last year. But assembly and test equipment sales have risen steadily throughout the year, and it was front-end equipment orders and shipments that lagged, dragging the overall numbers down.
Backend assembly equipment orders bottomed in Q3 of 2002 at $300 million, and have been rising steadily ever since, with a slight drop in Q3 of this year. Front-end equipment orders, however, peaked in Q2 of last year at more than $5 billion, and dropped for the next three quarters before bottoming in Q1 of this year under $3 billion.
Chip unit volumes have driven a lot of the backend activity this year. Tracy noted that in September of this year, unit volumes surpassed the peak set in September of 2000, when units flirted with the 100 billion mark. This activity, which has driven up capacity utilization rates, has meant business growth at backend subcons; packaging foundry revenues have grown 18.5 percent since the beginning of the year, and rose 13 percent in Q3 alone, Tracy said.
Consequently, it has been a boon for the assembly and packaging equipment and materials markets. SEMI''s leadframe unit shipment index has shown steady growth since Q4 of last year, and is on track for 6 percent to 7 percent growth this year. ATE sales have continued to grow, reaching $1.1 billion in Q3, up 4 percent quarter-over-quarter.
While overall backend equipment orders for North American-based suppliers dropped 2 percent month-over-month in September -- the first drop in a number of months -- orders were up 8 percent month-over-month in October, according to SEMI''s preliminary book-to-bill data for the month, released Wednesday. The backend book-to-bill ratio for North American assembly and packaging equipment suppliers consequently grew from 1.05 in September to 1.06 in October. The ratio has remained above 1 since March of this year. |
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