LCD, Photomask and Semiconductor Equipment All Down for 2009

For the first time since 2001, no high-tech equipment market will be immune to the great recession.

Diversification among high-tech equipment vendors typically will mitigate downturns from one year to the next. A downturn in one market will usually not coincide with a downturn in another in a given year, a benefit to companies offering equipment in more than one sector.

For the first time since 2001, which followed a huge ramp in equipment purchases in 2000, all sectors will exhibit a downturn, as shown in the chart below. In the semiconductor equipment sector, The Information Network forecasts a drop of 45.9% on year in 2009. The LCD equipment sector is forecasted to drop of 23.4% on year and the photomask equipment sector is forecast to drop of 33.0% on year

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Fortunately The Information Network’s proprietary leading indicators, which determine inflection points in economic activity and which the company utilizes to show turning points in semiconductor equipment sales have turned positive, indicating that an upturn in equipment sales will begin by October, not now (see below).