MILPITAS, CA – Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment surged 14% to an all-time high of $64.5 billion in 2018, says SEMI.   

For the second consecutive year, Korea claimed the largest market for new semiconductor equipment, with $17.7 billion in sales, followed by China, rising to become the second largest equipment market for the first time, with sales of $13.1 billion, displacing Taiwan, which fell to the third position with sales of $10.2 billion.

Annual spending rates increased for China, Japan, Rest of World (primarily Southeast Asia), Europe, and North America. However, new equipment markets in Taiwan and South Korea contracted. The 2018 equipment market rankings for Japan, North America, Europe, and Rest of World remained unchanged from 2017, according to SEMI.

Sales for the global wafer processing equipment market segment rose 15%, while other front-end segment sales jumped 9%. Total test equipment sales increased 20% as assembly and packaging sales increased 2%.