The International Semiconductor Industry Association SEMI announced on the 11th that the total sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment in the world reached US$64.53 billion in 2018, an annual growth of 14%, a record high. Among them, South Korea is still the largest market, and mainland China is the second largest, with an annual increase of nearly 60%.

In terms of specific sales amount, South Korea’s sales in 2018 totaled 17.71 billion US dollars, followed by mainland China, which jumped to the second largest equipment market for the first time with US$13.11 billion, and the third was Taiwan, with annual sales of US$10.17 billion. Japan, North America, Europe and other regions ranked 4th to 7th with 94.7, 58.3, 42.2, and 4.04 billion, respectively, ranking the same as 2017.

In terms of annual growth rate, mainland China rose from 8.23 billion US dollars to 13.11 billion US dollars, an increase of 59%, followed by Japan, from 6.49 billion US dollars to 9.47 billion US dollars, up 46% from 2017, the third is the other regions, with an annual increase of 26%; the European region is growing at 15%, ranking fourth. It is worth mentioning that the sales of semiconductor equipment in Taiwan fell from US$11.49 billion to US$10.17 billion, down 12% year-on-year. In addition, although Korea maintained its position as the largest market, it was slightly down 1% from the previous year.

The report also pointed out that sales of global wafer processing equipment increased by 15% in 2018, while other front-end equipment increased by 9%. Sales of overall test equipment jumped 20%, while sales of assembly and packaging equipment increased by 2%.