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TAP TIMES -29- SEPTEMBER 2022
Semiconductor CAPEX shows grated device manufacturers (IDMs) re-
21% growth this year mained well above 90% through the first
half of this year and many semiconduc-
SCOTTSDALE, Arizona — IC Insights tor foundries operated at 100% utilization
has adjusted its 2022 worldwide rates, as orders remained robust during
semiconductor capital-spending fore- the economic recovery from the Covid-19
cast that now shows a 21% increase pandemic.
this year, to $185.5 billion (See fig-
ure). Combined two-year semiconductor capital
spending in 2021 and 2022 is now expect-
Decrease from 24% growth ed to reach $338.6 billion.
The revised outlook, which was included in
IC Insights’ recently released August 3Q IDM, foundries spending heavily
Update to The McClean Report, represents IDMs and foundries are spending heavily
a decrease from $190.4 billion and 24% on new manufacturing capacity for logic
growth that was forecast at the beginning and memory devices built with leading-
of this year. edge process technology.
Although lowered, the revised CAPEX fore- However, strong demand and ongoing
cast still represents a new record high shortages of many other essential chips
level of spending. such as power semiconductors, analog
ICs, and various MCUs, have caused sup-
In fact, if industry capital spending rises pliers to boost manufacturing capacity for
as forecast by a double-digit amount this those products as well. While all of that is
year, it will mark the first three-year pe- positive news, a menacing cloud of uncer-
riod of double-digit capital expenditure tainty looms on the horizon.
gains in the semiconductor industry since
1993-1995. Cloud of uncertainty
Soaring inflation and a rapidly decelerating
Wafer fab utilization rates at many inte worldwide economy caused semicon
ductor manufacturers to reevalu-
ate ate their aggressive expansion
plans at the mid-point of the year.
Several (but not all) suppliers—
particularly many leading DRAM
and flash memory manufactur-
ers—have already announced
reductions in their CAPEX budgets
for this year.
Many more suppliers have noted
that capital spending cuts are ex-
pected in 2023 as the industry di-
gests three years of robust spend-
ing and evaluates capacity needs
in the face of slowing economic
growth. icinsights.com
