Three companies expected to increase capex spending by 25%

By comparison, there were eight companies in 2013 with capital spending in excess of USD1.0 billion, writes market analyst IC Insights. Three of the top 11 major capital spenders (Intel, GlobalFoundries, and ST) are forecast to increase their semiconductor spending outlays by 25 percent or more in 2017. The biggest percentage increase in spending by a major spender in 2016 came from the China-based pure-play foundry SMIC, which ran its fabrication facilities at ≥95 percent utilization rate for much of last year. SMIC initially set its 2016 capital expenditure budget at USD 2.1 billion. However, in November, the company raised its spending budget to USD 2.6 billion, which resulted in outlays that were 87 percent greater than in 2015. 2017F Major capital spenders

Rank	Company	2015 (USD M)	2016 (USD M)	16/15% Change	2017F (USD M)	17/16% Change
1	Samsung	13,010	11,300	-13%	12,500	11%
2	Intel	7,326	9,625	31%	12,000	25%
3	TSMC*	8,089	10,249	27%	10,000	-2%
4	SK Hynix	6,011	5,188	-14%	6,000	16%
5	Micron**	4,500	5,760	28%	5,000	-13%
6	SMIC*	1,401	2,626	87%	2,300	-12%
7	UMC*	1,899	2,842	50%	2,000	-30%
7	Globalfoundries*	3,985	1,500	-62%	2,000	33%
9	Toshiba	1,745	1,840	5%	1,900	3%
10	Sandisk/WD	1,460	1,750	20%	1,800	3%
11	ST	467	607	30%	1,050	73%
-	Top 11 Total	49,893	53,287	7%	56,550	6%
-	Others	15,339	14,695	-4%	15,755	7%
-	Total Cap Spending	65,232	67,982	4%	72,305	6%

*Pure-Play Foundry ** Includes Inoteras in 2017 In contrast to the surge of spending at SMIC last year, the weak DRAM market spurred both Samsung and SK Hynix to reduce their total 2016 capital spending by 13 percent and 14 percent, respectively. Although their total outlays declined, both companies increased their spending for 3D NAND flash in 2016. Micron is forecast to cut its spending by 13 percent in 2017, even after including Inotera, which was acquired by Micron in December of last year. In 2016, GlobalFoundries had plenty of capacity available. As a result, the company cut its capital expenditures by a steep 62 percent. The company is forecast to increase its spending this year by 33 percent, the second-largest increase expected among the major spenders (though its 2017 spending total is still expected to be about half of what the company spent in 2015). It is assumed that almost all of the spending increase this year will be targeted at installing advanced processing technology (the company announced that it is focusing its efforts on developing 7nm technology and will skip the 10nm node). After spending about USD 1.06 billion last year, Sony is expected to drop out of the major spender listing in 2017 as it winds down its outlays for capacity additions for its image sensor business and its spending drops below USD 1.0 billion. ST is expected to replace Sony in the major spender listing this year by increasing its spending by 73 percent to USD 1.05 billion. It should be noted that ST has stated that this surge in outlays is expected to be a one year event, after which it will revert back to limiting its capital spending to ≤10 percent of its sales. ----- More information can be found at IC Insights.