Global chip equipment sales up 37.7%

TOKYO: Global sales of chip-making equipment rose 37.7 percent in December from a year earlier to $3.6 billion, posting year-on-year growth for the 17th straight month, an industry group said.

By region, North America reported the highest year-on-year growth of 74.1 percent, helped by aggressive investments by U.S. chip makers, a spokesman at the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ) said.

It compiled the monthly data with another industry group, California-based Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).

The sequence of growth may not last much longer, however, as SEMI said in December that global chip equipment sales are expected to fall 5.15 percent in 2005.

Electronics makers earmarked chip-intensive digital products such as flat-panel TVs for growth and stepped up production, but slower-than-expected demand led to inventories piling up and hurt chip demand, curbing capital investments by semiconductor makers.