Sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment declined 46% in 2009

Compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ), the Worldwide SEMS Report shows worldwide billings totaled $15.92 billion in 2009, compared to $29.52 billion in sales posted in 2008. Spending rates declined by double-digits for all the regions tracked in the WWSEMS report, with the steepest contraction reported for Japan. In the overall global market, Taiwan was the region with the largest amount of 2009 spending with $4.35 billion in equipment sales. In second place, the North America market had $3.39 billion in sales, followed by South Korea, Japan, Rest of World, Europe and China. (The Rest of World region is defined as Singapore, Malaysia, Philippines, other areas of Southeast Asia and smaller global markets). The global wafer processing equipment market segment decreased 46 percent, the assembly and packaging segment decreased 31 percent, and the total test equipment sales decreased 55 percent. Other front-end equipment sales declined by 44 percent in 2009.