2010 global semiconductor equipment sales reach $39.5billion

The data, taken from the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (SEMS) Report, was compiled from information 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 shows worldwide billings totalled $39.54bn in 2010, compared to $15.92bn in sales posted in 2009. 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 increased by double digits to triple digits for all the regions tracked in the WWSEMS report, with the steepest increases reported for China and Korea. For the second year in a row, Taiwan was the region with the highest amount of spending with $11.19bn in equipment sales. In second place, the Korea market had $8.33bn in sales. The global wafer processing equipment market segment increased 149%; the total test equipment sales increased 167% and other front end equipment sales grew by 78%.