NEWS RELEASE                                                                                                    APRIL 2012

Cleanroom Hardware Market to Exceed $4 Billion This Year

Purchases of cleanroom hardware including modular rooms, ceilings, floors, walls HVAC, mini environments, and instrumentation will exceed $4 billion this year. This is the conclusion reached in Cleanroom World Markets published by the McIlvaine Company.

The three big purchasers of cleanroom hardware this year will be the semiconductor, pharmaceutical and flat panel industry.

Cleanroom Hardware Purchases in 2012 ($ Millions)

Industry                                2012

Aerospace                               20

Bioclean                                  53

Cleanroom Supplies                289

Memory Storage                     541

Flat Panels                               596

Food                                        138

Hospital                                   209

Medical                                   157

Other Industries                      324

Other Semiconductor              431

Pharmaceuticals                      621

Semiconductor                        623

Total                                     4,002

The biggest portion of the market will be in Asia. Almost all the flat panel manufacturing capacity is situated in this region. Most of the new semiconductor plants are being built in China, Taiwan and Korea. The replacement hardware market in Japan is also significant.

The pharmaceutical, bioclean and hospital markets are still larger in the U.S. and Europe than in Asia. Mini environments originated in the semiconductor industry but are now widely used in the pharmaceutical industry as well.

The hospital market is presently small. There are some isolation rooms, a small percentage of operating theaters and most of the hospital pharmacies where cleanroom technology is applied. Nevertheless, the semiconductor cleanroom still remains far cleaner than the average hospital. The large number of hospital transmitted diseases and their economic impact is slowly moving the industry toward greater adoption of cleanroom technology.

The smaller and smaller line sizes on semiconductor chips is putting pressure on filter manufacturers and room designers to remove the smallest particles. Recent research shows that the cleanliness of a room is a function of the motion of the employees in the room. The hardware can only solve part of the problem.

The semiconductor segment also includes photovoltaic cell manufacture. This industry is rapidly growing and is a major purchaser of cleanroom hardware.

For more information on World Cleanroom Markets, click on: http://www.mcilvainecompany.com/brochures/cleanroom.html