SEMI reports 2012 global semiconductor equipment sales of $36.9 billion

USA: SEMI, the global industry association for companies that supply manufacturing technology and materials to the world’s chip makers, reported that worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $36.93 billion in 2012, representing a year-over-year decrease of 15 percent. The data is available in the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (SEMS) Report, now available from SEMI.

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the Worldwide SEMS Report is a summary of the monthly billings and bookings figures for the global semiconductor equipment industry.
The report, which includes data for seven major semiconductor producing regions and 24 product categories, shows worldwide billings totaled $36.93 billion in 2012, compared to $43.53 billion in sales posted in 2011. Categories cover wafer processing, assembly and packaging, test, and other front-end equipment. Other front-end includes mask/reticle manufacturing, wafer manufacturing, and fab facilities equipment.

Spending rates declined for all the regions tracked in the WWSEMS report, except for Korea and Taiwan. Taiwan surpassed North America as the region with the highest amount of spending with $9.53 billion in equipment sales. The Korea market claimed the second place for the third year in a row with $8.67 billion in sales; North America fell to the third position with a regional decrease of 12 percent.

The global wafer processing equipment market segment decreased 18 percent; the assembly and packaging segment decreased 8 percent; and the total test equipment sales decreased 6 percent.  Other front end equipment sales grew by 4 percent.