Global Fab Equipment Spending Poised to Log 3 Straight Years of Record Highs as COVID-19 Stokes Demand for Electronics
Fueled by surging pandemic-inspired demand for electronics devices, the global semiconductor industry is on track to register a rare three consecutive years of record highs in fab equipment spending with a 16% increase in 2020 followed by forecast...
Critical Subsystems Suppliers Raise Their Game to Deliver Record Revenues in 2020
Sales of critical subsystems for use in semiconductor manufacturing equipment will exceed $12.2 billion in 2020, a 6% increase over the previous record of $11.5 billion reached in 2018. What makes this such a remarkable feat is they achieved this...
Global Chip Equipment Billings Continue to Soar Amid Pandemic
The global economy has started down a gradual path to recovery from COVID-19 in recent months as the world continues to combat the virus. Yet one sector – semiconductors – has shown impressive growth powered by a transformation hastened by the...
Going the Right Way . . . if We Can Control Pandemic
Global business conditions continued to improve through October although the rate of improvement slowed a bit as pandemic concerns increased (Chart 1).
Mid-Year End Market Recovery Plus Continued Autumn Semiconductor Strength
Although the semiconductor chip and capital equipment markets performed well in the first half of 2020, many of the electronic equipment end markets struggled globally. World electronic equipment sales declined almost 10% in 2Q’20 vs. 2Q’19 (Chart...
Semiconductors Outperforming Most Industries – but Watch Second Half
Things are picking up.
Peering into Second Half of 2020
Global Manufacturing Activity
Semiconductor Industry vs. Global Pandemic
The World Bank just released its updated Global Outlook for 2020 and 2021. The text is long but very worth reading.
Tough and Unpredictable Times Ahead
March and April world data clearly showed the impact of the global manufacturing slowdown driven by COVID-19. The world purchasing manager’s index plunged from 47.3 in March to 39.8 in April (Chart 1). Values below 50 indicate a manufacturing...