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...
Top 10 Critical Subsystems Suppliers of 2019: EUV Shines Light on Optical Subsystems Suppliers
VLSI research recently released the list of top suppliers of critical subsystems to the semiconductor and related manufacturing industries in 2019. The data shows EUV adoption greatly benefited optical subsystems suppliers in 2019 as other critical...
Coronavirus Takes on Electronics Industry
Plunging stock prices and Coronavirus-driven business shutdowns presently dominate the news. Current economic data, including the recently released February Global Purchasing Manager Index, support earlier negative predictions of an imminent...
Are You Part of a Healthy, Competitive Supply Chain?
Critical subsystems technologies for semiconductor applications are highly engineered and specialised pieces of equipment. By their nature, only a select group of companies are able to produce these products to the high specifications demanded by...
Cautious Industry Outlook But . . . World SEMI Equipment Growth Resumes!
World Manufacturing Growth Flat to Start 2020 (Chart 1)
The December Global Purchasing Managers Index was in zero growth territory (PMI = 50). However, the various country components varied significantly. With IHS Markit PMI data as a gauge of...
Critical Subsystems Suppliers’ R&D Spend Holding Up
Despite a tough year for critical subsystem suppliers, their overall expenditure on research and development has remained at near record levels – evidence that critical subsystems are indeed critical to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment...
Chillers… A Surprisingly Hot Market
The market for chillers and heat exchangers used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment has more than doubled since 2014 and is expected to reach a total value of $383 million in 2019. The 18 percent compound annual growth rate of this segment...
Tough Times for Silicon Wafer Market Continue After Two Consecutive Quarters of Revenue Decline
The silicon wafer market got off to a rough start in 2019 with major silicon wafer manufacturers’ sales weakening in the first quarter of the year following a sharper memory market downturn than expected. Earnings forecasts for the rest of the year...
Tempered Growth Forecasts and Longer Range Glimmers of Hope
IMF Revises Global Growth Estimates
As World Cycles Turn
Electronic Industry Business Cycles Look Promising (with Reservations)