SEMI report predicts record growth in Semiconductor Devices

December 15, 2020-SEMI publishes its year-end total equipment forecast on SEMICON Japan. (Year-end Total Semiconductor Equipment Forecast-OEM Perspective), expects global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment from original equipment manufacturers to rise 16% from $59.6 billion in 2019 to a new record of $68.9 billion in 2020. The global market for semiconductor manufacturing equipment is expected to continue to grow, reaching $71.9 billion in 2021 and $76.1 billion in 2022. The growth is expected to be driven by both front-end and back-end semiconductor equipment. The wafer equipment segment-including wafer processing, factory facilities and mask / mask equipment-is expected to grow 15 per cent to $59.4 billion in 2020, followed by 4 per cent in 2021 and 6 per cent in 2022. Foundry and logic businesses account for about half of total fab equipment sales, and spending will grow by about 15 per cent this year to $30 billion due to investment in advanced technology. Spending on NAND flash memory manufacturing equipment will soar 30% this year to more than $14 billion, while DRAM is expected to lead growth in 2021 and 2022.

The packaging equipment market is expected to grow 20 per cent to $3.5 billion by 2020, 8 per cent and 5 per cent respectively by 2021 and 2022, driven by advanced packaging applications. The semiconductor test equipment market is expected to grow by 20% to $6 billion in 2020 and continue to grow in 2021 and 2022 as demand for 5G and high-performance computing (HPC) applications continues to grow.

China, Taiwan and South Korea are expected to lead spending in 2020. Strong foundry and memory investment in mainland China is expected to push the region to the top of the overall semiconductor equipment market this year for the first time. South Korea is expected to lead the world in semiconductor equipment investment in 2021 and 2022 against the backdrop of increased memory recovery and logic investment. Driven by advanced wafer foundry investment, equipment spending in Taiwan will remain strong. Most other areas covered by the report will also see growth during the forecast period.