- Taiwan claimed the largest market for new semiconductor equipment last year
- China maintained its position as the second largest equipment market
- Global sales of wafer processing equipment fell six per cent in 2019
Semiconductor equipment manufacturers worldwide logged sales of $59.8 billion in 2019, a seven percent drop from the all-time high of $64.5 billion in 2018. Semiconductor Equipment and Materials Institute (SEMI), the industry association representing the worldwide electronics product design and manufacturing supply chain, reported the data in its ‘Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (WWSEMS) Report’.
Korea, which used to be on the top-spot on the list of markets for semiconductor equipment, was dethroned by Taiwan. Taiwan claimed the largest market for new semiconductor equipment last year with sales of $17.12 billion after a 68 per cent growth surge.
China continues to be second largest
China, as per the report, maintained its position, as the second largest equipment market with sales of $13.45 billion. The country was followed by Korea at $9.97 billion, after receipts fell 44 percent.
“While the new equipment markets in Japan, Europe, and Rest of World contracted, North America equipment sales jumped 40 percent to $8.15 billion in 2019, the region’s third consecutive annual increase,” read the report.
Global sales of wafer processing equipment fell six per cent in 2019, while other front-end segment sales grew nine per cent. Assembly and packaging along with test equipment sales also faltered, declining 27 per cent and 11 per cent, respectively. Sales to China rose across all major equipment segments except for assembly and packaging.
Semiconductor market revenue forecast to fall in 2020
The global semiconductor equipment market might not be able to recover in 2020 as well. A recent report by Gartner had forecast the overall revenue from sales of semiconductors to fall in 2020.
“The wide spread of COVID-19 across the world and the resulting strong actions by governments to contain the spread will have a far more severe impact on demand than initially predicted. This year’s forecast could have been worse, but growth in memory could prevent a steep decline,” said Richard Gordon, research practice vice president at Gartner.
Many semiconductor companies have already revised their business forecasts. Most of these have cited Coronavirus outbreak as the primary reason behind the same.
