Semicon equipment sales increase by 9 p.c.

CALIFORNIA, USA: According to a data revealed by the Worldwide Semiconductor Equipment Market Statistics (SEMS) Report, worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totaled $43.53 billion in 2011, representing a year-over-year (YoY) increase of 9 per cent.

The report includes data collected from seven major semiconductor producing regions and 24 product categories. In 2011, the worldwide billings totalled to $43.53 billion whereas in 2010, the worldwide billings were totalled to $39.93 billion.

As tracked through various sources, the spending varied from region to region but increased spending rates were reported from Europe, North America and Japan. North America was the region which supported highest amount of spending ($9.26 billion) in equipment sales followed by Korea ($8.66 billion) and Taiwan (24 per cent).

The global wafer processing equipment market segment increased 15 per cent, the assembly and packaging segment decreased 14 per cent, and total test equipment sales decreased 9 per cent. Other front-end equipment sales grew by 5 per cent.