Semi: $37 billion in 2015 and $38 billion in 2016

In 2016, nominal positive growth is expected, resulting in a global market increase of 1.4 percent. The SEMI Year-end Forecast predicts that wafer processing equipment, the largest product segment by dollar value, is anticipated to increase 0.7 percent in 2015 to total USD 29.5 billion. The “Other Front End” category (fab facilities, mask/reticle, and wafer manufacturing equipment) is expected to increase 20.6 percent in 2015. The forecast predicts that the market for assembly and packaging equipment will decrease by 16.4 percent to USD 2.6 billion in 2015 and that the market for semiconductor test equipment is forecast to decrease by 7.4 percent, totaling USD 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 to USD 3.4 billion (63.1 percent increase over 2015). After a 13 percent contraction for Europe in 2015, Globalfoundries, Infineon, Intel, and STMicroelectronics are all expected to significantly accelerate fab equipment spending in 2016, resulting in strong growth in the region in 2016. In Rest of World, essentially Southeast Asia, sales will reach USD 2.5 billion (25.7 percent increase), the China market will total USD 5.3 billion (9.1 percent increase), and North America equipment spending will reach USD 5.9 billion (6.1 percent increase). The equipment markets in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan are expected to contract in 2016. The following results are given in terms of market size in billions of U.S. dollars: