Semiconductor equipment sales down 14%
Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment totalled $31.58billion in 2013, representing a year over year decrease of 14%.
According to SEMI, spending rates declined in all regions last year except for China and Taiwan.
For the second year in a row Taiwan remained the region with the highest amount of spending with $10.57bin in equipment sales. The North American market surpassed South Korea to claim second place with $5.26bn; while South Korea fell to the third position with a regional decrease of 41%. Europe's spending dropped by 25%.
Front end equipment spending decreased 34% overall; while the assembly and packaging segment fell 26%. Total test equipment sales decreased 24% and the wafer processing equipment market segment declined 11%.
