PETALING JAYA: Global sales of total semiconductor manufacturing equipment by original equipment manufacturers are forecast to reach a new high of US$108.5bil in 2022, according to US-based Semiconductor Equipment Manufacturers Industry (SEMI).
The forecast is 5.9% higher than the previous industry record of US$102.5bil in 2021.
SEMI said the record high caps three consecutive years of record revenue.
The global total semiconductor manufacturing equipment market is expected to contract to US$91.2bil next year before rebounding in 2024 driven by both the front-end and back-end segments.
“Record fab constructions have driven total semiconductor manufacturing equipment sales to cross the US$100bil mark for a second straight year,” SEMI president and CEO Ajit Manocha said in a statement.
“Emerging applications in multiple markets have set expectations for significant semiconductor industry growth this decade, which will necessitate further investments to expand production capacity.” SEMI said the wafer fab equipment segment, which includes wafer processing, fab facilities, and mask/reticle equipment, is projected to expand 8.3% to a new industry record of US$94.8bil in 2022, followed by a 16.8% contraction to US$78.8bil in 2023 billion before rebounding 17.2% to US$92.4bil in 2024.
Equipment sales in the foundry and logic segment, accounting for more than half of total wafer fab equipment receipts, are expected to rise 16% year-over-year to US$53bil in 2022 as demand for both leading-edge and mature nodes remain strong.
Foundry and logic investments are projected to decrease in 2023, leading to an expected 9% drop in sales across the segment.
As enterprise and consumer demand for memory and storage weakens, DRAM equipment sales are expected to fall 10% to US$14.3bil in 2022 and 25% to US$10.8bil in 2023, while NAND equipment sales are projected to drop 4% to US$19bil in 2022 and 36% to US$12.2bil in 2023.
SEMI said challenging macroeconomic and semiconductor industry conditions are expected to spark a decline in back-end equipment segment sales.
After registering robust 30% growth in 2021, semiconductor test equipment market sales are forecast to slip 2.6% to US$7.6bil in 2022 and 7.3% to US$7.1bil in 2023.
Following an 87% surge in 2021, assembly and packaging equipment sales are projected to drop by 14.9% to US$6.1bil in 2022 and 13.3% to US$5.3bil in 2023.
Back-end equipment expenditures are expected to improve in 2024 with growth of 15.8% and 24.1%, respectively, in the test equipment and assembly and packaging equipment segments.
