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Editor's Blog
The blog is written by Semiconductor Fabtech's Editor-in-Chief, Mark Osborne. Mark is also the Senior News Editor for Photovoltaics International and the PV-Tech website. He has launched multiple technology titles in print and online covering manufacturing in the automotive, shipping, semiconductor and solar sectors in a publishing career spanning three decades. Mark started blogging in 2005, the first technology editor to do so and has worked online since 1996. A veteran manufacturing technology journalist and editor, Mark as been responsible for a series of innovative formats for delivering technical content to an engineering-based audience. Updated: Xmas fab competition: this is bizarre
22 December 2008 | Comments (4)
Forget how bad the semiconductor industry is at the moment and look at the chart below from Gartner. It shows that the market research firm is only expecting (2) new 300mm fabs will start production in 2009, based on current projections.
Read more >>Myth of managed semiconductor inventory exposed by iSuppli
17 December 2008
Market research firm iSuppli Corp. has issued its first ‘Red Alert’ on semiconductor supply chain inventory. Revised figures for 4Q08 indicate a massive increase in semiconductor stockpiles that are building rapidly. iSuppli believes excess semiconductor inventories could reach US$10.2 billion in value, up from US$5.3 billion at the end of the third quarter. Using iSuppli’s previous 3Q08 projection of US$3.8 billion excess, a 268% rise would have been recorded.
Read more >>Micron to ProMOS rescue et al?
16 December 2008
Steve Appleton, Micron Technology, Chairman and CEO has previously made it clear that given the worsening crisis in the semiconductor memory market, he would be happy to play a key role in the desperately required sector consolidation, specifically in the DRAM industry. According to Reuters, Micron’s President, Mark Durcan will hold talks with Taiwan officials regarding ProMOS Technologies, Taiwan's third largest DRAM maker.
Read more >>Tough times as chip manufacturers turn to cannibalism
15 December 2008
Something the semiconductor equipment suppliers probably don’t want people to know about the current state of fab operations is the fact that their spare parts business, an important source of high margin revenues, is under attack. As fab utilizations rates are expected to fall rapidly below 50% in many sectors such as the foundries, chip firms are saving cash by stripping idled tools for spare parts to keep in-work tools going, without resorting to OEM parts service and supply.
Read more >>A shot in the foot
12 December 2008
The call by SEMI to save the semiconductor industry in Europe would seem to be a last-ditch effort as both the semiconductor downturn and the global economic woes get deeper. European chip manufacturing, though, has been in decline for many years, but it had been a slow decline up until now. Regardless of which market research firm’s data you use, 2009 and 2010 will be very poor years for the industry in Europe and the rest of the world.
Read more >>DRAM: A spot of bother
08 December 2008
It would seem that we are getting closer to a point where a major restructuring of the DRAM industry could occur. Last-gasp attempts by the Korean and Taiwanese Governments to support indigenous manufacturers through the crisis may lead to them imposing mergers and acquisitions to reduce supply and competition and eventually lead to ASP rises and a return to profitability.
Read more >>Toshiba considering fab restructuring
03 December 2008
Supported by growing losses and weakening demand, Toshiba Corp. is considering a major reorganization of its semiconductor operations. No timeline was given, according to a Bloomberg story, citing Masashi Muromachi, Corporate Senior Executive Vice President of Toshiba’s semiconductor business units.
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Update: Elpida joins cash preservation society and more!
06 November 2008
The news that Elpida Memory is putting a 300mm joint venture fab in China on hold makes perfect sense for the DRAM producer as it posted its fourth straight quarter of financial losses. Even though the deal with SVG, a Chinese venture capital group based in Suzhou City, meant that the local government would pay for the construction and offer a wide range of other incentives along the lines of those SMIC has benefited from, the whole project didn’t make much sense in the first place?
Read more >>Is Samsung planning a 50 percent cut in capex?
24 October 2008
Even Samsung is feeling the effects of overcapacity and plunging ASPs for its NAND and DRAM chips as its quarterly profits declined 44 percent and only made approximately $850 million in the last quarter. Things like mobile phones and LCD’s are now under huge pricing pressure with margins down to just 7 percent.Semiconductor margins are down 74 percent Y-on-Y.
Read more >>Pulse taking
22 October 2008
Listening to the latest Cymer conference call highlighted that the major foundries are seeing a significant drop in fab utilization rates. Cymer provides a laser pulse chart each quarter, highlighting the use of its lasers during the lithography process step.
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