12/18/2013 //
Global electronic equipment shipments reached an all-time high in November (Chart 1). They were up 4.8% versus November 2012 and up 7.6% sequentially from October 2013. This strong showing was a combination of real growth and a seasonal peak. It is very likely that shipments will weaken significantly in December and through the first quarter of 2014.
Component shipments reached their seasonal peak in October (a month earlier than electronic equipment). One example is printed circuit boards (Chart 2).
Source: Custer Consulting Group
November sales for Taiwan-listed companies (many with manufacturing in China) were released last week.
Source: Financial reports of Taiwan Stock Exchange listed companies with Custer Consulting Group analysis
Eurostat just released October European electronic equipment and component sales.
Chart 24 summarizes the annualized (12/12) and 3-month (3/12) growth of the European electronic supply chain. The 3/12 “leads” the 12/12.
Source: Eurostat
SEMI reported that worldwide semiconductor manufacturing equipment billings reached US$ 7.65 billion in the third quarter of 2013. The billings figure is 1% higher than the second quarter of 2013 and 16% lower than the same quarter a year ago. The data is gathered jointly with the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) from over 100 global equipment companies that provide data on a monthly basis.
SEMI reports that worldwide semiconductor equipment bookings were $8.95 billion in the third quarter of 2013. The figure is 33% higher than the same quarter a year ago and 2% lower than the bookings figure for the second quarter of 2013.
Source: www.semi.org
Worldwide silicon wafer area shipments declined during the third quarter 2013 when compared to second quarter 2013 area shipments according to the SEMI Silicon Manufacturers Group (SMG) in its quarterly analysis of the silicon wafer industry.
Total silicon wafer area shipments were 2,341 million square inches during the most recent quarter, a 2.0% decrease from the 2,390 million square inches shipped during the previous quarter. New quarterly total area shipments are 2.0% lower than third quarter 2012 shipments.
"Total quarterly silicon shipment volumes declined in the most recent quarter when compared to the second quarter,” said Byungseop (Brad) Hong, chairman of SEMI SMG and director of Global Marketing at LG Siltron. “In spite of this recent decline, year-to-date silicon shipment volumes remain essentially flat when compared to the first nine months of 2012.”
All data cited in this release is inclusive of polished silicon wafers, including virgin test wafers, epitaxial silicon wafers, and non-polished silicon wafers shipped by the wafer manufacturers to the end-users.
Note the recent stronger growth of semiconductor $ versus wafer area indicating the increasing value of semiconductors per unit wafer area.
Source: | www.semi.org |
www.sia-online.org |
Walt Custer is an industry analyst focused on the global electronics industry. Prior to forming Custer Consulting Group he was Vice President of Marketing and Sales for Morton Electronic Materials, a global supplier of specialty chemicals and process equipment for the PCB industry.
Custer has been a member of the IPC trade organization since 1975 where he received both the President's and the Raymond E. Pritchard Hall of Fame Awards. He is currently a member of the IPC Executive Market & Technology Steering Committee. Custer is also a Director of the EIPC European PCB trade organization.
He authors regular “Market Outlook” columns for Global SMT & Packaging magazine, the Journal of the HKPCA and the TTI MarketEYE website.