Tuesday, December 19, 2006
By the year 2009, the China market for used semiconductor equipment will hit $800 million, as more foreign companies decide to move their legacy gear to the country, according to an analyst from Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International.
"Although there are a couple of 300mm fabs in production or planning, we believe the 200mm wafer plants will still be the mainstream consumption for the next two to three years," said Samuel Ni, SEMI's senior China analyst.
In 2009, Ni said the total Chinese fab equipment market will total $3.4 billion, inching its share of the total equipment market from 6 percent this year to 7 percent. If China booms again, then the numbers could be conservative. This year, spending on chip making gear will total about $2.4 billion, almost doubling last year's total but still less than the $2.7 billion spent in 2004.
Ni believes that total spending will be reasonably flat in the next few years, which he saw as a good thing, enabling the industry to grow in a more sustainable way. "Those established fabs will spend money more prudently because they all face pressure to be profitable," he said.
"The government will still play a very important role, but it should be the market and the market players that create a truly self-sustained IC industry," he said
By: DocMemory
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