| Semiconductor equipment market down 18.4% from 2018
Industry rebound expected with approximately 12% growth in 2020
Korean Market to Rebound to 2nd Place in 2020

SEMI (Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International) projected that the revenue of the global semiconductor equipment market in 2019 would be $52.7 billion, down about 18.4% from $64.5 billion in 2018.

According to forecasts released by SEMI at SEMICON West 2019 in San Francisco, global semiconductor equipment sales are expected to increase by 11.6% in 2020 to $58.8 billion.

This forecast reflects a downward adjustment in investment amounts due to regional political issues and market uncertainty.

According to SEMI's forecast, wafer processing equipment sales this year are expected to fall 19.1% from the previous year to $42.2 billion.

Sales of other front-end equipment, including fab facilities, wafer manufacturing, mask and reticle equipment, are expected to fall 4.2% year-over-year to $2.6 billion.

The assembly and packaging equipment sector is expected to record sales of $3.1 billion, a 22.6% decrease. It is expected that semiconductor test equipment will decrease by $1.6 billion to $4.7 billion.

Taiwan is expected to surpass Korea to become the world's largest equipment market this year, recording a growth rate of 21.1%. China is projected to maintain its second-place position for the second consecutive year, while Korea is expected to drop to third. The United States is forecast to become the fourth-largest market, recording the second-highest growth rate of 8.4%, followed by Japan, Europe, and other regions.

SEMI predicted that the semiconductor equipment market would recover in 2020 due to rising memory consumption and China's rise in the semiconductor industry.

China is expected to become the largest market in 2020 with $14.5 billion in semiconductor equipment sales. South Korea is projected to become the second largest market with $11.7 billion, followed by Taiwan with $11.5 billion.

If macroeconomic conditions improve and trade conflicts are resolved in 2020, there will be more room for growth.

This forecast was measured based on SEMI's global fab outlook database and the opinions of equipment manufacturers, and the data was compiled before the controversy over export restrictions between Korea and Japan arose.