Semiconductor Equipment Market Will Jump First From 2019 To 2020. This Year, The Mainland Will Rise To The Second Place For The First Time.

The International Semiconductor Industry Association (ISIA) issued a year-end overall equipment forecasting report, which pointed out that global sales of new semiconductor manufacturing equipment in 2018 amounted to $62.1 billion, an increase of 9.7% from the record high of $56.6 billion set in 2017. However, the equipment market will slightly decline by 4% in 2019 and regain growth momentum by 20.7% in 2020, reaching a record high of $71.9 billion.

According to the SEMI report, sales of wafer processing equipment will increase by 10.2% to US$50.2 billion in 2018; sales of Wafer Factory equipment, wafer manufacturing and other front-end equipment such as hood/doubler shroud equipment are expected to increase by 0.9% to US$2.5 billion this year; packaging equipment is expected to grow by 1.9% to US$4 billion, while semiconductor testing equipment is expected to increase by 15.6% to US$5.4 billion.

In 2018, Korea became the world's largest equipment market for the second consecutive year. For the first time, China's mainland ranking will rise to the second place, pushing Taiwan to the third place. With the exception of Taiwan, North America and South Korea, all areas covered by the survey will grow. Mainland China will have the highest growth rate of 55.7%, followed by Japan 32.5%, other regions (mainly Southeast Asia) 23.7%, and Europe 14.2%.

Looking ahead to 2019, SEMI predicts that Korea, China and Taiwan will maintain the top three market positions, and their relative rankings remain unchanged. Equipment sales in South Korea are estimated to reach 13.2 billion US dollars, 12.5 billion US dollars in mainland China and 11.81 billion US dollars in Taiwan. Only Taiwan, Japan and North America are expected to grow next year.