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If you thought 2008 was a rotten year for the semiconductor capital equipment sector, wait until you get a load of 2009.

Several analysts today weighed in with revised forecasts for chip industry capital spending for this year, and the prognostications are startling grim. That said, the pundits have mixed views on whether the Street has already discounted the dismal outlook for this year - and whether the time has come to bottom fish in the group.

KLA-Tencor (KLAC) and Varian Semiconductor (VSEA) are both down sharply today after the stocks were downgraded this morning by Credit Suisse semiconductor equipment analyst Satya Kumar. Kumar writes after checking with several companies in the tech food chain, he now sees chip industry cap ex down 20% in 2009, versus consensus expectations of up 10%.

Here are the details:

After meetings with 20 electronics supply chain companies in Asia last week, UBS analyst Uche Orji and his colleagues concluded that industry sentiment is at its worst level since 2001. Orji last week had cut ratings on several companies, but today made further moves, cutting ratings and estimates on a host of stocks.

Pacific Crest’s Weston Twigg this morning trimmed his EPS estimates for a number of semiconductor equipment companies, asserting that a recovery in demand is likely to take longer than previously expected.

“Given the lingering imbalance between memory chip supply and demand, we expect new fab projects to continue to be delayed or to tamp slower than originally planned in 2009,” he wrote in a research note. “We believe spending will be relatively flat over the next three quarters, and we do not expect meaningful growth in spending until late 2009 or early 2010.”