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After the Chinese New-Year holidays, both leading Taiwan-based foundries, TSMC and UMC have got back to work early, placing orders with Lam Research. In-line with usual buying habits, TSMC placed the largest of the two orders worth approximately US$33.3 million. Read more >>

Monthly sales figures from TSMC for December, 2011 indicated revenue fell 13.2% from the prior month to NT$30.57 billion. Full-year sales for 2011 totalled NT$418.25 billion, an increase of 2.8% compared to 2010.

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The strong spurt in spending at semiconductor foundries so early in the year means that Deutsche Bank has revised its CapEx spending forecast for the industry. Instead of an expected CapEx decline in the range of 15-20% in 2012, compared to 2011, financial analysts at the bank believe spending will only be down between 10-15% versus its prior expectations. Read more >>

According to market research firm, IHS iSuppli the overall semiconductor industry days of inventory declined slightly in the third quarter of 2011, while DRAM stockpiles increased significantly. As calculated by the days of inventory (DOI) measure, overall semiconductor stockpiles in the third quarter stood at 81 days, down 2.5% from 83 days in the second quarter but DRAM stockpiles stood at 12.8 weeks, a 31% increase from 9.8 weeks in the second quarter of 2011. The figure is also significantly higher than the long-term quarterly average of 9.2 weeks. Read more >>

Both TSMC and UMC have placed purchase orders with KLA-Tencor this week, enabling the metrology and yield specialist to record bookings of almost US$70 million. Read more >>

ASML has had a great start to the New Year with several new orders placed with the lithography equipment leader that total over US$108 million. TSMC has begun 2012 with a new wave of purchase orders with leading equipment suppliers. Read more >>

Updated. Perhaps semiconductor equipment suppliers are offering January sales like the retail trade as the largest foundry in the world; TSMC has gone on spending spree over the last few weeks. Purchase orders have been placed ASML, Applied Materials, Novellus, KLA-Tencor and Tokyo Electron (TEL) that add-up to one of its strongest capital equipment spending periods in the last 12-months. Read more >>

According to the November Book-to-Bill Report published by SEMI, bookings strengthened slightly from reaching a low in September and October. The three-month average of worldwide bookings in November 2011 was US$973.3 million, up 5% over the final October level of US$926.8 million but 35.7% below bookings of US$1.51 billion posted in November 2010. Read more >>

Rumours have circulated for years over the possible merger of Lam Research and Novellus Systems as there is little overlap in product portfolios. However, rumours have finally turned to reality in an all stock deal that values Novellus at US$3.3 billion. The deal is the second major acquisition within the top 10 equipment suppliers this year, following quickly on the acquisition of Varian Semiconductor by Applied Materials. Read more >>

Taiwan-based foundry, UMC has kept a tight reign on capital spending in 2011, advising in the third quarter that CapEx would be restricted to US$1.8 billion. As the year draws to an end, UMC has announced tool purchases from ASML and Tokyo Electron worth approximately US$127 million, ending the year with a spending flurry. Read more >>