HONG KONG — The worldwide semiconductor equipment market grew 143% in 2010 to nearly $41 billion on broad-based market strength.

Automatic test equipment sales rose 149%, wafer fab equipment sales were up 145% and sales of packaging assembly equipment climbed 127, according to Gartner.

"Driven by pent-up demand from the 2008 and 2009 downturn, and a stronger economy than projected, 2010 just kept getting better and better," said Klaus Rinnen, managing vice president at Gartner. "Memory and foundry spending were the key drivers, although all areas showed significant growth."

"The year began with technology buys, and capacity purchases soon followed, resulting in one of the hottest growth years in industry history," said Rinnen.

The recent earthquake in Japan is going to have a near-term impact on the industry, depressing quarterly revenue in the second quarter of 2011. However, Gartner said semiconductor equipment manufacturers should be able to recover in the second half of the year.

"Clearly there are some materials supply challenges ahead of the industry in the aftermath of the tragic events in Japan. Recent news points at a narrow avoidance of shortages for silicon and BT resin. The industry faces challenges in the coming months," said Rinnen.

The share of the top 10 semiconductor capital equipment companies rose nearly 2 points in 2010, accounting for 63.4% of total revenue, up from 61.6% in 2009.

Table 1

Top 10 Companies' Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductor Equipment, Worldwide (Millions of U.S. Dollars) (Please open the attachment to view the table)

Top 10 Companies' Revenue from Shipments of Total Semiconductor Equipment, Worldwide (US$ millions)

Source: Gartner (March 2011)

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