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).
Cleanroom Robot Market Moves in Sync with Semiconductor Equipment
The market for vacuum and atmospheric robots used in semiconductor manufacturing equipment has grown at a compound annual growth rate of 11.7% since 2015 and is expected to top $1 billion in 2020. The historic and forecast growth trends for...
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...
Semiconductors Outperforming Most Industries – but Watch Second Half
Things are picking up.
Critical Subsystems – From Just in Time to Just in Case
COVID-19 has forced all the players in the semiconductor manufacturing supply chain to reassess how much inventory they need to hold.
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...
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...
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...