Customers Are Clamoring for More Capacity

Andrea Lati

The Chip Insider®

• Order activity for semiconductor equipment continued to heat up, jumping past 114 degrees
• SOC Computing and Memory added another point, hitting fresh new highs for the year
• With the backlog at an all-time-high, Equipment manufacturers feel very optimistic about the year and expect 2022 to be another double-digit growth year
• Equipment suppliers are adding capacity in order to meet demand, which continues to exceed supply
• Supply chain constraints remain a lingering issue for equipment manufacturers and are likely to impact tool shipments again in Q1
• We expect these constraints to abate, freeing up the tool shipments in the coming quarters
• TSMC gave the super cycle another boost after announcing a 40%+ increase in CapEx
  • TSM's increase boosted our projected CapEx for 2022 from +15% to +20%, a whopping $176B
• There were no changes made to the forecasts in January as most of the data came within our expectations
• VLSI's Chip Price Performance continued to rise
  • DRAM increased
  • NAND flat
  • MPUs flat
• Semiconductor inventories have been on a seasonal decline, but remain well above last year's levels