Chip manufacturing equipment sales set for all-time record
Semiconductor equipment revenues are forecast to hit $109 billion in 2024 – that's up 3.4% year-on-year to register the highest total ever recorded.
Industry body SEMI just announced its Mid-Year Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast, and the results are extremely encouraging. It says that the USD 109 billion figure is an all-time high, and that next year will be even better. Its predicted total, USD 128 billion for 2025, represents a 17% rise.
China, Taiwan and Korea are expected to remain the top three destinations for equipment spending through 2025. Equipment shipments to China are projected to exceed a record USD 35 billion in 2024.
Here's how sales break down by segment.
Wafer fab equipment (wafer processing, fab facilities and mask/reticle equipment)
Projected to increase 2.8% to USD 98 billion in 2024. Sales are being driven by spending in China and investments in DRAM and HBM thanks to AI computing. In 2025, Wafer fab equipment sales are projected to expand 14.7%, reaching USD 113 billion.
Back-end equipment
Should start its recovery in the second half of 2024, with sales of semiconductor test equipment to rise 7.4% to USD 6.7 billion in 2024, while assembly and packaging equipment sales are predicted to increase 10.0% to USD 4.4 billion. In 2025, test equipment sales are expected to rise 30.3% and assembly and packaging sales by 34.9%.
“The growth in total semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales already underway this year is forecast to be followed by a robust expansion of roughly 17% in 2025,” said Ajit Manocha, SEMI president and CEO. “The global semiconductor industry is demonstrating its strong fundamentals and growth potential supporting the diverse range of disruptive applications emerging from the artificial intelligence wave.”
