Global semiconductor equipment sales in 2021 are expected to reach an all-time high, surpassing $100 billion in global sales driven by strong demand for consumer and enterprise memory.

SEMI, an industry association representing the global electronics industry supply chain, announced on the 14th that global semiconductor equipment sales in 2021 are expected to reach an all-time high of $103 billion, up 44.7% from $71 billion in 2020.

Ajit Manocha, CEO of SEMI, said, “To meet strong demand for semiconductors, the semiconductor industry continues to invest in expanding production, and global semiconductor equipment sales will surpass $100 billion this year,” adding, “We expect continued investment in building digital infrastructure to drive continued growth in semiconductor equipment sales in 2022.”

Both the front-end (wafer fab) and back-end (assembly/packaging and testing) semiconductor equipment sectors are showing notable growth this year. The front-end equipment sector, which includes wafer processing, fab facilities, and mask/reticle equipment, is expected to grow 43.8% year-over-year to $88 billion in 2021 and increase 12.4% to approximately $99 billion in 2022. And in 2023, it is projected to decrease slightly by 0.5% to $98.4 billion.

The foundry and logic division, which accounts for more than half of total front-end equipment sales, is projected to reach $49.3 billion in 2021, a 50% year-over-year surge driven by demand from high-tech industries. Investment in foundry and logic semiconductor equipment is expected to increase by 17% in 2022, continuing the growth momentum.

Strong demand for consumer and enterprise memory semiconductors is driving increased investment in DRAM and NAND equipment. The DRAM equipment sector is projected to grow by 52% to $15.1 billion in 2021 and by 1% to $15.3 billion in 2022. The NAND equipment market is forecast to grow by 24% to $19.2 billion in 2021 and by 8% to $20.6 billion in 2022. In 2023, semiconductor equipment revenue for the DRAM and NAND sectors is expected to decline by 2% and 3%, respectively.

The assembly and packaging equipment segment, which showed strong growth of 33.8% in 2020, is expected to reach $7 billion in 2021, an increase of 81.7%. In 2022, it is projected to grow by a further 4.4% driven by applications utilizing advanced packaging technologies. The semiconductor test equipment market is expected to reach $7.8 billion in 2021, growing by 29.6%, and is projected to grow by 4.9% in 2022, driven by demand for 5G and high-performance computing (HPC) applications.

Regionally, South Korea, China, and Taiwan are expected to maintain their positions as the top three countries for equipment spending in 2021. China is projected to remain the leading region for semiconductor equipment investment this year, following 2020, while Taiwan is expected to reclaim the top spot in both 2022 and 2023. Furthermore, semiconductor equipment investment in major manufacturing regions is expected to increase in both 2021 and 2022.