Slow semiconductor
"In 2005, Toppan led the worldwide merchant market with a 40.1% share after its acquisition of DuPont Photomask. DNP followed with a 31.8% share," said Dr. Robert Castellano, President of The Information Network. "For 2006 we see DNP gaining sufficient market share to possibly overtake Toppan."
After recording strong gains of 18.7% in 2004 and 9.7% in 2005, the market is expected to grow only 4.3% in 2006, reaching sales of $3.2 billion.For 2006, more than 50% of the largest CapEx spenders are directed at memory production expansions, and first and second tier memory vendors are aggressively expanding capacity in 2006. These changes in the mix of semiconductors towards memory will affect the type and quantity of photomasks utilized. Since DRAM masks are used for a relatively large number of wafers, we project a reduction in the amount of photomasks manufactured in 2006.
While the semiconductor market is anticipated to grow strongly in 2006, demand for photomasks is directly a function of design activity rather than sales volume from products using photomasks. Therefore, an increase in the semiconductor market does not necessarily translate to an increase in photomask sales.
