Pure play foundries are top buyers of semiconductor equipment
IC Insights has reported the total capital outlays by the Big 4 pure-play foundries are forecast to be $16.6 billion in 2013, which would represent 53% of their combined sales (Figure 1). This far exceeds the industry average of 18% capital-spending-to-sales ratio. The Big 4’s capital spending as a percent of “final sales” is forecast to be 24% in 2013, still well above industry average.
Figure 1 Below is the further analysis by IC Insights on this subject: A few years ago, TSMC stated that it planned to keep its capital spending at about 20% of its sales, but that was before GlobalFoundries and Samsung brought competitive pressure to the market and started chipping away at TSMC’s business. TSMC spent $5.9 billion in capital spending in 2010 (a budget that was increased twice in the first half of the year), an all-time record amount of capital spending for the company at that time. TSMC spent $8.3 billion in capital expenditures in 2012 and plans to further increase its capex spending to $10.0 billion in 2013. It appears that TSMC will be aggressive in its marketshare fight with GlobalFoundries and Samsung and is likely to greatly exceed its 20% of sales goal for capital spending outlays over the next few years. The question with regard to the expected combi...
Figure 1 Below is the further analysis by IC Insights on this subject: A few years ago, TSMC stated that it planned to keep its capital spending at about 20% of its sales, but that was before GlobalFoundries and Samsung brought competitive pressure to the market and started chipping away at TSMC’s business. TSMC spent $5.9 billion in capital spending in 2010 (a budget that was increased twice in the first half of the year), an all-time record amount of capital spending for the company at that time. TSMC spent $8.3 billion in capital expenditures in 2012 and plans to further increase its capex spending to $10.0 billion in 2013. It appears that TSMC will be aggressive in its marketshare fight with GlobalFoundries and Samsung and is likely to greatly exceed its 20% of sales goal for capital spending outlays over the next few years. The question with regard to the expected combi...
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