Is This Good News?
David Manners recently reported in Electronics Weekly that the semiconductor materials market will grow at double the rate of the chip industry. The actual numbers quoted from the SIA and SEMI respectively shake out as 4% for semiconductors and 9% for materials. It all sounds like solid growth - right?
Or does it? I fear that some solid-sounding numbers might be exploited to make things sound good when we might be headed for more trouble down the road. Where will the increase in tools and materials spending lead? Manners wisely attributed the more than double growth rate for materials to the combination of a rise in unit IC shipments coupled with a “steep decline in ASP…besetting the chip industry.”
Maybe I need to sign up for that remedial MBA program because I just don’t get it. What’s going to happen if the fabs’ spending rate on materials is increasing more than twice as fast as the revenues they get from the chips they manufacture?
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