Semicon equipment spending down by 16% in 2012, says Gartner

Gartner finds worldwide semiconductor capital equipment spending totaled $37.8 billion in 2012, a 16.1 percent decline from 2011. Gartner says Wafer-level manufacturing under performed the market in 2012, pulled down by weakness in lithography and deposition. Among the major sectors, those more strongly driven by logic manufacturing, 28/20-nanometer (nm) processing and yield ramps-ups did better. "Continued oversupply in DRAM and the shift to NAND into oversupply led to a reduced need for capacity," said Klaus-Dieter Rinnen, managing vice president at Gartner. "Memory manufacturing-related purchases declined significantly. Logic-related spending provided only a weak counterforce, impacted by slowing overall semiconductor device demand in the second half of 2012 and bulging inventories. Consequently, manufacturing equipment sales realized a declining quarterly pattern, starting in the second quarter through the end of the year." Applied Materials reclaimed the No. 1 spot based on its relative strength in deposition and process control (see table below). Weakness in lithography and limited sales in extreme ultraviolet (EUV) caused ASML's decline. Similar to Applied, Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) benefited from its relative strength in the nonlithography sectors it serves. Lam Research moved into the No. 4 position with its merger with Novellus Systems.