What is the forecast for the growth of the automotive end market in 2021
Q3 that you're going to -- we're going to be looking at a different -- a tougher compare as we go into next year, on the --certainly on the medical side. On the other hand, Industrial should again if barring no huge disruption on the COVID front, should start improving as we go into 2021.
So, the forecast there in the 2% to 4% kind of range, that's what we would be fighting to achieve. I think the first half of the year may be tough, but the second half could get a little bit better. And then networking communications, we are impacted right now by the slowdown in 5G spend, predominantly out of China. China has been driving the bulk of the equipment purchases for 5G infrastructure requirements. I would expect that the U.S. and Europe will pick up that demand and that we will see Phase 3 out of China. So, I think good reasons to be positive on the networking, certainly the telecom portion of network and communications, which is about slightly higher than a third of the business for us and then can peek at around half of the business for us when it really is moving. So networking communications should -- looking to a more positive 2021. So that's the mix, I think that's a great benefit of having this diversified end market exposure. I think we'll be seeing some markets continuing to improve strongly. Some markets that may slow -- that may have experienced heightened demand with the COVID situation falling back a bit, but a good mixture of businesses.
Srini Pajjuri -- SMBC Nikko Securities America -- Analyst
Thank you, that's great color. And then I have one question for Todd as well. Todd, utilization at roughly 63%, and then the gross margins have come up nicely here. So I'm just in -- as we look into the next 12 to 18 months, can you talk about some of the puts and takes of gross margin and any potential for further improvement here outside of the mix itself and how high do you think that utilization can go before you need to increase capacity?
Todd B. Schull -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
Well, so utilization is a challenging metric. It's an important metric, but I say it's challenging because we have kind of two different business models. In North America, we have more of a high mix, low volume business model and so utilization levels are inherently going to be lower. And so when we say we're operating in North America, at around 63% to 65% that's actually a very good number in North America. Getting up close to 70% really, really stretches us and we've been selectively adding capacity here and there in North America to try to increase our ability, our production capacity. Now, in Asia, though, it's a different story. The business model there is more geared toward mid-to-higher volumes and lower mix and so utilization becomes a much more important factor, and quite frankly 63% utilization in Asia is not a good number. And there is a lot of upward opportunity to improve, we have capacity in several of our key plants. These plants in China tend to be driven by our commercial end markets, as Tom, mentioned A&D is really in North American market. So you have to watch what's going on with our networking and communications end market. Our medical, industrial, instrumentation end market, and automotive end markets particularly and computing will play into there also. Those who -- so what's happening in those end markets will really drive utilization, and utilization is a key factor for us because we have a fairly significant fixed cost elements in our business, there is a lot of equipment involved in what we do, and a lot of technology and so there's a lot of leverage in the business model. So there is quite a bit of opportunity to grow on the commercial side, more constrained in North America, although, we still have some upside opportunity there too.
Srini Pajjuri -- SMBC Nikko Securities America -- Analyst
Got it. And just one clarification, you said, you're going to retire the convert in the December quarter, does that or will that have any impact on the share count going forward? Thank you.
Todd B
Q3 that you're going to -- we're going to be looking at a different -- a tougher compare as we go into next year, on the --certainly on the medical side. On the other hand, Industrial should again if barring no huge disruption on the COVID front, should start improving as we go into 2021.
So, the forecast there in the 2% to 4% kind of range, that's what we would be fighting to achieve. I think the first half of the year may be tough, but the second half could get a little bit better. And then networking communications, we are impacted right now by the slowdown in 5G spend, predominantly out of China. China has been driving the bulk of the equipment purchases for 5G infrastructure requirements. I would expect that the U.S. and Europe will pick up that demand and that we will see Phase 3 out of China. So, I think good reasons to be positive on the networking, certainly the telecom portion of network and communications, which is about slightly higher than a third of the business for us and then can peek at around half of the business for us when it really is moving. So networking communications should -- looking to a more positive 2021. So that's the mix, I think that's a great benefit of having this diversified end market exposure. I think we'll be seeing some markets continuing to improve strongly. Some markets that may slow -- that may have experienced heightened demand with the COVID situation falling back a bit, but a good mixture of businesses.
Srini Pajjuri -- SMBC Nikko Securities America -- Analyst
Thank you, that's great color. And then I have one question for Todd as well. Todd, utilization at roughly 63%, and then the gross margins have come up nicely here. So I'm just in -- as we look into the next 12 to 18 months, can you talk about some of the puts and takes of gross margin and any potential for further improvement here outside of the mix itself and how high do you think that utilization can go before you need to increase capacity?
Todd B. Schull -- Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
 Well, so utilization is a challenging metric. It's an important metric, but I say it's challenging because we have kind of two different business models. In North America, we have more of a high mix, low volume business model and so utilization levels are inherently going to be lower. And so when we say we're operating in North America, at around 63% to 65% that's actually a very good number in North America. Getting up close to 70% really, really stretches us and we've been selectively adding capacity here and there in North America to try to increase our ability, our production capacity. Now, in Asia, though, it's a different story. The business model there is more geared toward mid-to-higher volumes and lower mix and so utilization becomes a much more important factor, and quite frankly 63% utilization in Asia is not a good number. And there is a lot of upward opportunity to improve, we have capacity in several of our key plants. These plants in China tend to be driven by our commercial end markets, as Tom, mentioned A&D is really in North American market. So you have to watch what's going on with our networking and communications end market. Our medical, industrial, instrumentation end market, and automotive end markets particularly and computing will play into there also. Those who -- so what's happening in those end markets will really drive utilization, and utilization is a key factor for us because we have a fairly significant fixed cost elements in our business, there is a lot of equipment involved in what we do, and a lot of technology and so there's a lot of leverage in the business model. So there is quite a bit of opportunity to grow on the commercial side, more constrained in North America, although, we still have some upside opportunity there too.
Srini Pajjuri -- SMBC Nikko Securities America -- Analyst
Got it. And just one clarification, you said, you're going to retire the convert in the December quarter, does that or will that have any impact on the share count going forward? Thank you.
Todd B