Posted on Thursday, September 18th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Semiconductor Equipment Spending Drops
Purchasing
Worldwide capital spending for semiconductor equipment will drop 22.4% in 2008 because of continued economic uncertainty and weakness in the memory IC market. That will likely mean tighter chip supply next year.
Global semiconductor capital equipment spending will total $49.2 billion in 2008, according to researcher Gartner Inc. Significant oversupply conditions in the DRAM and NAND flash memory segments has led to price declines and profitability pressures for most of the memory chip manufacturers. As a result, many IC makers are cutting back on capital spending for equipment.
