VLSI Research Ranks Top Equipment Suppliers
VLSI Research Inc. said ASML overtook TEL for the second spot in its annual ranking of equipment suppliers. Applied Materials remained on top, while KLA-Tencor and Lam Research were in the fourth and fifth spots. The Top 10 declined slightly faster than the total IC manufacturing equipment industry, which dwindled 25.1% to $41.8B.
Staff -- Semiconductor International, 3/17/2009
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VLSI Research Inc. (Santa Clara, Calif.) kept Applied Materials Inc. as the top-ranked equipment supplier for 2008, but said ASML overtook Tokyo Electron Ltd. (TEL) to take the second position even though ASML’s revenues dropped 15% last year.
“The move to the second ranking was vital for ASML and reflected the more significant role lithography is playing for the semiconductor industry and especially in memory during the last couple of years,” the market research company said.
KLA-Tencor and Lam Research held down the fourth and fifth spots, Nikon kept the sixth position, and Canon moved up to seventh place from the 11th ranking the year before. Hitachi High-Technologies and Dainippon Screen both moved up a spot to eighth and ninth, respectively. Novellus Systems was 10th.
ASM International took the 11th slot, while two ATE companies — Teradyne and Advantest — landed in the 12th and 13th places. Varian Semiconductor was next, followed by Verigy, the test spin-off from Agilent Technologies.
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†Includes revenues from IC and related system sales, service and support. Flat panel displays are not included. *Agilent spun off its semiconductor test business to Verigy US Inc. in June 2006. |
VLSI Research said the deceleration of the IC equipment industry in 2008 “turned out to be similar to the year after the ‘dot-com’ collapse in 2001.” Combined revenues in 2008 for the Top 10 suppliers were $24.5B, a 25.8% decrease from the previous year. The Top 10 declined slightly faster than the total IC manufacturing equipment industry, which dwindled 25.1% to $41.8B.
“The exhaustion of the memory industry, the worldwide financial crisis, and waning consumer confidence led to the downturn of the semiconductor equipment industry in 2008,” VLSI Research said. “In the first half of 2008, equipment vendors were still enjoying good revenue, brisk bookings, and backlogs. During SEMICON West, both equipment vendors and analysts were still projecting that 2008 would be an upturn year. There was no sign to portend the tsunami that was coming. It was not until the end of September that the wavefront of the downturn became visible.”
VLSI Research said the Top 15 IC equipment companies “continue to represent the core of the industry,” with combined revenues that account for close to 70% of the total market. Within the group, 11 of the 15 are wafer processing suppliers, two supply test equipment, and one supplies both wafer processing and assembly equipment.
“Surprisingly, among the top 15 companies, Teradyne is the only equipment vendor with a positive gain in 2008 of 5.5%. The SoC tester market did well, and the increased revenue helped when the company acquired NextTest in January of 2008,” VLSI Research said. On the downside, deteriorating growth rates for individual companies were randomly distributed. ASML managed the lowest annual decline in sales with a -15%, while Advantest plunged 46% because of the rapid decline in demand for memory testers.
The major U.S. players accounted for 45.7%, while Japanese suppliers accounted for 35.6% of revenues. The two European suppliers combined to account for 18.7% of the Top 15 revenues.
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