DRAM chip supplier Winbond Electronics Corp (華邦電子) is forecast to increase capital expenditure by 367 percent year-on-year to US$1.65 billion this year, the biggest hike in the global semiconductor industry, where the average increase is estimated to be 24 percent, market information advisory firm IC Insights said on Monday.
US-based GlobalFoundries Inc came second in terms of spending growth, as the company’s capital expenditure is forecast to be US$4.5 billion, up 155 percent from last year, IC Insights said in a research note.
Nanya Technology Corp (南亞科技), another Taiwanese DRAM maker, was third. Its capital expenditure is forecast to be US$1.0 billion, up 148 percent from a year earlier.
Photo: Grace Hung, Taipei Times
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電), the world’s largest contract chipmaker, is forecast to raise capital expenditure to US$42 billion, up 40 percent from a year earlier — the 13th biggest increase on IC Insights’ list.
Taiwan’s smaller contract chipmakers, Vanguard International Semiconductor Corp (世界先進) and United Microelectronics Corp (UMC, 聯電), are expected to spend US$865 million and US$3 billion respectively this year, up 81 percent and 71 percent from a year earlier, IC Insights said.
Vanguard and UMC ranked eighth and ninth respectively on the advisory firm’s list.
As global semiconductor suppliers rush to expand their production capacity to meet demand amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the industry’s capital expenditure is expected to reach an all-time high of US$190.4 billion this year, up from US$153.9 billion last year, IC Insights said.
“With many supply chains strained or broken during the pandemic, the electronics industry, in many cases, was left unprepared for the current rebound in demand,” it said.
“Booming demand has pushed most fabrication facility utilization rates well above 90 percent with many of the semiconductor foundries operating at 100 percent utilization,” IC Insights added.
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