Yesterday, SEMI, the industry association representing the global electronics product design and manufacturing supply chain, released a report that the global sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment surged 19% from US$59.8 billion in 2019 to a record high of US$71.2 billion in 2020.

The report point out that, for the first time, mainland China claimed the largest market for new semiconductor equipment with sales growth of 39% to $18.72 billion. Sales in Taiwan region, the second-largest equipment market, remained flat in 2020 with sales of $17.15 billion after showing strong growth in 2019. Korea registered 61% growth to $16.08 billion to maintain the third position.  Annual spending also increased 21% in Japan and 16% in Europe as both regions are recovering from the contraction in 2019. Receipts in North America decreased 20% in 2020 following three years of consecutive growth.

Global sales of wafer processing equipment rose 19% in 2020, while other front-end segment sales grew 4%. Assembly and packaging showed strong growth across all regions, resulting in a 34% market increase in 2020, while total test equipment sales increased 20%.