TSMC and UMC, and backend houses such as SPIL have already warned of a particularly weak second half of 2015. This means that chipmakers are taking ages to work off their excessive inventories.

Some chipmakers have hinted that between 10-15 per cent of their workforce, will be chucked out into the cold and snow before Christmas. Some are even appointing people with large moustaches to twirl them at the gates while roaring bwah, ha, hah.

Things are not going that well. There has been a miserable market and chipmakers doing see things getting much better. Certainly not enough to expand their production capacities in 2015.

The semiconductor industry seeing continued consolidation, fab tool makers are seeing keener competition in a market where demand is shrinking.

But the problem is not just in the Far East. Intel has quietly laid off 1,100 people their jobs across the US over summer and its Altera consolidation is expected to bring about a few more.