TOKYO — Worldwide sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment will fall 0.6% to $37.3 billion in 2015, according to a new SEMI forecast released today.

Nominal growth is expected next year as well: just 1.4%, the trade group added.

Wafer processing equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is anticipated to increase 0.7% in 2015 to $29.5 billion, SEMI said. Fab facilities, mask/reticle, and wafer manufacturing equipment is expected to grow 20.6%.

The forecast predicts that the market for assembly and packaging equipment will decrease 16.4% to $2.6 billion in 2015 and that the market for semiconductor test equipment is forecast to decrease 7.4%, totaling $3.3 billion this year.

For 2015, Taiwan, South Korea, North America, remain the largest spending regions, with investments in Japan approaching North American levels.

SEMI forecasts that in 2016, equipment sales in Europe will climb 63.1% to $3.4 billion. 2015). After a 13% contraction for Europe in 2015, GlobalFoundries, Infineon, Intel, and STMicroelectronics are all expected to significantly accelerate fab equipment spending in 2016. In Rest of World, essentially Southeast Asia, sales will reach $2.5 billion (up 25.7%), the China market will total $5.3 billion (up 9.1%), and North America equipment spending will grow 6.1% to $5.9 billion.

Equipment markets in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are expected to contract in 2016.

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