August 10, 2007 – Taiwanese chip firms are expected to tack on $4 billion to their semiconductor capital spending this year, for a total of $13 billion — a 50% increase, vs. just a 5% industrywide capital spending growth, according to Strategic Marketing Associates.

“Just about all the growth is in Taiwan,” noted the firm’s president, George Burns, in a statement, noting that spending is down across many other geographic areas — -28% in the US, -15% in Japan, and -1% in Korea. Taiwan now makes up about 22% of total global semiconductor capital spending.

Burns noted that while Taiwan is well known for its foundry exposure (Taiwan companies represent 61% of all foundry spending), but the island also makes up more than a quarter (28%) of the world’s DRAM and flash memory spending, and fabs coming online in Taiwan over the next four quarters will account for nearly three-fourths of all new DRAM capacity. “Taiwan needs to develop strength in flash memory,” Burns noted, “but in DRAMs, it’s trying to become the new South Korea.”