Analyst: Slowdown seen in fab tool biz

Mark LaPedus, EETimes
8/11/2010 3:08 AM EDT

SAN JOSE, Calif. - The sky is falling on the fab tool sector, according to an analyst. 

So far, 2010 has been a boom year for fab tool makers. But now, ''the business climate for the semiconductor industry is deteriorating and pushouts of front-end equipment are forthcoming,” according to The Information Network, a New Tripoli, PA-based market research company.

"Our proprietary global leading indicators had turned down,” said Robert Castellano, president of The Information Network, in a statement. “The hyper-growth already exhibited through 1H 2010 cannot be sustained because the poor macroeconomic climate could not support 100 percent-plus equipment growth. Pushouts will dramatically affect the lithography sector which has been riding a wave of stellar levels of purchases primarily from Samsung.”