Worldwide sales of semiconductor manufacturing equipment fell to $29.52 billion in 2008, down 31 percent on 2007, according to trade association Semiconductor Equipment and Materials International (SEMI).
While the global wafer processing equipment market segment decreased 31 percent, the assembly and packaging segment decreased 28 percent, the total test equipment sales decreased 32 percent; other front-end equipment sales declined by 32 percent.
Spending declined by double-digits for all the regions tracked. Severe cutbacks in spending in Taiwan followed a record year of spending. In the overall contracting global market, Japan was the region with the highest amount of spending in 2008 with $7.04 billion in equipment sales. In second place, the North America market had $5.63 billion in sales.
The data is compiled from data submitted by members of SEMI and the Semiconductor Equipment Association of Japan (SEAJ).
