Global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment fell 14 percent to $31.58 billion in 2013, according to a new report by trade association SEMI.
Chip equipment spending declined in five of the seven regions of the world, including North America, where sales dropped 36 percent to $5.26 billion, the report said. Equipment sales fell 41 percent to $5.13 billion in South Korea and declined 1 percent to $3.38 billion in Japan. Equipment spending in Europe totaled $1.91 billion in 2013, a 25 percent decline from 2012. In the rest of the world, semiconductor equipment sales fell 2 percent to $2.07 billion, according to SEMI.
Semiconductor equipment spending increased only in Taiwan and China in 2013. For the second consecutive year, Taiwan had the highest amount of spending, with $10.57 billion in equipment sales, an 11 percent increase from 2012, when sales totaled $9.53 billion. Equipment sales in China increased 30 percent to $3.27 billion in 2013 compared to $2.5 billion in 2012, the trade association said.
The report includes data for 24 product categories, including wafer processing, assembly and packaging, test and other front-end equipment. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing and fab facilities equipment.
The global other front-end equipment segment decreased 34 percent; the assembly and packaging segment decreased 26 percent; total test equipment sales decreased 24 percent; and the wafer processing equipment market segment decreased 11 percent, according to SEMI.
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